Think it's too cold for your chickens? Think again...

[Alaskan]

Yep.....I knew I was probably just fantasizing, but I wanted to know for sure.

Not sure why it didn't dawn on me that it is all from the humidity.

In which case, anything I use will glue itself to the snow.

So, thanks lots for the response.

I can't remember how much snow Fairbanks is supped to get.

Twister,
Did you just cover the run? Or completely enclose it?

My problem, is that along with the high humidity, I have lots of wind. I should probably make a totally enclosed run....but isn't that the same as building a building? Sheesh

 

[Twister-n-Dos]

Maybe six feet in dribbles and drabs over a long winter.

We have an 8'x8' coop that I have built a 24'x16' run around. There are two 8'x8' covered areas in the run. The only enclosure is the coop.

 

[Alaskan]

So, your snow doesn't blow in?

I am having to redo my runs this summer, and can't decide what to do

 

[Twister-n-Dos]

I have been building the run this summer, so it hasn't been winter tested. There will probably be ongoing modifications after seeing how it does in different conditions. Everything is a learning process.

 

[groverlvchx]

Please note that these do NOT work in the winter... the line may be heated but the water in the cup freezes, and the lever freezes with it. Unless you can find some way to heat the cup, too, I wound up just switching to heated dog water bowls in the winter.

Thank you so much, Mrs AK! You have saved me from a failure. Now my plan is heated bowls, too.

 

[chestypuller]

Ya the heated dog bowl does great!

 

[JeanM]

Hi, all,

A chook-newbie here, in Connecticut. I got my three RI Reds in April.

They live in luxury, in what was formerly a Swedish sauna shed -- I kid you not! -- those chicken farmers in the early 20th century really knew how to let down in their off-hours! There were originally three rooms: a changing room with access to a small fireplace, a room to the right with a massage bench built in, and the sauna room in back with a barrel-sized concrete cylinder filled with rocks which the fireplace heated, with a galvanized garbage can mounted next to it that held the water to be dumped on the heated rocks to make the steam.
I removed the wall between the changing & massage rooms, but kept the wall & door for the old sauna room, which is now where the chooks roost & where their nesting boxes are. Each morning, I open the door from the sauna room into the front [former two rooms] and the door to the run outside.

While I'm glad to be able to be thrifty and re-purpose an existing building instead of adding a small purpose-built coop, it's starting to occur to me that I may face challenges that I wouldn't face with an actual coop. As in, perhaps the space is actually too large...?

I had an outlet installed in their room, which I plan to use to plug in a heated pet water bowl once it gets cold.

The girls have chosen to roost on a rod mounted under one window.
So, now my question: I've read about folks putting out extra bedding for their chickens for the winters -- but, my guess is there won't be any point to doing so since my chooks are habituated to perching on that particular rod. Am I right?
If that's the case, although the room is draft-free at night (except to the extent I crack one or both of the windows), should I consider adding a heat lamp for the really cold (teens or single-digits) nights?

this photo shows the concrete "barrel" in the foreground that was full of rocks for the sauna; the girls' preferred perch under one of the windows is just out of view on the left. You can just see a second perch under the other window on the right side, which the girls have thus far disdained to use. They share the left-most nesting box only, and only for laying.

 

[Gloria2hens]

I have 2 hens in one of those little chicken hutches from TSC. It has a small pop hole and has to be opened and closed manually. It is starting to get cold at night here in Ontario Canada and I wonder if I should be closing the door each night once they go in.? It is located in a sheltered enclosure but would still be subject to draughts. The door faces east.
Will they push through a curtain of sorts if I attached something there? To help stop the draughts at night?
I have a winter area that is still being worked on. This is just for November or so. Any ideas or advice are greatly appreciated.

 

[Tikkijane]

I have 2 hens in one of those little chicken hutches from TSC. It has a small pop hole and has to be opened and closed manually.  It is starting to get cold at night here in Ontario Canada and I wonder if I should be closing the door each night once they go in.? It is located in a sheltered enclosure but would still be subject to draughts. The door faces east.
Will they push through a curtain of sorts if I attached something there?  To help stop the draughts at night?
I have a winter area that is still being worked on. This is just for November or so.  Any ideas or advice are greatly appreciated.

You should be shutting it every night anyhow. People often think their backyards are safe until they go out one morning and find they're not.

As long as you have good cross ventilation, they should be fine. It's the moisture + temperature that's a problem.

Shoot- I've got some in trees at night at freezing temps. One of the roosts came down a few days ago and they took to the trees. Even though the roost is fixed, they figured the tree is better.

Once the leaves fall off, it should be easier to see who's up there. The warmer nights we'd get them out with a hose, but it's too cold now to get them wet.

 

[Alaskan]

@ JeanM:
I don't see too big being a problem, unless you hit -20 for long periods...... The really big space is wonderful, since if the weather gets really bad outside, they will have so much inside space that you will not have to worry about them becoming cannibalistic.

But, I would worry about two things

1. No ventilation in that coop, which will greatly increase the humidity, from the chickens breathing, the chicken poop, and the waterer (if you put it in there). The high humidity added to cold equals frostbite. You want ventilation, (either from the windows you already have, or from holes you cut in) that will not make a breeze over their perches.

2. Your perches look skinny. You want perches at least 3 inches wide, 4 is better. That way they sit on their feet, and keep the toes from getting frost bite.

@Gloria2hens:
I agree with Tikkijane, if your run isn't completely safe, it is best to lock them up every night.

Ventilation is good, in fact it is vital for good chicken health...but you don't want gusts of wind.

So, an open pop door is good to help with air exchange.

If the wind gusts through the pop door, then you could try to slow it down by putting a piece of wood in front of it, maybe even leaning a sheet of plywood against the front of the coop, over the door. But, your idea of a curtain can also work, just make sure that all of your chickens learn how to use it, and that it doesn't have any dangling threads that could come off and wrap around toes.