Cold weather and livestock
One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to keep your chickies in a draft free and moisture free area in freezing weather.
All livestock should have an area they can get out of the miserable weather, in the wild animals will seek heavy bushes, trees and small valleys to break the wind and provide relief from weather.
When animals are domesticated they lose the opportunity to find these natural areas for respite. Chickens being a ‘tropical’ species - while they can do well in extreme cold - appreciate having warm up areas where there is natural sun or even a simple Cozy Coop radiant heat panel to cozy up to and get warm, before resuming their busy lives of digging up whatever goodies they can find. At night having a draft free area is paramount, wind is the enemy and will strip the heat away faster than you think, add in any dampness and that is a recipe for absolute misery and disaster for the poor wee critters.
Too many times I see people lock their poor livestock (horses, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, etc) away for many many months. They think they are protecting them, in reality they are subjecting them to misery. Some simple steps to ensure a draft free, wet/snow free area are all that is needed to enrich the lives of the animals.
I always said, if you can’t afford to offer the appropriate measures for your animals then you should not have them.
Tips:
Throw straw, hay or wood shavings on top of snow for the chickens (ducks geese…) to walk on. I use old horse bedding, they dig through the poops and have a blast, throw some scratch grain in there and it’s a hoot watching them.
I also throw this old bedding in a path to areas under the spruce and pines which can be free of snow and dry. Also makes for good hawk predator protection.
If you have a manure pile let your chooks spend time rooting around on it, it will be warm footing, and interesting things to dig up.
Provide chill free water (an electric waterer is a must in cold frigid climates).
Deep clean soft bedding for those that wish to sleep in a nest box, my silkies prefer this in the winter esp. I use shavings topped with clean soft straw (wheat or oat). Daily cleaning please….
Have a sand pit with clean soft sand (you can get kids play sand at any hardware store), for them the fluff around in, my niece has her sand in a child’s wading pool, I just keep my sand piled against a stall wall. Please clean it daily for feathers and poop.
Have south facing windows to let in sunshine, it will warm up the chickies and brighten things up, don’t let it get too warm though, you don’t want condensation to build up.
Ventilation - too many havent a clue about this, you don’t want drafts, you want a circulation of air to remove any moisture and stale air. Use a downy feather and see if there is a draft. You do not want drafts!
Ok well here is hoping your up coming winter is a good one. Everyone stay dry and draft free!
Manipulating little brat. The other bantams don't care.
Thx BYC!!
