As we head into another Wisconsin winter, we're doing nothing with the main coop as it's already set up, albeit plugging in the heater. That's a NewAir oil-filled thin radiant heater that's been going for eight years now. We have it at nearly its lowest setting, and it'll keep the coop to 40F until it gets sub-zero; then, we'll notch it up a bit. The floor is horse bedding pellets, and we do nothing until spring when we'll change those out.
The concerns are what we're doing with everyone else. We have a large breeding pen with a mini-coop in there. We'll put a cozy coop flat panel radiant heater below the nesting boxes. Those are adults, so they should be fine. This is our 2nd winter with this pen.
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The parrot aviary, aka grow-out coop, also has a mini-coop/hutch inside that we've already put the cozy coop in for them, as it's already dipped in the mid-30s here at night. That's where eight 4-month-olds and three 3-month-olds, plus a 6-month-old rooster that just likes living there and refused to move to the main coop, all live. I don't know what's wrong with him, but they all get along, so it's fine.
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Lastly, there's another grow-out pen where three 2-month-olds and a 4-month-old blind pullet have been living. They have a hutch, but that's not insulated or very winter-hardy. Today, I put the three 3-month-olds with them to try ease integrating them into the aviary, which went well. Then it might go better putting the youngest ones in the aviary as they'll have a few older friends. It's almost time to try getting those 4-month-olds to go to the main coop, anyway, so that'll make more room. That's just a chore we dislike doing. It takes minimally four days, sometimes five, to get them to learn to go to the main coop.
There's a 5-gallon nipple bucket in the main coop for water, and these two other pens each have a 2-gallon heated nipple bucket.
The main coop is a 5x12' portion of a 12x20' Amish shed. Hubby is working on the second Amish shed, which is the same size, but this one's all for chickens. It'll be mostly for breeding. We should be able to move some into there in about a month. That, too, will be heated to 40F during the winter months. We haven't decided on a heater yet.
This was the Amish moving it in, then its final resting spot. I'm pretty excited about it! When done, it'll have four 5x10' HWC pens, each coming from its own chicken door.
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but they are very well taken care of but I want to make sure they stay warm especially my silkies! I have a brooder heater I was thinking of putting inside their new coop closed in with two small windows, they will be partially closed there are two vents over both doors. I’m not there to make them a warm breakfast it’s about a 15+ minute drive from me. I sure do miss my babies
bedding inside the coop is large and small flakes same in the run I really like using the horse pelleted bedding under that to help absorb the moisture in their poop then in spring I scoop out they heavier used section then add more large flakes until. I’m not sure about the water container but will check today and edit my post. Thanks to everyone who gives great tips and suggestions
