Toys for the Winter Chicken House

[mightybeckster]

We're in our first winter with chickens in Alberta. We've already had some temperatures below -20 (and everything so far has been great). I know when it gets REALLY cold (-40) we might need to keep the birds in their house all day. Their run is full of all sorts of toys, mirrors, perches, ladders, etc. I purposely haven't put anything in their house for their entertainment because they only use it for laying eggs and sleeping. But should I put something in there for those (hopefully just a) few days this winter when it will be bitterly chilly? If so, what are some great ideas that take up little space? I don't want my hens to turn on each other.

We have 4 hens. We're doing the deep litter method with hemp bedding (probably about 7 inches deep right now).

The "living space" of the house is probably about 3'8" by 3'8" (it was 4x4 but we lost some square inches to the insulation). The nesting boxes are outside of this so those aren't included in these measurements. We have 1 roosting bar that is 4 feet long and a foot away from the back wall. They have a heat panel on the back wall which I can operate from my phone at different heat settings if it gets really cold (I have a hygrometer in there that measures the temperature and humidity which is also connected to my phone so I can keep an eye on it all times). (I'm amazed at how much their little bodies heat up their house through the night!) The christmas lights on the ceiling are for me more than the chickens - I turn them on for a few seconds to check the inside of the coop when it's dark outside. I'm not worried about drafts or ventilation.

Their pop door is manual so I go out every morning/evening to open/close it. It's smaller now that what is shown in the picture. I enclosed part of it so that only one girl at a time can go in/out.

I COULD open their pop door on those bitterly cold days. Do some chickens stay in the coop and some go outside? So far all of ours have spent every day outside in their run. They only go in to lay their eggs and then come right back out. I'm shocked really by how hardy they are. We did get a hybrid breed that is "designed" (for lack of a better description) to be both cold-hardy AND have a good laying record. (They're Lohmann Browns.) I don't want them to develop any bad behaviors inside their house in the worst of winter.

So to circle back to my question for you seasoned chicken veterans in cold lands.... should I put any sort of toy/entertainment inside their house for those -40 degree days?

 

[rosemarythyme]

That's the issue with building to minimum recommendation in very cold climates - what's enough space during more moderate parts of the year can lead to crowding issues in cold weather. And you don't really have room in there to add stuff other than maybe a flock block on occasion. I'd open the pop door and let them decide if they want to go out.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Is the run winterized with plastic sheeting or something similar? If not, I'd do so and open the pop door during the day.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

It doesn’t specifically affect the advice, but it would be useful in describing your problem if you specified Celsius/ Centigrade vs Fahrenheit. I know you’re in Alberta, so I’m guessing °C, but you never know - apparently the UK is still using mph, so I never know what’s happening.

 

[StinkyAcres]

It doesn’t specifically affect the advice, but it would be useful in describing your problem if you specified Celsius/ Centigrade vs Fahrenheit. I know you’re in Alberta, so I’m guessing °C, but you never know - apparently the UK is still using mph, so I never know what’s happening.

-40 is the same in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

-40 is the same in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.

Very true, but few of us have a feel for how quickly the two systems diverge on either side of -40°.

Note: I would be miserable at this level of cold on either scale. I whine bitterly at 22°F (-5.5°C).

 

[mightybeckster]

Is the run winterized with plastic sheeting or something similar? If not, I'd do so and open the pop door during the day.

Two-thirds of it is winterized. The other third is open so they can see out and we can see in. But I'll hang the rest up. Interestingly we're having a high temperature today of -22C and it's the first time they haven't beaten the door down to get outside and have breakfast. I guess they WILL go outside if they want to!

 

[mightybeckster]

Very true, but few of us have a feel for how quickly the two systems diverge on either side of -40°.

Note: I would be miserable at this level of cold on either scale. I whine bitterly at 22°F (-5.5°C).

Fair enough! -20C is about -4F. That's the temperature schools use to determine when it will be an "indoor recess." If it's -19C, we just bundle the kids up and send them outside to play.

 

[Rangergord]

Fair enough! -20C is about -4F. That's the temperature schools use to determine when it will be an "indoor recess." If it's -19C, we just bundle the kids up and send them outside to play.

Hilarious! I am in the Peace River region. I notice my birds don’t like the outdoors at about -20C . They start complaining at -15. A plastic covered run to increase the space is what I have. They have 8 square feet per bird in the Coop and 8 square feet in the run. That way I have few behavioural issues. I also have a 180watt chicken heater that I use at -20 and below. Raises the coop temp by 10 C but not above freezing so there is no excess humidity.

 

[Geira]

I have clear polycarbonate on all sides of my lower run and under the coop. Warms up during the day and blocks the wind. They go into the run all day though our daytime lows so far have been 15-20F. Even at 0 and negative numbers, I think the clear polycarbonate or clear shower curtains would give enough of a greenhouse effect and block the wind that they would be comfortable enough to get out into the run. Clear is better because it allows light and solar energy to pass through increasing the temperature vs solid or dark colors/surfaces because of their reduced light transmission. Learned that clear plastic was better than black plastic when composting in the winter.