Vortex 2014 and Snow Dump

[KitchenWitch]

As a survivor of this past winter here in Michigan and am planning on building a coop, was wondering what, if any, damages have happened to coops, or birds, from this mini Ice Age and what would you do different?
What methods were successful?
Were there problems due to drafts, wind, tree limb drops, snow load, ice, etc.?
Were there days you couldn't get out to the coop due to the weather? Were there delays in cleaning schedule?
Are you thinking of getting a more cold-hardy breed?

In my new venture of keeping chickens, I strive to be very prepared for the winter. Everyone's input is greatly appreciated.

 

[boskelli1571]

Hello & welcome! My girls are spoilt, but don't know it! Their coop is within the barn itself, so snow free and draught free. My only major inconvenience has been frozen water. The cleaning schedule went out the window once the poop hills froze solid, but in these kinds of temps. germs are not a huge worry. I simply throw more straw on the barn floor and wait for Spring!
It's good that you are thinking of the problems before you start to build, that way you won't have to be constantly fixing/changing things around.

 

[KitchenWitch]

Thank you. When I had my cockatoo, Chicky, cage cleaning was each week. Pretty important since Chicky lived in our living room. Taking care of birds in general is higher maintenance than dogs or cats. Was wondering how to care for avians in outdoor living quarters especially since this winter was so harsh.

 

[boskelli1571]

There are several options for keeping the birds happy/safe with bedding etc. Have you been through the learning center tab? Lots of useful stuff there. I 'sort of' use the deep litter method for winter, easier to deal with in cold climates. I also have removable metal baking pans underneath the roosts, so it makes for easy cleaning & removal in summer months - in winter the poop sets up like concrete, difficult to move

Estimate one nesting box/3 birds - my girls all like to use the same one! In my last coop renovation, I hung the nest boxes on the outside so I could access the eggs without disturbing the coop. Look around, you will certainly be able to pull together the perfect coop for you and your ladies, good luck!

 

[aart]

It was a brutal winter...and I'm not sure it's over yet.

Luckily I was able to build my coop inside a large shed last fall. Which made it nice for me to store feed and gather eggs out of the weather.

I built with such weather in mind, lots of ventilation (tho I did put a large sheet of cardboard over roost area to minimize drafts and blowing snow coming in thru eaves), wind break and awning in front of/over west facing pop door, part of run under shed that stayed dry all winter and was also protected by pop door wind break, water heater (which was only partially successful, no good under about 12 degrees).

I kept the path to the coop shoveled every hour if necessary, I have problems walking so needed a well kept surface. Also kept part of run between run entry door and coop pop door shoveled out in case I need to access outside of pop door and to give some clear space for birds to have outside time....really glad I did this. I did have some frostbite, most of it a mild graying of tissue and a few black patches on rooster waddles that luckily did not get infected and healed up just fine with no intervention.

2x4 welded wire mesh on worked nicely....until this last 8 inches of freezing rain then very wet snow when it almost caved in, partially due to insufficient attachment of mesh to frame, luckily I was able to knock snow/ice off before it fell...whew!

Advice: Build as big as possible so you can store feeds inside; adequate space and ventilation is more important than anything else, predator protection is next on the list; have 2 waterers so you can carry out a fresh one and bring in the frozen/dirty one, it makes for one trip to the coop and time to thaw the frozen one at leisure.

 

[creepygothnursi]

We have a large bamboo grove in our yard and had built our coop using that as material, never expecting anything remotely like this winter. OOPS. By the beginning of March the coop was pretty much trashed and we had to scrap it and start fresh. This time we went with a prefab coop so as to get the hens out of their shack in as timely a fashion as possible, and they seem to be liking the new one.

It never got so bad that I couldn't get out to the coop, but we had a lot of problems with frozen water. I'm not comfortable with electrical equipment in the coop so I finally just got a big metal dish for them and made sure that I checked it several times a day. We didn't have predator issues- the predators didn't want to be out in it either! We did have a draft issue with an open side that snow started to blow in through. (The coop was designed along these lines: http://speedkin.com/media/2010/12/coopfar.jpg ) I wound up covering as much of the open side as I could with tarps and cardboard, and resigned myself that this coop design was not a good choice for our climate. The chickens, meanwhile, seem to have come through it all with flying colors. They weren't anxious to come out and walk on the snow, but we didn't have any cases of frostbite or other cold-related ailments, and they're back to laying like gangbusters. We did make sure that there was a ton of straw in the coop at all times, and adequate bedding seems to have brought them through the worst of it.