Walk With Me: Keeping Chickens In Winter

[snow5164]

@Cyprus nice set up !
I have two coops side by side also , we ended up taking the wall out and puting up chicken wire so the small barn heater is enough for both sides. We also only use one 40 watt bulb for both sides as supplemental lighting.

We all have our ways of doing things , every location has different conditions. I heat my coops to freezing and provide light 14 hours all winter long , I don’t free range because I love my birds and so do the raccoons /coyotes/hawks .

I also like green grass with no poop in it

 

[lilmillefleur]

I'll be following this!
We are debating wether we build our new chickens a winter coop in the barn (we put them in a diff. coop in there last winter, that one was awful, to me anyway. Cramped, musty, and practically no ventilation. ) or keep them in the one they are now.
Honestly I think we could just keep them in the one they have now. All we'd need to do are seal up some drafty cracks, put in some warm hay, put boards along the run to prevent snow from getting in and shavings getting out, cover it with tarp, and that's it. Maybe a non-hazardous heater if it gets too cold (i doubt we will need it much though.)
Thoughts?

 

[Cyprus]

I'll be following this!
We are debating wether we build our new chickens a winter coop in the barn (we put them in a diff. coop in there last winter, that one was awful, to me anyway. Cramped, musty, and practically no ventilation. ) or keep them in the one they are now.
Honestly I think we could just keep them in the one they have now. All we'd need to do are seal up some drafty cracks, put in some warm hay, put boards along the run to prevent snow from getting in and shavings getting out, cover it with tarp, and that's it. Maybe a non-hazardous heater if it gets too cold (i doubt we will need it much though.)
Thoughts?

I would keep them where they are at. Make those changes you mentioned and that should be enough.

 

[Cyprus]

@Cyprus nice set up !
I have two coops side by side also , we ended up taking the wall out and puting up chicken wire so the small barn heater is enough for both sides. We also only use one 40 watt bulb for both sides as supplemental lighting.

We all have our ways of doing things , every location has different conditions. I heat my coops to freezing and provide light 14 hours all winter long , I don’t free range because I love my birds and so do the raccoons /coyotes/hawks .

I also like green grass with no poop in it

Thank you! We thought about knocking out the wall between the coops but it is load bearing so we won't.

 

[snow5164]

We kept the studs in... just took off the wood and insulation out.

The negative we see is if one flock is ill, but their runs are side by side to ,so we’re doomed !

 

[Cyprus]

We kept the studs in... just took off the wood and insulation out.

The negative we see is if one flock is ill, but their runs are side by side to ,so we’re doomed !

Yeah that is another thing keeping me from doing that.

 

[Cyprus]

Update: just bought this to feed my bantams

I usually feed them this in winter and around show time. I'm hoping that it will keep good weight on them this winter.

 

[snow5164]

Wow that’s 24% protein ,
They do well on that ?

 

[Cyprus]

Wow that’s 24% protein ,
They do well on that ?

Yeah, my bantams have done fine on this. Typically, I will provide them with kitchen scraps, grass clippings when available and sometimes I will mix it with layer pellets. But as far as pelleted feed goes, I usually feed them this straight for at least 1 month in the winter.

 

[imneva]

following!