Walk With Me: Keeping Chickens In Winter

[TheBeardie]

As a native floridian I'm over here laughing my butt off!
I've never even seen snow in person before! Even in the coldest winters I still wear flip-flops, never really wearing socks anywhere other than my house because of the sand pit I call my front yard, and a thin hoodie or even no jacket at all is warm enough most days. Winter is not winter here... It's swinter!

My coops have all been open air because of the awful heat during summer. Fans and shade is the only thing that gets the chickens through the hot part of the year. By part of the year I mean like 85% of the year.
I wish all of you in colder climates good luck this winter!

 

[Cyprus]

As a native floridian I'm over here laughing my butt off!
I've never even seen snow in person before! Even in the coldest winters I still wear flip-flops, never really wearing socks anywhere other than my house because of the sand pit I call my front yard, and a thin hoodie or even no jacket at all is warm enough most days. Winter is not winter here... It's swinter!

My coops have all been open air because of the awful heat during summer. Fans and shade is the only thing that gets the chickens through the hot part of the year. By part of the year I mean like 85% of the year.
I wish all of you in colder climates good luck this winter!

Well, you can live vicariously through this thread then

 

[snow5164]

@Thejperez well I’ve lived in your type of climate , and a Kentucky climate and I’d choose my four seasons any day !!The changing colours of the leaves and fluffy snow is much more beautiful then brown grass any day ...

Heat is just as challenging as cold maybe even more so . Chickens only freeze to death in the freezer
You need to get out and see the world ... it’s a beautiful place ,

Don’t need luck here

 

[Cyprus]

What do y'all feed in the winter?

 

[lilmillefleur]

@Thejperez well I’ve lived in your type of climate , and a Kentucky climate and I’d choose my four seasons any day !!The changing colours of the leaves and fluffy snow is much more beautiful then brown grass any day ...

You need to get out and see the world ... it’s a beautiful place ,

YES lol! It gets cold here but the pretty seasons are worth it to me

 

[snow5164]

I try to ferment TIL it freezes in the bucket ,

I bring hot water from the house to do it for awhile, my silkie coop is heated so I store the bucket in there but when it’s freezing in the trough I just do 19% layer and wild bird seed as treats ...

We do run a barn heater with a fan once it gets below -10F. It warms two coops due to the wire wall in between them,but wet food is no good here for most of the winter

 

[Cyprus]

I try to ferment TIL it freezes in the bucket ,

I bring hot water from the house to do it for awhile, my silkie coop is heated so I store the bucket in there but when it’s freezing in the trough I just do 19% layer and wild bird seed as treats ...

We do run a barn heater with a fan once it gets below -10F. It warms two coops due to the wire wall in between them,but wet food is no good here for most of the winter

Pretty much the same here.
We used to just carry hot water out every day. Until we got two coops and gave up, lol.
Then we got a heated base and heated bucket with horizontal nipples. The bucket is only a 2 gal so I'll probably use it with my bantams. But I'm not sure they will learn how to use it

 

[TheBeardie]

@snow5164 as a young broke person it's not happening anytime soon!
i do have family in Georgia so I'll probably go up there one day. I'd love to experience a cold winter, I wait all year for even the lightest of chills. Even the sorta winter here has some perks. I have quite a few muscovy ducks, large ducks that love water, and water changes are definitely fewer in the winter. Almost daily water changes turn into a few times a week.

 

[Cyprus]

Waters are starting to freeze on the surface as we get to just below freezing at night.
For now, I am just bringing hot water outside to melt the surface and refill the waterers.

 

[Cyprus]

Much needed update:
I've hit a lot, and I mean a lot, of ups and downs between then and now.

First things first:
My bantams were killed, so I now am down to one coop.
I went from 16 large fowl layers going into winter to 11 large fowl layers (thanks preds).
Feeding changed and so did watering systems.
We had a dual with the polar vortex of 2019 and lost, so now I have a chicken (Leghorn) living in my bathroom with extremely severe frostbite as can be read here
I now have 4 young bantams living in my garage.

Okay, so that being said here is where I am at:
In the barn:
Run access is stopped to conserve heat. Water is on a heated base, 5 gal waterer, with a heat lamp shining from above.
The girls are on a mixed ration of 16% layer and 22% meat bird feeds.
I am constantly getting frozen and exploded eggs.

The birds in my garage are doing alright.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Cyprus