What do you do to get ready for winter?????

Although it doesn't get terribly cold in Texas, what I do after I clean the coop is put a mixture of shaving and peat moss to help maintain heat in the coops.

 

Living in Northern CA isn't much to prepare for except the complete cleaning of the coop, inspecting the interior and exterior of coop, windows door, pop door etc. to make sure all is fine. Check the fenced yard for any possible holes that need replacing or repair. Mine is just regular maintanance. We can get quite a bit of rain and can get pretty cold some days but we in general are pretty mild compared to some of you.

 

Complain about the end of summer.

 

I take down my shade cloth for the summer. Do one more big clean where I bleach everything down and add fresh shavings. At this time I put up and secure my heat lamps so I don't have to do it when it is 20 degrees. I also have a heated base for my waterer, but I don't put that out until it is needed. I used to put tarps on the run, but the wind whipped them so bad it started to bend up my wire. Hope this is the kind of info you are looking for.

 

Our coop doesn't really change from winter to summer. The only thing we do is drop the tank heater in our water storage tank, and the bird bath de-icer in the bucket waterer. I will clean out the coop, and double check the floor to make sure there is no rot, soft spots or loose screws.

Other than that, prepping for winter, really does not include the chickens. They pretty much take care of themselves.

Actually we do string up a light for the shorter days, that comes down in the summer.

 

Ditto on the above. Whidbey Island, WA doesn't get too cold - but we do have about two weeks (combined) of under freezing temps. The dangers are near-constant rain and 45+mph windstorms. Before I married by Navy husband, I was living in New England so I'm big on preparation!

Detail provided in case folks might be interested in minutiae and maybe get a few good ideas:

Yesterday I gave both coops a really deep cleaning, treated with DE as a preventative. I stood inside the coop for a bit with the outer doors closed up to check for any little holes showing daylight (two near the roof which hubby needs to fix tomorrow) and checked the skylight for leaks. Rain and subsequent flooding/leaking is a bigger problem here than cold, so that's a biggee.

I re-organized the coop so I can get to the first aid bin easier, checked that the infrared lamps are still good (two bulbs per coop, just in case one breaks) and oiled all the door hinges (our coop is separated into three sections - one for storage and two for birds, so I can separate if need be). I supercleaned the waterers (darn those things get wretched dirty) and checked the food bins for wear & tear. Hubby checked the electrical and made sure we have replacement cords, if need be. We also checked the batteries on the fire detectors after blowing the dust out of them.

I've been throwing down extra hay in the duck pens for them and have the bucket heaters ready and accessible. We have two pens, each needs a heater and a backup, so its time to start budgeting! Hubby went out and shook PVC the roofing out there to make sure its securely screwed down - we lost a panel in the last windstorm, thankfully it was in decent shape so we patched and re-installed it. My brother-in-law and hubby installed a bigger gate to the enclosure out there so I'm not knocking my knees stepping over the stuck gate anymore - its gorgeous and needs painting!

On each of the three brooder hutches, I cleaned and DE-treated. Hubby made me wind panels to cover the wire fencing sides and front to keep out the worst of the Winter. Checked the roofs and oiled latches and hinges. Fighting those in the cold really sucks, lesson learned last Winter. I also need to replace the handle, the metal knob is too small in the cold to grab wearing mittens. I have three cages I can use to re-locate the mammas and babies inside the big coop if the weather necessitates - otherwise, we have infrared lamps for those, as well.

Emergency supplies on hand: tarps, bungie cords, extra fencing, staples and cages stored up for emergencies. Caps are ready for the outdoor faucets. Extra hay has been brought in, we'll likely get a few more bales to put away in the mini-hay barn just in case.

 

Quote:All very good, but I assure you you do not need the heat lamps. Last winter here we were at -38f, one member in Ontario -45f. No heat, no insulation, just ventilation, clean water, and food available. We too have 45+ mph wind storms at -30 or lower, wind chills well below -60. Humans in that temperature have about 30 minutes, Chickens in a coop, unheated, uninsulated, properly ventilated, all night long.

Not criticizing you by any means, just thought you would like to know, the colder it is, the more they adapt.

 

One small note about adding light..... put it on a timer an add the extra time in the morning. It seems to get them off to a better start and the natural sunset seems to calm them to sleep intead of the light going out all of a sudden.