What are the different things you all do for your chickens in the winter? Do you put hay or straw down inside the coop for bedding? We live in Kentucky, just outside of Ft. Knox, winter is usually mild around here 30's-40's at night and 40-50 in the day.
Here is a bit of information you may find helpful I have used all types of litter for coops. I have not tried sand (sand gets good reviews on this site). Of all the things I tried to date wood pellets have been the best. (I tried wood pellets as a last resort when pine shavings were not available.) They are super absorbent and swell up and eventually turn to saw dust. The droppings just seem to vanish and turn to dust when it comes in contact with wood pellets . Replace my litter and clean my coop every October after I harvest my garden. Works for me in my deep litter method. I do add to pellets from time to time. I have 63 trips around the sun so it is not my first rodeo. I have anywhere from 10 to 15 birds housed in my 4x8 coop. Through the winter months the bedding froze harder than concrete with -40º temperatures. The poop froze before it could be absorbed by the pellets and there was like a crusty layer of poop in certain areas where they collectively took aim (no smell, messy feet or flies @ -40º BELOW ZERO Celsius or Fahrenheit take your pick). Come April things started to look after themselves. Oh I might add I do have poop boards 3½" below my roost that I clean every 2 to 3 days (excellent for catching eggs laid through the night). My roost are 2x4 wide side up and are housed in cups which allows me to set them aside for easy cleaning of the poop board (I have a piece of vinyl flooring over my pop board that is just friction fit pops out easily when soiled and pops back in after cleaning. Easy Peasy! In my nest boxes I fold a feed bag to fit (nest boxes are 1 ft³). When a bag gets soiled; fold a new one; pop out the soiled; pop in the new. I have three levels in my coop and a bit of storage over my nest boxes (milk crates with a board in front zip tied into place) Also more milk crates on top for storage. My favourite addition is my poop board! Easy peasy!. Chicken coop is salvaged 4x8 metal shed. I house a variety of birds in hear ¼ inch plywood veneer between birds and the elements no heat no light no insulation no problems!
One thing I am going to do before winter is wrap my 5 gallon nipple waterer with heat tape and place it in another 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out. The second thing I am going to do (for me) is install a slop sink in the basement, so I don't have to freeze when cleaning and changing water during the winter!
All I do, is when the ice is more than a half inch thick in the waterer.....drop in the de-icer and plug it in. Nothing else changes.....might shift the waterer around if where it is at gets too much snow.
