What does your winter flock look like?

[Mrs. K]

You totally surprised me RR the first time I read that you only go through the winter with less than a dozen birds, and feed yourself through the year. We get misconceptions, and I just assumed that if one was making enough to eat, that they needed a lot of birds.

When I started out, I processed maybe 1 -3 birds a year. I am getting better, and doing more. I have always loved growing my own food, but never have come close to providing all the food we need.

This is a very good post, and I enjoy reading that whether one's flock is a dozen or several dozen, this has to be addressed.

To the OP - those chicks will shortly be point of lay birds, and I would think you could sell several of them. Helps for feed.

 

[lazy gardener]

How big is your coop? Can you provide a covered run/sun room?

My coop is 10 x 12. I close off one bay of the run to make a sun room. (plastic on N, E, S walls, and the E end of it covered with green house tarp.) When the snows come, the middle of that bay gets filled with a mountain of snow, but the area that is covered remains snow free, and provides a nice sunny area that is protected from the winds. I am often outside shoveling snow, and knocking it off the green house tarp that covers that area multiple times during a storm, even in the middle of the night. But, it's worth it to provide outdoor space for my birds. The coop and run are DL. The sun room DL stays thawed almost all winter, but even when it's frozen solid, I dump extra leaves, and give them sprouts to rummage for.

My ideal winter flock is 15 - 20 birds, but I've housed as many as 25. The only reason why I have kept the higher number is to preserve the "genetic" material for the next season's chicks. It's hard to make those hard culling decisions when they are all nice birds!

I also provide supplemental lighting, so the birds can carry their own weight in terms of egg production. My egg goal: have enough eggs to pay for the feed, while not filling the fridge so full that there is no room for other food!

 

[Mrs. K]

I too, do a sun porch, I have some old shower doors, and a shelter that blocks the wind. Very seldom do my birds spend the day in the coop. We however, just try on winter here. Big snow storms, then beautiful days where things melt off most of the time.

I create mini hay stacks in the run. After a snow storm, I flip the hay onto the top of the snow, and out come the girls. Gives me a bit of exercise after being cooped up. By spring, this is very good mulch for my garden.

I don't supply extra light, no electricity. Hoping the pullets will give me enough eggs this winter without it.

"It is hard to make those decisions when they are nice birds" is so very true!

Mrs K

 

[Rysktal]

Thank you all so much for the input!

We are going to be building a new coop this fall, so even more reason for me to have a better idea of what I want to do over the winter.

I already have my duck coop completed, it didn't take long to decide I don't want them in with the chickens over the winter. Have I mentioned how messy they are?! Haha!

 

[lazy gardener]

I could not make it through the winter w/o a heated waterer. I use a 5 qt dog bowl and put a gallon milk jug in the middle to make a "moat". This keeps the birds from trying to perch on the bowl or walking in it which would be a death sentence with our below 0*F temps. I use this jug to keep topping off the dog bowl, and whenever I go out to tend the flock, I carry an other water jug with me. I provide FF throughout most of the winter, but based on temps, may do a few days or weeks at a time of dry feed if mid day temps in coop/sun room don't get up to 20*F. My preference is FF, b/c this meets a lot of the bird's hydration needs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You totally surprised me RR the first time I read that you only go through the winter with less than a dozen birds, and feed yourself through the year. We get misconceptions, and I just assumed that if one was making enough to eat, that they needed a lot of birds.

As you know there are different ways to do practically anything. We all have different goals, different climates, different set-ups. I have a lot of run room, a large main coop, plus a grow-out coop and a separate place a broody hen can take her chicks to sleep at night so integrating chicks with the main flock is not a big problem. I love that flexibility.

I don't want to buy another freezer, don't have a lot of room for another one anyway. I freeze a lot of garden produce plus use it for temporary storage as I collect enough stuff like tomatoes to can or berries to make jelly or jam. Managing that freezer space is a time consuming part of my challenge. By growing dual purpose birds instead of broilers I can store them on the hoof if I need to instead of butchering by calendar. There are only two of us so we don't need a lot of eggs. Hatching in batches instead of one big hatch works for me. There are a lot of moving parts. It took me a few years to get my system down. That doesn't mean I still don't occasionally tweak something.

 

[Mrs. K]

I am still tweaking things, trying different aspects of this hobby.

 

[Folly's place]

Me too!
Mary

 

[Rysktal]

After so much thought and figuring out the cost of food/etc through the winter, I have decided to only keep about 20 chickens.

I think that will be the perfect amount for my family of 6.

I have no idea what going from 60 chickens down to 20 will look like and I suspect a bit of heartache in trying to decide who to keep, who to sell and who to eat.

Going to keep 3 or 4 muscovy ducks as well.