"What to feed your chickens so they survive winter."

[Tami2]

Thank You, everyone. I appreciate your input, very much as I am knew to chickens. I knew she was wrong about the oyster shells. I have those hanging bowls in the run, two have oyster shells & two have poultry grit.

I don't follow her. The only other video I watched she was offering her 3 worst chickens breeds that she'll never have in her flock. The 1st one on her list was a Barred Rock. I was stunned, b/c I researched breeds that were beginner friendly, calm, docile & not aggressive. As I watched my BR very carefully for aggression. It turns out she is the most friendly & trusting of my flock. Every time I go into the run, she flys on me. When I am close, but not inside. She paces the fencing to try to get to me. Sweetest girl ever.

I've never heard of offering meat, fish or cat food.... I was pretty shocked by that.

I've also heard many opinions on the 'deep litter' method.

Thanks again!!

 

[Tami2]

Cold Weather Poultry Housing and Care

This is a really helpful article on getting through the winter.

Thank you, I will definitely be checking this out!!

 

[Knobby]

Following this thread since this shall be my first winter experience with the chickens. Our nights have become extremely cold here in the Buckeye State, and I'm sure that all the rain hasn't helped. I've actually been warming up a bowl of oatmeal as a treat for the ladies and to help give them some warmth...they seem to appreciate it.

 

[Suzz]

I’ve been to MN a bunch of times to the Houston county area and really love it. What area are you from? The winters can be brutal, much like mine in NY. Is your coop insulated?

Im about 45 minutes north of Minneapolis St Paul so not far north but it gets cold 40 below is not unusual and no my coop is not insulated thin plywood but I enclose my run with a giant tarp to eliminate wind so their run is comfortable for them all winter but its open on the top for ventilation

 

[aart]

I've actually been warming up a bowl of oatmeal as a treat for the ladies and to help give them some warmth...

Good for humans, not so much for chickens.
They have feathers to keep them warm, just keep them dry and out of the wind.

they seem to appreciate it.

Of course, they'll eat just about anything.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've actually been warming up a bowl of oatmeal as a treat for the ladies and to help give them some warmth...they seem to appreciate it.

Try giving it to them cold and see if their appreciation changes. Experimentation can be fun and enlightening. I'd be interested in your observations, I've never heated food for them.

I made myself watch that video. About the only thing I agree with her on is that they will eat meat if it is available. It's not that they have to but that they will. Don't feed them large quantities of real salty meat, too much salt is not good for them. There are certain things that they get from meat but if you look at the analysis on the feed bag label you'll see some strangely spelled things. Those are amino acids that are added so they don't have to have meat. I personally like having a meat based protein in my chicken feed but as long as the necessary ingredients are there they don't have to have meat. Lysine and methionine are the ones I'm talking about.

The coldest I've kept chickens is around -10 Fahrenheit (-23 C). What did I do different for them? I shut the window that was at the same level as the roost to keep a cold wind off of them. They still had good ventilation up higher. I made sure they had access to water. They ate the same thing they ate in warmer weather. I left the pop door open so they could decide if they wanted to go out or not. They went outside as long as a cold wind was not blowing. I can't think of anything else I did different than in the heat of summer.

 

[Knobby]

Try giving it to them cold and see if their appreciation changes. Experimentation can be fun and enlightening. I'd be interested in your observations, I've never heated food for them.

I made myself watch that video. About the only thing I agree with her on is that they will eat meat if it is available. It's not that they have to but that they will. Don't feed them large quantities of real salty meat, too much salt is not good for them. There are certain things that they get from meat but if you look at the analysis on the feed bag label you'll see some strangely spelled things. Those are amino acids that are added so they don't have to have meat. I personally like having a meat based protein in my chicken feed but as long as the necessary ingredients are there they don't have to have meat. Lysine and methionine are the ones I'm talking about.

The coldest I've kept chickens is around -10 Fahrenheit (-23 C). What did I do different for them? I shut the window that was at the same level as the roost to keep a cold wind off of them. They still had good ventilation up higher. I made sure they had access to water. They ate the same thing they ate in warmer weather. I left the pop door open so they could decide if they wanted to go out or not. They went outside as long as a cold wind was not blowing. I can't think of anything else I did different than in the heat of summer.

I've given them just the oatmeal out of the package already and they love it. I just read somewhere about giving them a nice heated bowl of it and thought I'd try.

 

[Suzz]

A lot of things she says are BS.

I was trying to be polite

 

[WIchickMama]

I live in WI and have some cold and brutal winters too. I only feed All Flock (higher protein) feed and then offer a handful of scratch at night a couple nights a week.

You could make the feed into a mash and then warm it up, but definitely not needed.

Fresh water and feed is what works best

 

[3KillerBs]

I've actually been warming up a bowl of oatmeal as a treat for the ladies and to help give them some warmth...they seem to appreciate it.

Nutritionally, it would be much better to pour warm water over their regular feed to make a wet mash from it.

All my chickens love warm mash in the winter and cool mash in the summer.

It's unnecessary, but it does help them stay hydrated under stress conditions.