Winter and Chickens

[tplummer]

What do most of you do in the winter to keep your chickens safe. I always worry about them during cold weather.

 

[citrusdreams]

I used to worry about them in the winter too. I don't anymore. I don't even provide a heat lamp in the winter and it went down into the teens and single digits sometimes. I go by how they look: are they crowded together and shivering? or are they puffed out on their roosts resting?

The last time I had a heat lamp on, it was in the single digits. But all the chickens were outside pasturing, no one was in the henhouse.

Also, you have to make sure they have water and not ice. I think that's the hardest part about winter.

As for safety: it's like the summer for me: free range during the day and in their coop with access to the run from dusk till dawn.

 

[tplummer]

I agree about the lamps. We have one coop with 2 houses. They were always in the one without the lamp. Go figure. I just worry about the ones that are smaller. I might still keep a lamp on them i.e. Sumatras.

 

[popcornpuppy]

I use a heat lamp. Where I am, New England winters can be crazy and unpredictable (snow, no snow, freezing cold one day and warm the next day, etc). It may be more for my piece of mind than for the chickens. I have cold weather, hardy chickens, so they do quite well during the winter months.
The water is definately the biggest problem. This year we are getting a heated waterer.
Some chickens have sensetive combs that can get frostbite. Some vasoline on the combs helps to protect them. We also have converted our shed into a chicken coop so that our chickens are completely enclosed in the bad weather.

 

[Sitka]

You can situate roosts so that they are fairly close together and can benefit from the others' body heat (but not so close that they will squabble/ fight). I have read here on BYC that feeding cracked corn is good for winter bc it helps their bodies to produce a lot of heat.
When we lived in New Hampshire, our chickens did ok in a coop that was in a barn, but they would not go out into the snow and stayed in the barn all winter!

 

[morninggloryhatchery]

I just make sure inside the Coop it is always really warm and i do not free range them in winter for i live in alaska and it can get WAY to cold lol

 

[Hillbilly Rooster]

I think that this is why you make sure that your coops are built to certain specs. that is so in the winter they make there own heat and they dont peck each other.

I use a regular light. If you use to much heat then they depend on it and if the power goes out they the heat is gone.

My son and I shovel a path so that they can get out and run around.
I keep my bathroom exhaust fan going in winter to help with circulation of air, smell, dust, and condinsation from the heat of the birds. With the condisation when it drips off of steel roof on the chickens they do get wet.

 

[gritsar]

Our winters here are worse than the ones we had when I lived in W. North Carolina. Not as much snow, more ice and dreary as all get out with lots of cloudy days and rain, rain, rain. Some days in the teens.
My coop is insulated, but the chooks refuse to stay in. They play outside every day. It doesn't bother them.

 

[LynneP]

We have savage winters and last year it was the worst in a quarter century. I've put together some thoughts to share-

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-seasonal-concerns

 

[ivan3]

LynneP wrote: I've put together some thoughts to share

I hope that by next yr. I'll have time to catch up with all this good stuff, instead of getting it in dribs and drabs every few weeks!

Yes, that is a good brand of heated dog watering bowl. We keep a spare in reserve (if they are going to die they'll do so on the coldest day of the yr.) If you use elec. in coop, mount a power strip so that the outlets are facing the floor. If, by some odd accident a chook pulls a plug there isn't an open outlet near the floor. We use fifteen watt lights in both the turkey shed and chicken coop (in reflector housings and aimed at the ceilings - very securely attached to the beams). This provides just enough light to see without interfering with normal roosting behavior (baby monitor in coop: 125w heat lamp and they stay `busy' much of the night and we hear them whine/growl/pick around).

Tarps over the fencing on the W/NW run fencing (prevailing wind - only frostbite case was the roo and it was wind related).

Rubber hog water bowls for out of doors (these can be kicked to loosen up the ice/dump/refill) hard plastic shatters.

Do the best you can to equalize the humidity level in the coop with that of the outdoors (also helps to decrease chance of frostbite) good ventilation without drafts.

Our chooks hate the snow, but the turks plow right through.

Ed: also see the getting chooks ready for winter threads in the FAQ section of the forum: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1198​