Winter cold preparations

[Clukcluks]

How should I prepare my girls for the winter weather. I live in Adelanto Ca. That's in the High Desert of California. Big Bear, Wrightwood area. It does get cold and I do get snow. Your thoughts and recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

In addition to any responses, I'd recommend reading this thread and the linked articles. I think you'll find it helpful.

Thread 'Official BYC Poll: What’s the most challenging part of chicken keeping for you during winter?'

Jan 9, 2025

Winter brings a unique set of challenges for chicken keepers, from freezing water to protecting your flock from the cold in extreme weather. Each of us faces different hurdles and develops creative ways to manage them.

What’s the most challenging part of chicken keeping for you during the winter, and how do you tackle it? Share your experiences and pick up tips from fellow chicken enthusiasts in the community!

Further Reading:

• Winter-Coop-Temperatures
• Winter Chicken Keeping
• Caring For...

• BYC Project Manager
• Replies: 86
• Forum: Managing Your Flock

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[Mrs. K]

Instead of thinking warm, think DRY. It is very very important to keep chickens dry and out of the wind, and they can take some brutal temperatures. My own have lived through -35 F and lived to tell about it.

When one thinks warm, they tend to think heat and to close the coop up tight to save that heat. There are a lot of coop fires with this idea, but worse, when you close up a coop, what you contain is moisture. Damp chickens are cold chickens.

Think of being in a car with a group of people in the cold night with the engine turned off. Almost immediately the windows fog up. That moisture is just from breath, add to it the moisture from droppings and it is important to have adequate ventilation to move that warm wet air out of the coop.

So I think you need deep dry bedding on the floor, and roosts situated away from the wall, and with a headspace above their heads when roosted of 12 -15 inches. And you want space in-between birds, give or take. Ventilation above their heads, as warm air rises.

This lets their breath move up and out of the coop. They will be fluffed up, trapping their own heat - but they really don't share their heat with the neighbor bird. Think of being in a football game - your parka does not keep the person next to you warm. But you do tend to huddle together - but what you are doing is blocking the wind.

So if your coop is closed against the prevailing wind, and open on the far side. The moisture will move out, and the warmth of the bird will not be blown away. And these chickens will be warm.

For a long time, I read keep them out of a draft and with good ventilation...which seemed counter advice. But I figured it out.

Mrs K

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Instead of thinking warm, think DRY. It is very very important to keep chickens dry and out of the wind, and they can take some brutal temperatures. My own have lived through -35 F and lived to tell about it.

When one thinks warm, they tend to think heat and to close the coop up tight to save that heat. There are a lot of coop fires with this idea, but worse, when you close up a coop, what you contain is moisture. Damp chickens are cold chickens.

Think of being in a car with a group of people in the cold night with the engine turned off. Almost immediately the windows fog up. That moisture is just from breath, add to it the moisture from droppings and it is important to have adequate ventilation to move that warm wet air out of the coop.

So I think you need deep dry bedding on the floor, and roosts situated away from the wall, and with a headspace above their heads when roosted of 12 -15 inches. And you want space in-between birds, give or take. Ventilation above their heads, as warm air rises.

This lets their breath move up and out of the coop. They will be fluffed up, trapping their own heat - but they really don't share their heat with the neighbor bird. Think of being in a football game - your parka does not keep the person next to you warm. But you do tend to huddle together - but what you are doing is blocking the wind.

So if your coop is closed against the prevailing wind, and open on the far side. The moisture will move out, and the warmth of the bird will not be blown away. And these chickens will be warm.

For a long time, I read keep them out of a draft and with good ventilation...which seemed counter advice. But I figured it out.

Mrs K

Thank you for such good advice ! We built a new coop this spring for this exact reason. I didn't understand at first, but now also have it figured out. The examples you give are easy to understand and make sense for people.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

Damp coops also raise the risk of frostbite even more. I've heard vaseline is good to protect their combs on larger combed birds when it drops down.

 

[NatJ]

I've heard vaseline is good to protect their combs on larger combed birds when it drops down.

I've heard that, but I've also heard other people say that vaseline makes no difference. Example:

Post in thread 'Vaseline on Combs'

Jan 4, 2008

Okay, here's evidence that there is no difference:

Chickens in coop area of barn are fairly tame and easy to catch. They roost on 3 1/2 foot roosts at night. I dutifully put Vaseline on the combs and wattles of 1 cochin roo and 1 Buttercup roo.

In Chicken Jail (AKA "the Bachelor Pen"), there are also 1 cochin roo and 1 Buttercup roo. They prefer to roost in the rafters, and are not tame enough to be caught and greased. So I yelled, "If you guys get frostbite, yer bloody combs can fall off for all I care!" and left 'em be.

From October - 21st Dec., there was no heat in either part of...

• Rosalind

And I've heard that vaseline makes the combs MORE likely to get frostbite. Example:

Post in thread 'What is the benefit of petroleum jelly on combs?'

Sep 29, 2007

Be careful if you are in a very cold climate. One of my old EE roo's comb froze solid because of the petroleum jelly.

It was about -15 windchill and he refused to be indoors so I coated his comb, 15 minutes later it was frozen solid. His uncoated companion's combs were only damaged on the tips.

• ella

Here is an article on a different site:
https://weekendhomesteaders.com/und...sing-vaseline-on-chicken-combs-for-frostbite/
I am mentioning that article mostly because it gives quite a few links to other sources on the subject. That makes it easy to follow the links and see how good the sources are or aren't. Most of them are about chickens, but there are also some about a study using vaseline on exposed human skin (spoiler: vaseline was not helpful in preventing frostbite there.)

 

[Sally PB]

I have several square feet of openings on my coop. ("open" means covered with 1/2" hardware cloth to keep out predators.) I cover them about mid-November with air filter material. There is still air exchange, but it cuts the breezes that blow through.

I also put up wind block panels on the prevailing wind sides of the run.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

I have several square feet of openings on my coop. ("open" means covered with 1/2" hardware cloth to keep out predators.) I cover them about mid-November with air filter material. There is still air exchange, but it cuts the breezes that blow through.

I also put up wind block panels on the prevailing wind sides of the run.

Interesting! Never thought of air filter material. My north side ventilation side could use that I think...

 

[Sally PB]

Interesting! Never thought of air filter material. My north side ventilation side could use that I think...

I ran out of the air filter material and used T-shirt material from old T-shirts. It had the same effect. I use white so it isn't too dark in the coop. The long winter days are dark and dreary enough.

 

[Clukcluks]

Instead of thinking warm, think DRY. It is very very important to keep chickens dry and out of the wind, and they can take some brutal temperatures. My own have lived through -35 F and lived to tell about it.

When one thinks warm, they tend to think heat and to close the coop up tight to save that heat. There are a lot of coop fires with this idea, but worse, when you close up a coop, what you contain is moisture. Damp chickens are cold chickens.

Think of being in a car with a group of people in the cold night with the engine turned off. Almost immediately the windows fog up. That moisture is just from breath, add to it the moisture from droppings and it is important to have adequate ventilation to move that warm wet air out of the coop.

So I think you need deep dry bedding on the floor, and roosts situated away from the wall, and with a headspace above their heads when roosted of 12 -15 inches. And you want space in-between birds, give or take. Ventilation above their heads, as warm air rises.

This lets their breath move up and out of the coop. They will be fluffed up, trapping their own heat - but they really don't share their heat with the neighbor bird. Think of being in a football game - your parka does not keep the person next to you warm. But you do tend to huddle together - but what you are doing is blocking the wind.

So if your coop is closed against the prevailing wind, and open on the far side. The moisture will move out, and the warmth of the bird will not be blown away. And these chickens will be warm.

For a long time, I read keep them out of a draft and with good ventilation...which seemed counter advice. But I figured it out.

Mrs K

Hello Mrs K. I love your sports and car examples. Here's what I'm dealing with. There's only plastic on one south wall side of the run. So,looking at the 4th photo the run that is facing south, lft is east and Rt is west.I'm in the High Desert Victorville, Adelanto area. Wind blows from the north to south generally. I use a thick layer of straw in the coop, sand and dirt on the run. Your thoughts