- Nov 17, 2010
- 9
- 0
- 7
Hello all,
This is my first winter with chickens. I live in Quebec where the weather at winter is usually fairly cold. I built a 3x4 partially insulated coop (roof and walls are insulated but the doors are not). We currently have 4 production red and one Pheonix hens.
After reading some posts, and although electricy runs to the coop, I have decided not to heat or light up our coop. The door is always being left open during the day but loosely closed at night to provide for some ventilation. Both the food and the water are located outside of the coop. We use a heated dog bowl to keep the water from freezing. I simply add snow to it in the evening when I go to shut the coop door. It melts overnight and is ready to use in the morning.
We have had a few nights in the -5F so far and the daytime temperature usually stands between 15-23F. Everything is going very well with no frostbite and chickens spending most of their days outside perched in the run (where the sides are not covered to provide for ventilation). Every morning when I go to open the door, they rush outside, regardless of the temperature or snow on the ground. If the winds are too strong, they come back inside their open door shelter.
The coop never smells in the morning but I do clean up the poop daily.
As far as egg laying goes, it has never stopped regardless of diminishing daylight or bitterness cold! Our Pheonix hen, the youngest one, even just started laying last week.
So far, we are very pleased with our choice not to heat the coop. I don't know about January/February coming up though as we can get very cold spells (-20F) for 2-3 days in a row. I have a lamp bulb ready to be installed, just in case...
Here are some pictures of the coop and the chickens on their roost. When the picture was taken, the weather was showing 10F on the thermometer. The chickens looked happy to be outside!
This is my first winter with chickens. I live in Quebec where the weather at winter is usually fairly cold. I built a 3x4 partially insulated coop (roof and walls are insulated but the doors are not). We currently have 4 production red and one Pheonix hens.
After reading some posts, and although electricy runs to the coop, I have decided not to heat or light up our coop. The door is always being left open during the day but loosely closed at night to provide for some ventilation. Both the food and the water are located outside of the coop. We use a heated dog bowl to keep the water from freezing. I simply add snow to it in the evening when I go to shut the coop door. It melts overnight and is ready to use in the morning.
We have had a few nights in the -5F so far and the daytime temperature usually stands between 15-23F. Everything is going very well with no frostbite and chickens spending most of their days outside perched in the run (where the sides are not covered to provide for ventilation). Every morning when I go to open the door, they rush outside, regardless of the temperature or snow on the ground. If the winds are too strong, they come back inside their open door shelter.
The coop never smells in the morning but I do clean up the poop daily.
As far as egg laying goes, it has never stopped regardless of diminishing daylight or bitterness cold! Our Pheonix hen, the youngest one, even just started laying last week.
So far, we are very pleased with our choice not to heat the coop. I don't know about January/February coming up though as we can get very cold spells (-20F) for 2-3 days in a row. I have a lamp bulb ready to be installed, just in case...
Here are some pictures of the coop and the chickens on their roost. When the picture was taken, the weather was showing 10F on the thermometer. The chickens looked happy to be outside!
