WINTER COOP Minnesota

[jim s]

Hi Johnny and all. I live in Duluth MN. Not quite as cold, but close. Lake Superior can bring some winds and cold. I overwintered 40 chickens last year, some in an attached garage where temps were always above zero F, ventilation was my problem there, build up of amonia smell. I also had two coops 4'x8'x5'high on trailers, unisulated with 6" of pine shavings. The birds chose where to go, probably the lowest in the pecking order stayed outside, the roost in the attached garage coop only allowed for 20 birds or so. The only time the true outside birds ever had problems was when temps got into the 10 - 20 degree below zero range, and only three birds got frostbite comb. We only get a few 30 to 40 below days, maybe a week or two of 10 - 20 below.

Hows that go, IMHO (in my humble opinion), I would be leary of heating the coop all the time, I am going to heat the outdoor coops when temps are below zero. The chickens do lay in the garage coop with temps always above zero, I had no problems with frozen eggs. The birds really do get by fine in the cold, just not below zero in my experience. Ventilation is easy to keep track of, you have plenty of options to open or close as needed, usually if I opened the human door to the garage coop during the day, it aired out just fine. Loose heat, gain ventilation! That is the trade off. I had no problem with ventilation in the outdoor coops with 7-10 birds in each of the outdoor coops, though I open the chicken door daily for them so there was no retaining of heat and no problem with build up of amonia. I will heat only at night anyway, the sun on cold days usually heats the inside of the coop with one 2'x2' window.

 

[ND Sue]

My temps are in farenheit. Now those are my temps during the 20-40 below F. snaps, not always. I still have to add the outside siding and it will be better temps inside after that. I really do like the flat panel heater much better than heat lamps, although on the really cold nights, I used both. But my coop was losing heat by not having the siding on yet.

Yes, I did have some times of frozen eggs, but that was mainly when I wasn't able to check for them often enough. I would check before I left for work and fed, then again after work to clean the coop and again at night to be sure everything was alright and refill feeders in the coop.

The eggs lasted a good 8 hours before freezing. But sometimes if i had something going on after work and couldn't get home until my evening check, they'd be frozen and have a crack in them. If they didn't have a crack after that amount of time, I assumed they were frozen but hadn't cracked yet and used them to feed back.
I don't worry about the frozen eggs so much since I scramble them up and mix with leftovers and yogurt as often as I can in the winter. They like a little warm mush in the morning!

 

[ND Sue]

Another thing that made the winter easier was, my husband made me a couple of these cookie tin heaters to put my waterers on and it worked great! I used a bigger tin and a regular 40 watt bulb. I had to replace the bulb once.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=107951

 

[sparkles2307]

My coop gets darn cold in the winter. We're about an hour North of Fargo/Moorhead on the MN side. I use a heated goat water bucket in the winter and 2 heat lamps, one on the roosts and one above the water. No one got sick last winter, hoping for similar luck this year.

 

[Orchid]

This post is really helpful to another Minnesotan going into her first winter with chickens - thank you all! We are in north central MN, about an hour and a half east of Fargo and an hour south of Bemidji, and we're in a cold spot. Back in '96 when they registered -60ºF in Tower - so did we.

So I'm all about making sure my chickens will be okay this winter.

 

[northerncitychickens]

Ventilation and keeping the water warm is important. We have vents at the top of the walls, insulation all around, heated water and a lamp - more to simulate daylight than to keep the place heated - its on a timer to go off at night. We haven't had any illnesses due to cold. We also use the deep litter method which generates some heat - and again makes ventilation very important.

http://smallfarm.about.com/od/farmanimals/a/deeplitter.htm

http://northerncitychickens.blogspot.com/

 

[ND Sue]

Orchid, next time you get to a Fleet Farm, I really recommend getting the flat panel heater they sell. It's only about 35-40 bucks, I can't remember exactly... but SOOOO worth it in peace of mind! It comes with a stand, but don't use that, just mount it on the wall. It does a great job and you won't have to worry about coop fires. I read about it here and am so glad I did. It heats better than the heat lamps too.
We added on to our coop this summer, so I will have to go get 2 more of them before winter since we now set it up as 3 separate rooms.

Sparkles, I'm an hour north of Fargo, ND too, only on the ND side. We're practically neighbors!

Do any of you in the North have chickens that don't mind going outside in the winter? Mine didn't want to go out much at all in Dec and Jan. So I left the coop shut during those really cold months. I used the deep littler method also and had a bale of straw in front of the pop doors to block out any drafts since the doors themselves aren't insulated.
Then whenever it got above zero, I opened the door. I did have to add a couple bales of straw out in the run also, so they had somewhere warm to sit when they wanted to be outside, but they couldn't stand on the snow for long. Seemed to work for mine anyway!

Anyone have any more tips? Do any of you have any pics of how you ventilate your coops? I need some help there. Mine just has the roof vent area, but nothing in the side of the wall. My plan is to add something this Fall before siding it. I can't wait to get it done!!

 

[sparkles2307]

My chooks didnt got outside int he dead of winter either. But this year, because the coop has a few ventialation issues that we're trying to address without tearing the whole thing down, I'm going to leave them access to the inner "summer coop" which is totally indoors, but open on 2 sides to full fresh air, because the building is an old grainary on one side and a corn crib on the other. Hopefully this will keep moisture down and reduce frostbit combs.

 

[vpeterson]

I have a 250 watt heat lamp over the waterers. I turn it on when it gets to the point where the water is freezing up. It stays about 40 degrees in therer with the heat lamps going. I keep the pop door open unless it is really cold and windy. I also put transparent plastic around the out side run to make it warmer and keep out the wind.

 

[woodmort]

You guys that are using heat lamps are playing with fire--literally--we've had 3 coop/barn fires locally from their use in just the past couple of years. I'd think two or three times before using them since, aside from keep water from freezing, they probably aren't necessary to your chickens wellbeing anyway (and there are other, less hazardous ways, to keep water from freezing). Good ventilation is probably more important than heat--the birds will supply enough and be fine.

BTW-- realize windchill temps are bogus when you're talking about keeping animals warm assuming they are inside these have no effect, i.e. a windchill of 20 below when the thermometer is at 0 means it is 0 for your chickens.