WInter daylight hours.

[Kelleysclucks]

I am a first time chicken mama. We brought ours home Easter Weekend, so I have not had them through winter yet. So in nature, the daylight hours are much shorter than the summer, so that means the chickens go longer without food and water? I realize that is how their daylight would be in nature. I am just having trouble with them having fewer hours to eat when it is Cold outside. We bring the feed in the basement at night and shut the chickens in the coop house. I guess I just need some reassurance they will be fine. Thank you.

 

[Callender Girl]

They will be fine. I do keep water in the coop overnight (probably because I once read that chickens could die if they don't have access. I'm sure they would be fine without overnight water, but once a worry wart, always a worry wart). But I adjust feeding time with the seasons since I don't enjoy doing chores in the dark, and all of my critters (chickens, ducks, geese, sheep and goats) do fine.

 

[Molpet]

Mine do fine. Less eggs. No eggs for a month if no pullets.
They get water 4 x during the day when it's below zero.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Not sure where you are located so not sure how much difference there is in day and night, but the wild birds that overwinter go through the same issues. One difference is that they have to find food instead of you feeding them like you do chickens. The wild birds that can't handle that migrate. Chickens are not migratory birds.

I remember a story by a guy that lived on the Michigan peninsula about a flock of feral chickens. Their shortest day was somewhere around 8-1/2 to 8-3/4 hours They lived through a Michigan winter sleeping in trees, finding their own food, and probably eating snow for water. I would not say they thrived until spring but they survived the winter. Chickens are a lot tougher than many people realize. You are going to be feeding yours and treating them much better. Just like a lot of other people around you with chickens that do not add lights to their flock, yours will do fine.