Winter is almost here!! Share your tips and tricks for coping the elements with your chickens!

[Hopperkiller]

Try finding small pumpkins and squash at the store and baked them in the oven or outdoor grill. After they cool cut them up and give these treats. Mine love the stringy mess inside the pumpkins before i heat them. You can do a large batch and parcel out into those seal a meal bags and freeze. Then warm them in hot water and serve later. I do this to add some winter variety for their enjoyment.

 

[wamtazlady]

I don't use light in my coop. First year pullets will often lay through their first winter. Mine did last year. This year I'll have 4 pullets to give me eggs when the older girls take some time off to rest. Of course, I'm not in the business of selling eggs so I can afford to get enough eggs for just personal use for a couple months. I just give away the extra eggs I get to family and friends. I figure the girls deserve some time off.

 

[MollySunshine]

Draft vs ventilation utube

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Some tips of mine for winterizing chickens properly and effectively include:

Proper ventilation: Good venting in your coop ceiling rids the coop air of all this unwanted, moist air. If you don't put in good ventilation, during those really cold winter nights, all this moisture is going to rise up to the ceiling since warm air rises, and if it has no place to go, it will fall back down as water or frost making your birds very cold and uncomfortable. The best way to create good venting is to put in 1 square foot per bird of venting in the roof. Split it half and half on either side of the ceiling, one vent higher than the other. If the coop ceiling is not very high then position the roosts lower to the ground. You don't want any venting near the floor. This will create drafts. And what does this really do? It makes it so the moist air from the chickens slowly rises into this positive air coming in the lower vent and out the upper vent. Birds themselves put out heat. So they literally are roosting in a nice warm bubble of air. The moist air rises and goes out these vents. You don't want to disturb this air space around the birds with drafts. So make sure to seal up all cracks above the birds a foot or two.

Proper bedding: Chickens necessitate proper bedding to live on no matter what the season. During winter, you especially want your coop bedding to be dry, warm and absorbent. If the bedding gets wet and then freezes, your flock will develop frostbitten feet and be very uncomfortable. Many people argue about what the best type of bedding is. I personally think that the answer is straw. It acts as a natural insulator, boredom buster and frostbite preventer.

Proper water access: A while back, I used to think that all animals drank more in summer. Believe it or not, this is not true! In fact, animals drink either the same amount or even more water in winter than they do in summer. Why? Because cold temperatures greaten the chance of dehydration. Also, animals need water in order to stay functional in winter. I have noticed that I have to fill all my animals' water containers more in the winter. You'll need to either buy a heated base or heated waterer for winter. A heated dog or horse bowl will work great as well. You also need to feed your chickens well in the winter. Scratch is a wonderful treat to feed. It is fattening and provides warmth and energy. Feed it in the evenings so that it helps keep the chickens warm while they're sleeping.

Vaseline usage: When you rub vaseline on a chicken's comb, it helps prevent nerve damage from frostbite. Further ways to help prevent frostbite include: making SURE the bedding does not get wet, using 2X4" roosts with the 4" side facing up and keep humidity levels down in the coop.

 

[bobbi-j]

I live in southern Illinois what do I need to do to get my RIR and browns ready for wintertime

Make sure they have a draft-free, well ventilated shelter. Let them acclimate naturally to the cooler weather.

When winter really is here, make sure they have thawed water to drink during the day, and good feed. I'm in MN, and generally put the windows back in the coop when it gets into the teens during the day. Unless, of course, the cold wind would be coming from a direction that would be blowing directly on them.

 

[dodochick92]

This is my 3rd winter one great way to help prevent/cure frostbite is Vaseline, it moisturizes the infected area and helps trap in body heat on the area that it's applied to.

Another thing that works good too is bag balm. It prevents and also treats frostbite.

 

[simplesurvival]

Make sure they have a draft-free, well ventilated shelter. Let them acclimate naturally to the cooler weather.

When winter really is here, make sure they have thawed water to drink during the day, and good feed. I'm in MN, and generally put the windows back in the coop when it gets into the teens during the day. Unless, of course, the cold wind would be coming from a direction that would be blowing directly on them.

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[wamtazlady]

I found these on eBay are the what you referre to as horizontal ones

Those are NOT horizontal nipples. Here are horizontal nipples
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=HORIZONTAL+POULTRY+WATERING+NIPPLES

The ones in your picture will freeze up fast. The water sits in the bottom of them, exposed to the cold.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We started to build the bantams hay bale tunnel to keep wind and snow from blowing in the pophole, and so it doesn't have to be closed every night, they are already enjoying it.

 

[RonP]

If your heat source is working, the water should remain above freezing.

That said, a plastic container should have no issues expanding and contracting in sub freezing weather.

I have used a plastic container, on my heat source, without issues, in temperatures well below 0 fahrenheit.