Winter is Coming! Checklists, tips, advice for a newbie

[K Epp]

Great Thread.

 

[AandAranch]

I may have missed it on the thread but can anyone advise me on how to acclimate my birds to cold weather? Im about to move at the end of the month from sunny southern California to South Dakota. I'm really worried about the well being of my birds. They are all pretty cold hardy breeds (except for the guineas) but they've never had to deal with weather colder than 40 degrees F. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[naadarien]

I may have missed it on the thread but can anyone advise me on how to acclimate my birds to cold weather? Im about to move at the end of the month from sunny southern California to South Dakota. I'm really worried about the well being of my birds. They are all pretty cold hardy breeds (except for the guineas) but they've never had to deal with weather colder than 40 degrees F. Any advice would be appreciated.

They should be ok and acclimate on their own.

That means that as the air cools down, day after day, their bodies are signaled to grow more feathers, specifically the small, downy ones that are close to their skin. Their bodies will also work harder at pumping blood to extremities to help protect them from frost bite (thus the discussions about the appropriate feed for the winter; they need good fuel to keep that blood pumping and not wear them out).

As long as you don't have a sudden change in temp (where the temp drops 30-40 degrees, and then it stays there or below for the rest of the winter), the birds should make it fine. Most places (where it snows), the fall season is a series of warm and cold days. Some days the weather is nice and almost summery, and other days it is chilly, rainy or frosty and it'll alternate until early to late November where it will settle into a normal daily winter temp.

Animals use those days to gear up or acclimatize for winter. It isn't anything you do except to not interfere with it. You have to let them be chilly. There is nothing else that makes their bodies grow those extra feather except for that they need them. They are just genetically encoded to protect themselves. The cold hardy birds simply respond faster and better, but all birds will do it to some extent.

I don't recall if you mentioned how old your birds are. If they are really young, like before they have feathers, you might have to help them until they get those feathers, but I'll defer to anyone who has acclimatized chicks without mothers. Usually, moms would help in that process by keeping their babies warm as needed, but if you have real young ones without moms, you'd have to provide warm places and bedding where chicks could get out of the elements. Just a spot though, not the entire coop. They still would need to be cold at some time, off and on, to trigger that natural process of growing more feathers, etc.

Hope that helps some.

 

[LadyCluck77]

Well thank you very much Mrs LadyCluck, glad to hear reassurance that I'm doing good for them : ) I will definitly be doing that at that time, around what age do they start laying?

My Leghorns both laid at around 16 weeks, and three of my Red Stars laid at 18-20 weeks. The last Red star laid at 26-27 weeks, but lays the most amazing large speckled eggs every day. I have an Easter Egger and Silver Cuckoo Marans who are still not anywhere near laying- (the comb, wattles, and face will become bright red when they are close to laying) I estimate they're around 20 weeks, but some breeds can take a very long time to mature. I don't expect any eggs from the young girls this fall.
I won't be using any artificial light, so they will likely enter a resting period from laying during the winter. (That's okay, because winter eggs often freeze and break before we can get to them anyway) When the sunlight hours start to increase in the early spring, around March, that is when they will probably start to lay.
You, in Florida may get eggs anyway- much lower in the hemisphere you will probably still be getting adequate sunlight. If yours are 10 weeks now, November may be a lucky egg month for you.

I switched over to Layena (it's the Purina brand layer feed, but any brand you have at your feed store would work. Layer feeds tend to have added calcium and slightly lower protein, around 16% instead of 20% of most grower ration feeds. It is fine to stay on grower ration until you use up the last of it, I only switched them over around 21 or so weeks, and they did great)

The "First egg countdown" thread is extremely informative. I learned a ton of information by reading through it- Happy Chooks is the moderator and she answers everyone's questions, and can even tell from a picture of your hen how close the bird is to laying an egg. It's my first year with chickens, too. All the threads here on Backyard Chickens have saved me tons of time and mistakes

 

[Shabana]

I come from Yorkshire in the UK and so we are starting to see wet weather and damp conditions. Our winters can be cold but generally we deal with a low of around -10 (although a couple of years ago it was twice that its not generally the norm)

We have covered the run with thick clear plastic tarp sheeting from a DIY store called B&Q. The sides and roof of the run are weld-mesh and are super strong and we used cable ties to secure the plastic. Our run is not the muddy mess it was now YIPPEE !

I have some hay ready for the run and I,m hoping to get a couple of straw bales as wind breaks. We have no electric in the coop but after reading this thread I feel reassured that it shouldn't be an issue. I will put extra hemcore bedding in the coop itself which is ventilated well above the chickens heads.

I,m not sure how we will fair with water, but I,m prepared to refresh it if freezing is a problem.

In my two other runs there are several holly bushes planted and they provide some shelter, I would ideally like to provide a covered area for these runs too but they don't have a top to the pen and the pens are very large and tall. I was thinking of making (or persuading my other half to make..) some sort of 'smoking shelter' where they can get out of the elements. My girls don't seem to get that they can shelter in their coops they just seem to be fine with getting wet so I,m not sure they would be used but would at least be good for keeping food and water clean and dry.

I have some almost 5 week old chicks with a broody hen who are not quite fully feathered. They are going into a grown up coop in a couple of weeks. Is there anything special I should do for them ? At what age will they perch ? and until then I was just going to make a nice nest with lots of bedding and hay ?

Brrrr ! talking about all this cold weathers making me chilly !!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

...Styrofoam and chickens do not mix just for the record.

For the record any loose Styrofoam left laying around my house mixes quite readily with my chickens. For this reason I keep it picked up before they find and eat it.

 

[nfitzgeraldRN]

Great thread for us newbies. Live in rural Colorado and the weather changes daily! Good tips!

 

[Mummu]

Lots of good advice on here for winterizing the coop and run. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada where we have a cold moist winter. Last winter several of my roosters suffered frozen comb tips. The tips turned black and fell off so this year I will be removing the top roost for the coldest part of winter. My main concern however, is how to keep the eggs from freezing? I hung a small heater from the roof and pointed it at the nests last year. This worked fairly well, but I still had some eggs freeze and crack.

 

[helper106]

Temperature dropped from low 70's (20C) to 34 (2C) in one day...welcome to alberta..........

even though it will not last it is a HUGE eye opener that I better get cracking on the new coop run roof and plastic on 2.5 sides

love the comments, as I am first year newbie.....read all the comments....made a list.

 

[pebblesdolly]

I'm not going to do anything different during the winter. I live in the Midwest. I just started having back yard chickens. I'm not interested in spending a bunch of money on a whole lot of stuff I don't need. So I'm going to be experimenting with the motto "less is more" attitude. If the cardinals and jays can survive the winter I don't see why a bunch of pampered hens can't, for heavens sake.