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

[aart]

Keeping the ammonia down and the coop clean, I have read about DIATOMACEOUS EARTH as a natural treatment for the coop. I got some and also started practicing the DEEP LAYER METHOD that I read about on here. The DE is supposed to help with parasites both externally and internally by adding it to their food. I'm sure there are others here who know ALOT more about this than I do but maybe you should research these two options. Good luck!

DE and Deep Litter Method don't mix. DLM is essentially a compost system, DE kills a lot of the organisms that make DLM work.

Here is a good account of DLM, that in the second year DE additions made it fail. It's great documentation on a long term DLM.

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks for that, Alaskan.  I hope they don't eat each other! How would I get my eggs otherwise?!?  By making the run inviting, do you mean warm (by covering with plastic) and more comfy on their feet with straw and whatnot?

Make the run inviting by cutting down on wind gusts (if you even have those in your area), and either keeping out the snow, or covering the snow with leaves/hay/saved up grass clippings/whatever to tempt them to come out.

It also helps lots to toss something they really like (scratch or food scraps, what ever) out into the yard that they have to work at to find and eat. Also, that makes sure that they all come out at least once a day.

 

[MEMama3]

I started winterizing today. I got plastic on about 3/4 of the run. I didn't want to cover the whole thing yet since we are still getting the occasional 80 degree day, despite the majority of days being 40s with a cold breeze. I also pulled the sand from the coop and put it in the run with some lime. I replaced the bedding in the coop with pine so I can start deep litter before it gets too cold (we've had three frosts already).

 

[spainterrd]

Our coop is about 4x4.5 foot with a little elevated nesting box area. The run is about 4x10 feet. My husband moves it about every 3 to 4 days, but the chickens have the run of the whole yard during the day. I can't see him lifting the coop/run tractor and hauling it in the snow covered yard. I've so far read the first 5 pages of this thread and see ideas for straw and leaves on the run. Any other ideas?

 

[CindyR]

I'm in Alberta, Canada where it occasionally gets as cold as -40. I have never heated my coop, nor did my mother, my grandmothers or any of our neighbours. Their chickens were all fine and healthy. My coop is insulated. The pop door to my coop stays open all the time providing ventilation and the windows stay open a crack except those right beside the roosts.

When the snow comes I stop giving them water and just shovel some snow into a pan, they eat it right up, just like wild birds in the winter.

They go outside nearly every day no matter how cold it is although they don't like the wind. They also don't like to walk on snow all that much but my pen is covered so snow doesn't get in unless there is a snow storm, I just shovel it out and add some more straw.

I do not provide light, egg production stops but that's no problem.

I'm not sure if I would do this with very fancy chickens like Seramas. My little flock consists of a Barred Rock, 2 bantams and a Welsummer rooster.

It's a simple and uncomplicated approach.

 

[sn0wwhite]

I was all set to forgo any heat and then someone from Wisconsin today who had chickens said my little flock of 3 or 4 won't generate enough body heat to keep themselves warm. Does flock size matter in this question?

 

[groverlvchx]

WOW, Cindy R! I had the same question about flock size but obviously flock size doesn't matter. If your flock of 4 can winter together at temps down to forty below zero F, then we here in MN are going to be fine even with only three or four chickens in our flock. I have forty right now, but will butcher almost half before the snow flies. I was wondering if I was taking away some BTU's that are necessary. Thank you for commenting on the pop door, too. I want to leave mine open this winter (their run is very secure with chain link and chicken wire and pheasant netting over the top). Then again, the neighbor cat was climbing all over the run and trying to get in through the top. I could see a determined raccoon chewing through that netting...maybe I should chain link the top instead...

 

[CindyR]

Snow White, my flock consists of only 4 chickens and they do fine. The coop is 10x12 with an 8 foot ceiling so their combined body heat will not make a difference in such a large space. Like Hokum said in another thread, they must be acclimatized. As the weather gets colder they adapt. You wouldn't want a chicken going from a heated coop to a non heated one, it probably wouldn't fare all that well. A few winters ago one of my Barred Rocks moulted, her back was buck naked but she spent time outside with the rest of her gang with no ill effects.

Grover, you might want to look up a thread on ventilation written by a lady from eastern Canada, she is very experienced. I'm not sure my ventilation is the best but my little flock has certainly done ok. Good luck with that raccoon.

 

[AK Baha]

Snow White, my flock consists of only 4 chickens and they do fine. The coop is 10x12 with an 8 foot ceiling so their combined body heat will not make a difference in such a large space. Like Hokum said in another thread, they must be acclimatized. As the weather gets colder they adapt. You wouldn't want a chicken going from a heated coop to a non heated one, it probably wouldn't fare all that well. A few winters ago one of my Barred Rocks moulted, her back was buck naked but she spent time outside with the rest of her gang with no ill effects.

Grover, you might want to look up a thread on ventilation written by a lady from eastern Canada, she is very experienced. I'm not sure my ventilation is the best but my little flock has certainly done ok. Good luck with that raccoon.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=ventilation

 

[KatD]

You may appreciate having extra water containers that you can switch out to avoid dealing with the water outside in the cold. We had a heating element for our dog water when I lived in Northern Arizona. I bet you can finds something like that at your feed and farm store.