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

[Shabana]

Just starting to get colder now here in the UK. We have had a few days where it's dipped below 0 degrees C.
Nothing at all like you all have to deal with I know but when I "poo pick" in the morning with over 50 hens and 7 coops to clean, feed to do and water to sort I often think about spring lol.
I also think about all of the other chicken fanatics freezing along with me

 

[morrison7368]

So I put a 2x4 roost inside there coop but they wont use it and perch up on there roof... they are inside their run and it is covered by plastic so they are protected by the wind... big deal? Should I put their original 2x1 roost back in their coop? They poop a lot on their roof now and most of it spills into their run.

 

[Alaskan]

I am thinking that they are perching up top because it is higher.

Are they protected from predators there?

Are they actually on the roof?

Sometimes, when I just can't figure out how to get the chickens to perch where I want them to, I just turn the spot where they are perching into a 4 inch wide perch.



But then, just how cold is it where you are..... I only had about one week of "intro to winter" it has been warm here...

 

[bigmrg74]

The Heart Of Gold, parked for Winter.

 

[hennible]

Very nice chicken tractor

 

[bigmrg74]

Very nice chicken tractor

Thanks. Its pretty heavy and not exactly easy for me to move it, but as long as I have it parked somewhere where it got a good seal to the ground with it, hardly nothing was getting into it. Still thinking about adding some wheels to it next year that I can lift it up and move it easier.

 

[hennible]

The A frame pen part would be great for a winter run for me, love it... Wheels are handy

 

[bigmrg74]

The A frame pen part would be great for a winter run for me, love it... Wheels are handy

They seem to be pretty happy in it. I just have some cheap shower curtains covering the hardware cloth around the top, a skirt of chick wire around the base to discourage diggers invading the run, and then straw bales all around on the base to block the wind and hold that chicken wire down. And I threaded an electric cord under it to run the heated waterer. I'm kinda debating the idea of adding a ledge to it so that I could keep their food, water and dust bath bin up where the brats can't toss straw into it.

 

[hennible]

Lol... Keep straw out of the dust bath... If you find a way let me know

 

[Henna56]

nice ! that is very similar to what i am thinking of building for my hens in the spring--thanks so much for sharing--getting some good ideas!