Winter is coming Quick!

tramsey76

Hatching
5 Years
Sep 19, 2014
5
0
7
Locust Grove, Va
Ok, first post... I'm new to the backyard flock adventure and had a couple of easy questions. Or at least I hope these are going to be easy questions.
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Anyways, I got some pointers from a couple other local farmers on my concerns, but thought it couldn't hurt seeing what people on this site had to say. So, here are my questions; should I insulate or plastic shield my coop and fenced in run area to help against the cold or just use a mixture of cracked corn to give them a higher body temp to huddle up and keep warm that way? Second and last question, my chickens haven't started laying yet. To my knowledge they are about19 weeks roughly. What should I expect to happen over the winter? Should I expect them to lay eggs through out the winter or not so much till spring ? By the way I have a couple Sicilian Buttercups, and 4 or 5 RIR's.

I hope these are clear enough questions, I could elaborate all day long, but didn't want to take up too much of y'all's time.

Thanks in advance!
 
They will be fine with VA temps. I wouldn't do anything special. It gets colder here and I don't do anything special.
First and foremost, don't limit ventilation in the interest of warmth.
They take longer to start with declining day length. I rarely get eggs before 22 weeks regardless of time of year. If they start, they should continue throughout the winter and till next autumn when they'll take a break to molt - and each autumn thereafter.
 
My previous chickens did well without anything special. And I'm only a few miles down Rt. 20 from you ... Barboursville.... Just be mindful of the coyotes, they're getting to be plentiful around here.
 
don't think air tight, warm trapping...... instead think dry. Dry chickens are warm chickens, damp chickens are cold.

Have plenty of moisture absorbing material on the floor and open ventilation above them. That will keep them dry. We get 30 below, and my girls were just fine on this plan.

Mrs K
 
Awesome! Thanks gang! I feel better knowing that most of what I was told holds truth. Also, I'm glad to hear their are other "peeps" (no pun intended) that are raising chickens near me that also use this site (KGreene). This should make it a little easier to go through the trials and tribulations of learning as you go. And thanks for the heads up about the coyotes. I knew they were here, I'm an avid hunter and have seen my share in the woods of Orange County. I think my biggest concern at this point Are the predators. We'll see...
 

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