Winter is Coming.

[cricketmt]

So we have the 2 black bantam hens, one Easter Egger cross (she hatched out of a brown egg, but lays blue/green eggs lol), and a Buff Orpington cross (not solid buff, she has a number of dark feathers).

All are laying (got them in March).

Hubby built a beautiful little 4 foot by 8 foot coop, up off the ground so they can get under, the yard is fully enclosed. We have a triple wall polycarbonate window (leftovers from the greenhouse), internal nest boxes with an access door, the pop door and then venting the length of both long walls at the top of the walls, about 3-4 inches high, covered only in hardware cloth.

We had 40 degrees yesterday morning...and snow on the mountain tops Saturday morning.

The North wall is common with the garage's south wall. The vents face east and west. We do have a thermal block with a ceramic reptile style heater (screws into a light bulb fixture). And we have an LED bulb in there for extra light since at the darkest point in the year we get only about 8 and 1/2 hours of light.

I have some questions on the venting. The roosts are in front of the window, one at window height one lower. Should we block off the vents above the roost this winter? We can get to -45 though that's not common, but we commonly get to -25 or -30 with pretty high winds.

I plan to use straw bales around the base on the west side of the coop/run (remember it's up off the ground a bit) to help block off wind.



This is the wall that faces west. Roosts are at and below base of window.

Any other venting recommendations? Currently we have a small waterer inside for evening/morning/egglaying time, with a galvanized waterer and feed outside under the overhang on the east side.I'm going to do a couple of nipple water buckets that I can swap every day when they freeze up. I'm contemplating putting some feed inside on the coldest days, but would like them to be outside as much as they can in the winter. I'm also going to hang a hook inside with a rope/string to hang treats like cabbages and stuff from.

It's been 30 years since I last dealt with chickens in the winter...having only 4, I really don't want to lose any of them! Any recommendations would be welcome!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You don't want anything blowing on them on the roost, ventilation is usually up high, ridge vents or a small vent put in the wall at the peak, I personally would close off anything on the west as that's where most winter winds come from, you may find our the cracks are venting enough. You want moisture to escape, but not have any big drafts blowing on the chickens. I wouldn't put that hay around the base until the ground starts to freeze otherwise you could end up making a habitat for mice and rats. You will probably want to put hay or straw in the run to keep them off the snow, I shovel my run after every storm.

 

[cricketmt]

That's exactly what I've been thinking. Hubby's not sure that the east side venting will be enough venting, but I think it will...it's 8 feet long and about 3-4 inches so that's a bit more than 3 square feet for 2 full size and 2 bantams...

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sometimes you do what you think will work, if it doesn't it's easy enough to put venting holes in later, you will know because there will be frost on the walls and it will feel moist, and it will smell like ammonia, with only four chickens it shouldn't be as much of a problem.

If there's room I'd keep the food inside, water can be out but in would be better, I use black rubber bowls and dump twice a day and refill with warm water, I use a plastic water can for carrying it out there. You can feed them scratch outside when it's nice, they should want to be out there when the weather is good. I use slabs of hay, mixed grass clover, mine go nuts over digging and eating leaves, and clover heads, and it works at keeping them off the snow, I am in Wisconsin so we get a bit colder than you, and my shed and coop might be considered drafty, my large and Bantam chickens do fine.

I will on the colder days give them oatmeal or make a warm mash out of their ration by adding warm water, it's also good to give them some scratch in the evening so there's stuff in their crops all night. My scratch is just cracked corn with black oil sunflower seeds. I tend to be quite liberal with my scratch feeding.

 

[cricketmt]

Sometimes you do what you think will work, if it doesn't it's easy enough to put venting holes in later, you will know because there will be frost on the walls and it will feel moist, and it will smell like ammonia, with only four chickens it shouldn't be as much of a problem.

If there's room I'd keep the food inside, water can be out but in would be better, I use black rubber bowls and dump twice a day and refill with warm water, I use a plastic water can for carrying it out there. You can feed them scratch outside when it's nice, they should want to be out there when the weather is good. I use slabs of hay, mixed grass clover, mine go nuts over digging and eating leaves, and clover heads, and it works at keeping them off the snow, I am in Wisconsin so we get a bit colder than you, and my shed and coop might be considered drafty, my large and Bantam chickens do fine.

I will on the colder days give them oatmeal or make a warm mash out of their ration by adding warm water, it's also good to give them some scratch in the evening so there's stuff in their crops all night. My scratch is just cracked corn with black oil sunflower seeds. I tend to be quite liberal with my scratch feeding.

I figure we can cover the west side to start and go from there. It's insulated so that'll help a lot. And the thermometer base I have in there remotely reads to inside and there's a humidity gauge on it so that will help as well.

We get down into the -20's quite often...it's the wind that's the worst and I've seen it in the -30's and -40's at the house so that's what I'm most concerned about.

Thanks for the scratch and hay ideas! And the warm food too, great stuff! I've heard that cracked corn helps raise their body temps too so that'll be a good one to have on hand!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Cracked corn itself doesn't raise their body temperature, it's the act of digestion that produces heat, corn works good because it take more to digest than ration, the sunflower seeds add fat to the diet. You must be north of me, sorry for some reason I thought you were in Ohio, different forum, chickens will fight over sunshine in the winter, so hopefully you have some south facing windows or your run faces south, it's wonderfully cool today, 50's, feels like fall.

 

[cricketmt]

Cracked corn itself doesn't raise their body temperature, it's the act of digestion that produces heat, corn works good because it take more to digest than ration, the sunflower seeds add fat to the diet. You must be north of me, sorry for some reason I thought you were in Ohio, different forum, chickens will fight over sunshine in the winter, so hopefully you have some south facing windows or your run faces south, it's wonderfully cool today, 50's, feels like fall.

The run is on the south side of the garage so they should stay fairly happy. Unless it's a crazy year, we don't get a ton of snow, and I'm happy to shovel them some area if needed. I figured it was the digestion that produced the heat, I just knew not to feed cracked corn when it's hot like today--supposed to have have over 90 degrees...yuck! And smoke!

 

[Outpost JWB]

@oldhenlikesdogs has given you very good advice

. I also have a thermometer that can be read from the house. Thankfully we never get to -20F! I think I would die!

 

[cricketmt]

I don't mind the cold so much--prefer that to the heat and smoke of fires we're dealing with today! Thanks for the advice!

 

[Outpost JWB]

I don't mind the cold so much--prefer that to the heat and smoke of fires we're dealing with today! Thanks for the advice!

So sorry you are going thru that! Seen news about it the past few weeks. I cannot imagine what you all are going thru.

and many prayers.