Winter Prep?

[Smuvers Farm]

Who doesn't love a warm bowl of oatmeal, morning or night? Quite cozy!

 

[aart]

The scratch thing is pretty much a fallacy....any food will generate 'heat' during digestion, my birds pack their crops before roosting.....and most chicken feed is mostly corn anyway.

Not sure the vaseline is effective, have read stories about greased combs being frostbit. One thing you don't want to do is mess with frostbitten flesh, could make it worse and introduce bacteria leading to infection. Have seen quite a bit if mild frostbite where flesh turns grayish but no tissue is lost, tips turning black and falling off with no swelling. Have also had several fairly serious cases of frostbite, both on cockbirds wattles. One got pretty swollen for a couple days, I just watched for infection, but it receded pretty quickly and the necrotic tissue fell off in a couple weeks, by spring you couldn't even see the scar line unless you knew it had happened. Have had few hens with frostbit wattles, you know how it happens, cockbirds too? They love, love to eat snow.... even when temps are in the teens, even with nice closed and heated water inside coop, they will line up and nosh on the snowbanks, their wattles make much contact with the snow during their snack. SMH.

All JMO&I

First winter is nerve wracking, fear of the unknown(and known), hopefully you will chuckle at yourself with relief that none of the terrible happened and the next winter will be much more enjoyable.

 

[centrarchid]

I would give the perch options more consideration. Birds will be spending a lot more time on perches during the winter. Day length will be shorter is part of that. Make so they have more to do from the perch. This coming year I will be setting up platforms birds can move between for a range of stimuli / resources providing physical and mental exercise.

 

[kearlston]

I would give the perch options more consideration. Birds will be spending a lot more time on perches during the winter. Day length will be shorter is part of that. Make so they have more to do from the perch. This coming year I will be setting up platforms birds can move between for a range of stimuli / resources providing physical and mental exercise.

Centrarchid, I'd love to see your setup with the platforms, that sounds like a great idea!

 

[Compost Queen]

I'm in southern Australia, the lowest temperature we get here is -5 degrees C, I know that's nothing compared to what many get, but here's my two cents worth:

Our coop is insulated and draft free. It has insulation in walls and roof and a green roof for summer heat.

Because they're cooped up, and don't have access to dust baths, I make them a box and put the sifted fines of woodash and our mountain soil in it. (the soil is clay based and will help dry out any mites etc, but you could also use DE.) We get a lot of rain here, and between the wet and the cold they love it, and use it often; I hope it will help them with mites etc over colder months when immune systems are a bit challenged.

I make them a warming and nutritive mash, and include seaweed, nutritional yeast, stone dust and shell grit, crushed corn, sprouts ( i grow in the warmest room in the hosue), sunflower seeds (oils for feather production esp in autumn), flaxseed oil, tahini, flaked oats, seeds I have spare, coconut, some dried fish, kefir, kombucha.. ( really whatever's spare in my pantry..), and always a clove of garlic and 1/4 tsp of chili seeds and a pinch of turmeric, per bird. And usually a grated carrot and beetroot. The garlic/ chili/ carrot/ turmeric is good for worms but the chili will also help raise metabolism, and garlic good for immune function. In summer I chop lots of fresh herbs into it.

Wicking, perpetual grazing bed: I have made my girls a vegie box (mines 1.2 x 2.4 metres), for 4 chooks. The soil level is about 10 cm ( 4") below the top of the box, which is covered with 1" square galv weldmesh. They can walk on the weldmesh and eat greens that grow through, this means plants hould have enough root systems not to get pulled up, and the trimming effect gives extended harvest. Grow the cold hardiest greens you can (rye, lupins, beans, brassicas, comphrey or whatever is local and green in cold weather), and you could grow under lights or heat, if needed. Our box is outside, with walls of concrete blocks to provide some thermal mass on the days when the sun is out. Or at least get an earlier start on the growing season.

You could think about incorporating compost heap proximal or under perch or something, I've seen systems in the UK where they put the compost/ manure under glass and use the heat given off to grow seedlings... ??