Winter

[chicken_love]

What do you do to keep chickens warm in the winter, when they're babies and when they're grown up?

 

[justusnak]

Well, thats depends on quite a few things. Size of coop....temps...how many chickens....breed??

I started with RIR/mix. Last winter was thier first winter. They have a large coop, and it is draft free. I piled the straw in pretty thick..so they could snuggle down in it if they wanted. Also...we didnt clean the poo, just covered it with more straw. It makes a compost sorta, and stays warm. Being winter, no smell. For the roost...we made sure they were wide and flat...so they could not wrap thier toes around them. This keps them from getting too cold. They can lay down on the roost, and keep thier toes warm.
If it got too cold, I hooked up a heat lamp. Just to take the chill off. All made it through fine...no frost bite..and layed eggs all winter long!
For the Banty Cochin Frizzles....they had a heat lamp all winter.

 

[chickenliver]

How do you make the roost?

 

[justusnak]

For my RIR, we used 2x4...laying on its side...so they set on the 4" side. Seems to work well with the larger heavy breeds.

 

[aran]

hey deb how often did you need the heat lamp for the RIR mixes? Im in upstate NY and we rarely get colder than mid 20s in the dead of winter here. I had actually planned on putting more birds in fewer coops to have them squish up a bit for added warmth...bad idea?

 

[pattycake]

aran -- how long have you lived in upstate ny? We usually get a spell or two of subzero weather every year!! Of course, with global warming, that might all change....

 

[silkiechicken]

It usually only gets to the teens here in the winter with very few if any days near zero (Thanks Puget Sound!) My birds sleep outside intheir coop year long.

 

[Kerr]

I have 8 chickens and 5 ducks
an 8 x 8 coop (12x12 pitch)
its gets around minus 15 here in the winter
(Toronto)
already has an insulated exterior house door on it
We are going to insulate the celing and walls for winter and add a heat lamp but my question is.....

do they go outside in the snow?


They free range all over my property now but just not sure what to do with them when it snows.....?

They roam from the field back to their house all day now....
I'm thinking winter is going to be very boring for them

 

[kstaven]

I am in BC and mine go out in the winter.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Mine go out in winter, unless it's below freezing, which was most of February this year

They do pretty well. I have a red heat lamp and 100watt light bulb both on timers. The plain light stays on from 3pm until 9pm for added "daylight" to keep them laying and the red heat lamp was set to go off after that until 3pm the next day, unless it was "warm" 32deg + and then they went out for the day and the light was turned off. And I feed corn like crazy!!
Ps...I'm in Maine, if you didn't catch that by my "name"....