Tag: winter chicken tips

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Winter Housing

The holidays are just about over and thoughts are now turning back to other things. The week between Christmas and New Years is like a magical world where people are in limbo and no-one is really taking notice of what is going on in the outside world. Attention is focused on family, home, and hearth. Work schedules are often slowed down a bit, and people are a bit more tolerant and have slowed down. Around here it gives us a chance to take notice of the outside once again after having our attention trained on the holiday event of the 25th for the past two weeks. Both Tim and I managed to go for a walk-about on the "estate"  and see how our handy work has fared in the winter weather. Our fencing seems to be doing well in the cold. We weren't sure how it would hold up, but so far so good. Due to the lack of snow we have had we have only had to clear snow from the lower strand once.  It does give our woolies a chance to walk around and play a bit over the winter. All seem to be doing well and enjoying their space. The barn is piled with deep bedding and all draughts are stopped with the exception of one for air circulation. Without the one opening it can get quite whiffy in the warmer weather. We seem to have found the balance where the airflow and the animal smell are stable. The chickens were another story entirely. Although they are Chanteclers, we were still worried about their welfare in the cold. Finding a balance between comfort and health has been an interesting journey. The temps have been between -3C and -15C without wind chill. We have been trying to find ways of getting out chooks to eat enough, keep warm, and keep laying all winter with minimal alterations to their world. We still get from 2-10 eggs a day depending on the cycles of the chooks. Our average is around 6-8 per day. We also have an oil heater on a timer that goes on just before sunset until just after sunrise. We keep track of the temperatures to make sure it doesn't get too warm.  It does make a huge difference and keeps the coop 5-6 degrees warmer than woolie world. A bit over the top yes, but we want the eggs! These are a few of the things we have found to help:

• put hay or straw down on the cold ground, ours seemed to walk on those areas more readily
• a wind shelter outside give them somewhere to hang out
• lots of food available
• try and have warm water available, drinking warm water helps conserve body heat as opposed to having their system warm the water up to body temperature
• insulate the windward walls and ceiling of the coop, we used enviro styrofoam insulation on the ceiling and old feed bags full of straw on the wall, also lots of plastic on wire walls, but not enough to stop good ventilation
• have something on the indoor floor, we have straw and wood chips
• having a light provide extended daylight ours can increase egg production but have it come on in the morning instead of the evening, then the chickens won't get stuck on the ground when the light goes off at night
• we tried a heat lamp at first but it really screwed up the poor chicknes, our cockerel was crowing at midnight, hence the oil heater which works much better
• give chickens a bit of time to get used to something new, ours took a whole day to come outside into the snow for the first time
• observe your birds, this is the best way to learn, if you let them they will teach you a lot

Here are a couple of other links to winter chicken keeping: Firesign Farm Mother Earth News: Winter Chickens E-Zine articles