Preparing your chickens for winter (and keep them laying)

What do you need to do to keep your chickens laying and happy through out the winter? 

A couple of things come to mind: 


Preparing the coop:
The coop should be draft free, but have plenty of airflow. Make sure that the airflow also keeps predators and rodents out of the coop. Plug up all the holes. :)
Supplementing light:


Chickens need at least 12-16 hours of light in order to maintain their egg production. The ideal is about 14.5 hours. Many farmers add light to their hen house at the end of August. If you haven't started the light already, your production will go down. The hens will molt, and then they will start up again. But you will lose a few weeks of eggs.  
You can add 15 minutes of light each day to maintain the 14.5 hours (if you begin at the end of August) but many of us completely forget about it until September rolls around and we suddenly realize that the days are getting shorter (then there is the dreaded Daylight Saving Time)

Some set their timers at the end of the day and then again at dawn... For example: the timer is set at 5 am and go off at 8 am, and also set it for 5 pm till 9 pm. This gives the hens those extra needed hours of daylight.

I read somewhere that it is best to give light only in the morning. The reasoning behind this is when dusk starts gathering, the hens all begin to find their place in the coop and on their perch.

There is a hierarchy and the oldest most mature hens get the top roost, and the younger ones go for the lower roosts... unless you have hens like mine and the young ones manage to find a foothold on the ceiling beam closest to the wall. For this reason, there is sometimes a little bit of scrabbling to get to the roosts.

If you are adding supplemental light at that time, and the light suddenly goes out due to the time you have set, then the hens may be caught on the floor eating, or walking about and have to find their places in the pitch dark. So, for that reason, I add all the light in the morning and let nature tell the hens when to roost in the evening.

A simple 40 watt bulb will work for a 10x10 coop.

Feeding:

The hens will also start eating more at this time. Our hens are completely free- ranging through out the day... no fences at all, they wander at will gathering the bugs and seeds from plants. But they also know that winter is coming, the temperatures are dropping, so to compensate, we give them a supplemental feed. When snow is on the ground, we feed the chickens a mixture of corn, wheat, oats and sunflower seeds. We also bring out a lot of left-overs from our meals. They love it.



Watering:

Be sure the chickens have water... warm water will be greatly appreciated. Be sure to check through out the day. Water will freeze very quickly, crack your water bowl and leave the chickens the option to eat snow - not a good idea.
If you have electricity in your coop, you can make your own heated waterer.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/heated-chicken-waterer-zm0z13fmzhun.aspx#axzz3OFczKP9j


Heat:

I do know that there are some that add heat to their coops. We have never done that. In fact the first year we had chickens we didn't have a coop. They roosted in the trees through out the winter. In the morning the snowy blobs in the trees would move and shake. Snow would come down off the chicken and they would fly down to the ground where we would feed them.
Chickens with rose combs are fine without heat, but chickens with the large single comb will suffer from frost bite. The comb will turn black and eventually fall off. If you are not going to add any heat, be sure that the chickens you have a winter-hardy. Some common winter hardy breeds are: Dominiques, Australorps, Easter Eggers/Ameraucana, Orpingtons, Brahma, Cochin, to name just a few. 

If you do feel you would like to add some heat, by way of maybe a heat lamp, be sure that the hens do not have the opportunity to actually sit on the lamp (it is really useless to have it so high that they can't huddle under it anyway). Heat lamps can be very dangerous and will start a fire (we have personally experience with a fire from heat lamps).

Chickens put off a lot of heat, and there are places where the coop is attached to a greenhouse giving the green house supplemental heat. If your coop is well insulated, the chickens will be quite warm from their own body heat. Make sure there is a sufficient amount of litter on the floor.

If you feel you really do need heat, try a radiant heater These can be put on the ceiling. You can find some on the FarmTek site:  http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/cat1;ft1_heaters_accessories;ft1_tube_heaters

Finally... be sure to gather your eggs a few times a day, or they will freeze! 

  
Chickens venturing out of the coop and into the snow

Chicken coop

I am hoping that by writing this blog, my husband Jim, will be inspired to build me a new chicken coop!
  You see, Jim has built many chicken coops, but so far has sold all of them! The favorite one is this one:

This coop has a large enough door to get in and clean the coop. But if you don't need to, on the front are the nest boxes, and you can gather eggs from the outside.

On the back of the coop are custom made food bowl holders made by Jim's cousin Dave of  Physical Steel

The holders rotate out of the coop to be filled.

A few other mini-coops Jim has built that could also be used to house bunnies:

(Here we are finishing up a coop, that houses 4-6 chickens, to be delivered)

High Lonesome Ranch Creations

Chicks- feed, shelter, necessities

Once the chicks are fully feathered, they will be about 4 -5 weeks of age. 

You will be feeding them the "starter" feed until about this time and can then begin feeding "starter/grower" 

You can can feed their chicks scraps, or worms and other bugs from the garden... Small amounts of vegetable/dairy  also bugs and worms should be fine for the chicks (and they'll love it!).Just remember that starter feeds contain everything chicks need to survive and thrive, and filling them up with too much of the "other stuff" can throw off their nutritional balance.

And give them as much feed as they want. They will eat as much as they need, and come back later for more. They are good at self-regulating their feed, unlike a dog is.

Chickens do not have "teeth" so they need grit. When they free range, they will find their grit. If they are contained, you will need to provide the grit.  For baby chicks, sand, parakeet gravel or canary gravel, available at your local pet store or grocery store pet aisle.

 When the weather is warm enough, and sunny, they can venture outside. Put them in a wire cage or erect some other temporary housing and place it in the sun, making sure they have access to water and shade if they need it. They'll absolutely love digging around in the grass. But don't leave them unattended! At this age they're good at flying and very susceptible to predators. Also, if it's windy they'll get cold - they'll let you know they're unhappy with their loud chirping.

 By the time they are full grown, they will come when they are called, and stay pretty close to where you have their shelter and food.  Make sure they have access to water at all times. 

 They don't really need much in the way of comforts. It is always nice to provide a chicken coop or they will lay their eggs anywhere they find a nice hiding spot. This type of chicken coop holds about 12 free-range chickens. They lay their eggs in the nest box and you don't even have to go inside to collect them. If you want to keep them contained with a small outdoor run, this coop will take care of about 6 chickens. Interested in starting a small flock? In general, you can have 3 hens (no rooster or crowing involved) and get 14 eggs a week! That's 2 eggs a day! 

Our first set of chickens didn't have a coop the first year. They would roost in the trees. When we had a snow, the following morning, they would shake the snow off and fly out of the trees to the ground. The weather didn't phase them. This is our chicken coop now, you can see that they aren't afraid of a little snow!  

                                      

Of course, during the winter you will have to provide food. They will scrounge around in the snow looking for tidbits - especially under bird feeders, but they need something of their own to keep their metabolism up and keep them warm. Your local feed store will have feed available for the winter.

Chickens will stick together. If you have a rooster, he will call to his hens to come and eat something special he might have found. 

Chickens

Chickens are one of the first animals people want to get when they are starting their homestead. They are  very easy to keep and raise. They eat very little if they are free ranging. They are great for bug control. In return they provide eggs, meat and feathers for fishing tackle. They are amusing to watch, a little violent in their breeding (for you first timers) and it is fun to hear the rooster crow and the girls talk. The rooster will call his girls over when he finds a tasty morsel. He will crow in the morning just to announce his domain. 

The girls gossip and chat to each other and will brag when they lay their eggs.

When the chicks are fully feathered and grown, you will see the "ear lobes" on the side of their head. The ones with the red ones will lay brown eggs, and the ones with the white will lay white eggs. After the first couple of eggs come, if you are observant, you will be able to tell which egg belongs to which hen as each egg is distinctive to that hen.

Each chicken will have their own personality. I have had a chicken that would always run to me and make her soft clucking sounds as if asking for a handout. She was always the first one to spot me coming out of the house.

    Interested in starting a small flock? In general, you can have 3 hens (no rooster or crowing involved) and easily get 14 eggs a week! That's 2 eggs a day! 

We have 15 hens and have eggs out the ears in the summer. What can you do with the eggs? You can have deviled eggs, quiche, custards,. You can pickle them, freeze them, add extras to cakes and other mixes. Have breakfast for supper at least once a week, and of course, sell them or give them to friends.

Advantages to chickens besides eggs: Chickens will eat ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, slugs, beetles, ants, maggots, grubs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles, and even mice. This year I have heard the bugs may be overwhelming because the winter was so mild.

  

  

My favorite chickens are the Americana chickens - not to be confused with Araucanas. Americanas sold by hatcheries are  also called the Easter Egg Fowl. Most of the so-called Americanas in the US are mixes that carry some of the original genes and lay variously colored eggs: blue, green, or pinkish. These birds are sometimes (and more honestly) sold as Easter Egg chickens. The American Poultry Association recognizes a bird called the Ameraucana, which lays colored eggs and has muffs and a beard, not ear tufts, and comes in standardized color varieties, with slate colored shanks.

Easter Egger come in white  and vary  in a wide assortment of colors and types, black, buff, cinnamon, brown, red and white– along with various combinations of these colors. Some may have top knots, some have whiskers, and others have bunches of feathers growing from each side of the head near the ear region. They are good layers, with eggs medium to large in size. The colors vary in shade from pale to deep blue, green, pink, plus a few olive drab and an occasional antique gold. The Easter Egger is a hardy, vigorous fowl, resistant to disease and easy to raise. They seem to do well in all types of climate. A calm chicken, they are very easily tamed to become pets.


I'm sure my flock is a combination of the Easter Eggers and Ameracaunas. I also have White and Brown leghorns in the mix. And I'm excited to say I ordered Auracana eggs and will hopefully hatch out chickens with the ear tufts and blue eggs!

  

Brown eggs, blue eggs, white eggs and even some pink eggs are some of the fun of raising your chickens.

Here is an excellent page of a chicken breed chart to help get you started on choosing the chicken for you! click here

                       

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