Even when planning the making of a chicken coop, the farmer needs to think about its effective arrangement for keeping chickens all year round. Depending on the region and season, climatic conditions can vary greatly: from intolerable heat in summer to exhausting cold in winter, from dry weather to excessive rainfall.
Often there is an opinion that chickens do not tolerate low temperatures and snow. In fact, these birds are hardy and rather unpretentious. But it does not mean that in the winter season – especially if the temperature does not rise above zero for days – they can be left to themselves. To maintain a normal weight and feathers, to protect chickens from diseases and to maintain an egg-laying, it is necessary to create comfortable climatic conditions.
Keeping chickens warm in winter: basic principles
The relevance of specific advice depends on many factors: we are talking about a full-fledged farm or a small household, what is the average daily temperature on winter days in your region, how many chickens do you keep, in what area, etc. In order to provide you with the best usefulness, we will present the relevant tips as recommendations.
Basic principles:
- Consider the characteristics of a particular breed of chickens.
- Provide a full and balanced feeding.
- Provide an access to sunlight.
- Protect the corral from drafts and an excessive cooling of the walls.
- Provide an effective ventilation.
- Make a thermal insulating underlay on the floor.
- Arrange roosts so that the chickens sleep on the dais.
- Encourage chickens to be physically active.
- Provide a heating and a lighting on the regime.
- Observe the behavior and condition of the birds.
The fundamental principle: create the comfortable conditions, but do not force the chickens to use them. If it snows, don’t corral the chickens. Chickens feel quite comfortable in winter. They have a thick plumage and tolerate moderate frosts. Give them a free hand, because sometimes an excessive care is less useful than it seems. If the birds are cold, they will go into the chicken coop without extra reminders. Your task is to provide pets with safe and comfortable conditions. And let them decide how much to use them.
Consider the characteristics of a particular breed
Some chickens do not tolerate severe frosts, others can walk even in an icy yard. The cold resistance depends on several parameters: a bird weight, a plumage thickness, etc. Different breeds of chickens tolerate frost in various manners. For regions with long and cold winters, it is advisable to choose birds that are characterized by an increased cold resistance.
But first of all, you raise chickens for specific purposes: a fast growth for meat or an intensive egg production.
If you have to choose breeds of chickens that are far from being the most cold-loving, you can compensate for natural climatic disadvantages in other ways, including proper feeding and efficient arrangement of the corral.
Provide a full and balanced feeding.
Feed for chickens should be nutritious and varied (multicomponent) at any time of the year. And in the winter season, this is especially important. To maintain an optimum body temperature (which compensates for the coolness outdoors), a poultry must receive a sufficient amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. The animal organism is designed in such a way that when there is a lack of nutrients, it begins to process its own fat into energy. And although a chicken cannot be called a fat bird (unlike, for example, a domestic duck), in the cold season it needs such fat layer under the skin.
Particular attention should be paid to the content of proteins in the feed composition. Amino acids not only help maintain energy levels, but also affect the state of muscle mass and feathers. In order for the chicken not to lose weight and continue to lay eggs, the nutrition is one of the most important factors. And it is obligatory to pay attention to the constant access to a liquid water. If the drinking-bowl freezes outdoors, it is necessary to bring it into the corral, provide with heating or periodically pour a warm water in order to at least partially melt the ice.
The feeding schedules should be planned so that crop-full birds go to roosts. In addition to the main diet, you can add ground maize grits. It is convenient to pour it into the feeders directly in the chicken coop or even on the floor. A full fed chicken will digest food all night, which will provide a continuous nutrition to the body and an additional warming.
Provide an access to sunlight
Most plant and animal species are characterized by a decrease in activity during the winter months. But the chicken does not hibernate. It still requires daily portions of natural light. In calm, windless (albeit frosty) weather, a poultry must at least for a short time go out into the yard. If many day-long snow-blasts often occur in your region in winter, consider this point when arranging a corral.
The first obvious requirement is the presence of one or more windows for the sunlight penetration to the chicken coop. Also, a useful solution is the creation of a small hothouse, the laying of a transparent pipe (a corridor), etc. This construction allows the chickens to go out into the yard and receive sunlight, but at the same time reliably protects from sudden gusts. With heavy snowfalls, a hothouse, a pipe or other transparent corridor must be periodically cleaned of snow accumulation.
Protect the corral from drafts and excessive cooling of the walls
A loose closing of the door, cracks in window frames and under the roof – they become sources of a heat leakage in windy weather. The presence of thin walls with poor thermal insulation also leads to the cooling of the coop. It is necessary to keep chickens warm in winter. To a large extent, this problem is solved by eliminating drafts and insulating walls. The door must close tightly, the cracks under the roof and near the windows must be caulked. And for the winter it is enough to cover the walls with bales of straw. However, even during construction, it is better to take care of their insulation: through the use of thermal insulation materials and external covering.
Provide effective ventilation
Many cracks through which heat escapes must be eliminated. But “sealing” the chicken coop should not cause an air stagnation. Chicken excrement releases ammonia. And with insufficient ventilation of the indoor space, the excess moisture accumulates in it, which causes the formation of mold and the development of various diseases in chickens. Therefore, it is necessary to provide with an effective air exchange in the corral. One of the common solutions is to install pipes on the walls from the inside with an exit in the roof area.
Such forced exhausts are supplemented with pipes that are mounted through the walls. They provide a fresh air supply. To prevent the created construction from causing drafts, the pipes are equipped with valves. A more convenient and efficient option is to order a chicken coop ventilation system in a specialized company. Specialists will not only choose suitable components for a particular object, but also perform an installation.
Make a thermal insulating underlay on the floor
A corral flooring is one of the main heat absorbers, especially when it is an uncovered ground or a concrete floor. The multilayer underlay on the floor acts as a thermal insulator. It can be created by laying straw or pine sawdust. Very soon the chickens will cover the flooring with excrement. And then again you can lay a layer of straw, hay or sawdust.
This cycle is repeated several times over the winter. Firstly, a kind of thermal insulation cover will be created on the floor. Secondly, the organic underlay will turn into a compost by spring, which can be used as fertilizer for an orchard or vegetable garden.
Arrange roosts so that the chickens can sit and sleep on the dais.
Domestic chickens are descendants of wild birds. Like their ancestors, they also like to sit on branches and dais. Roosts are arranged in the chicken coop for this purpose. Their height can vary from 0.5 to 1.5 meters. The arrangement of roosts has several important advantages:
- The hens sit on the poles close to each other, in this way warming one another.
- They are elevated from the floor, and, as you know, a cold air goes down, and a warm air goes up.
- Avoiding of daily many hours long contacts with a wet floor covered with feces is the additional means of protection against lice, ticks, and also the disease prevention.
Hens quickly get used to roosts. But they need to be taught this from an early age. It is enough to put the chickens on the poles for two or three evenings – and soon this position becomes the most convenient for them.
Encourage chickens to be physically active.
Keeping chickens warm is not the only way to warming them up. A physical activity is also very important. Motivating chickens to perform gymnastic exercises or runs is unlikely to succeed. But to provide them with the opportunity to freely go out into the yard and walk is a realistic task. In addition, this simultaneously gives the birds access to fresh air and sunlight.
A slightly more sophisticated and very effective method is to hang a tasty treat on a rope: a cabbage, a pumpkin, or a beet. Chickens will peck a moving and tasty “toy” that encourage their activity even in a closed corral. It is also useful to form an organic waste pile in the yard. During the daytime, the chickens will rake it, while maintaining mobility and looking for tasty insects.
Provide a heating and a lighting on the regime
The use of heaters is advisable in cases where it is very cold outside. But such equipment must be safe so as not to cause an electric shock of a poultry or to be a source of ignition. A household electric fireplace is an inappropriate equipment. It is best to order special equipment for heating households and farms in a professional contractor. It can be equipped with a thermostat, a timer and other accessories for the process automation.
A lamp lighting doesn’t beat a natural daylight and fully replace it. However, a lamp lighting allows to extend the daylight hours. Egg laying hens need about 14 hours daily to continue an egg-laying. And if you want to take eggs from the chicken coop every day, the lighting is obligatory factor in winter. But it should only be in effect moderately (in total with natural daylight – no more than 14-18 hours a day) so that the chickens can fully rest at night.
Observe the birds’ behavior and state
Do the chickens show a great appetite, regularly go out into the yard, keep a good level of an egg production? So, they feel comfortable. Do chickens gather in dense groups and do not get off their roosts even on a fine day, do they eat noticeably less than the rate, or have they stopped laying eggs? It is likely that they are cold – and it is necessary to set up the heating of a corral.
Walking on an icy yard in frosty weather can cause a frostbite of paws, combs and sacs on the neck under the nib. To protect them on especially cold days, you can apply special creams (they are sold in veterinary pharmacies) or petroleum jelly. As a matter of fact, such frostbites are non-vital: they affect only the outer layer of tissues, and if the chicken comes out of the corral, then it is not so cold.
What is the best way to keep chickens warm in winter?
It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally, because many parameters have the influence on this process. First of all, be guided by the weather conditions in your region. The longer and harsher the winters, the more effectively you need to thermally insulate the chicken coop. Solve this problem in advance so that a cold snap does not take you and your pets by surprise.
In this article, we have offered some basic recommendations that are time-tested and proven its usefulness. But the suitability of individual tips depends on the individual characteristics of your particular household or poultry farm. If you are only taking the first steps in this direction or want to bring your farming to a new level, expedient means may not be enough.
Texha Company specializes in the design, manufacture, sale and installation of the poultry equipment. The product range includes various devices and complete systems for poultry breeding in a household or at a full-fledged farm:
- Cages and grating floorings.
- Feeding and drinking systems.
- Climate and lighting equipment.
- Egg collection and packing systems.
- Conveyors for an automatic waste removal, etc.
If you organize a small household on a garden plot and plan to keep no more than a dozen egg laying hens or broilers, equipping a comfortable and safe corral is a simple task. But when we are talking about a full-fledged farm, or you intend to increase the poultry population every year, it is necessary to initially make a chicken coop for the future. The special poultry equipment and professional advice will help to arrange a functional facility and avoid many non-obvious mistakes!