This Weather Is For The Birds....Just Not My Birds

Growing up I was always the girl who loved the cold and snow.  I loathed being hot. Ask my momma, I threw a fit anytime I had to be outside in the heat and not in a swimming pool.  However, the older I get and the more animals I have, the more I hate the cold.  Snow I can handle, I can handle a bit of ice.  The negative temps I cannot handle at all. I hate this weather for my girls. 

Taking care of poultry, well all farm animals for that matter, in the winter can be tricky.  It is a lot of hard work.  A lot of preparation that usually starts in the fall. We are in the middle of a horrible cold snap here in Mid Missouri.  Our third bad cold snap since I have owned chickens.  Here is our winter routine and how we have made it through some very cold weather in Missouri. And knock on wood, not lost anyone to the cold.

***Disclaimer: I will add, I am not a veterinarian, I do not pretend to be.  I am just a small flock farmer who uses her research and experience to get us through the day to day.  Please take what you will from my experiences.  Also know, these are my experiences and opinions.  It comes down to- your flock, your rules.***

Every Year Heishman Hen Farm Winter Honey Do's:

-Cover wired windows with choice of greenhouse panels, clear plastic sheeting, or clear shower curtains.

-Purchase straw bales to line inside of barn coop walls.  To be used as needed and opened as it gets colder.

-Clean nesting boxes and fill with clean straw.

-Staple empty feed sacks to wall behind roosting bars to help insulate a little.

-Do a deep clean of coop to start a good deep litter base with pine shavings. 

-Get out the heated dog bowl for temps under 32 during day.

-Drop both canvas tarps that cover large run opening to block wind, only having one corner open for exiting and entering coop. 

-Wrap rungs of ladder that the chickens insist on roosting on with cloth.  

-Put furring strips up on duck coop run and hang clear plastic shower curtains. Get out heated duck waterer and extension cord. 

-Deep clean duck coop, start deep litter method in duck coop. 

-Prepare for the worst, but expect the best...gather extra medical supplies, straw, buckets, feed pans, etc. 

Ways We Have Gotten Through A Few Winter Storms:

Cold Snap Of 2021:

Our first winter with chickens we only had 6....our Chick Pack plus had added our rooster Hawkeye.  The temperatures in February of 2021 were supposed to get down below zero and this first time chicken mama freaked out.  After a bit of research online, I knew we didn't want to 'supplement' heat with a cozy coop heater or a heating lamp.  I did see somewhere on one of the FB pages that someone brought there chickens into their garage.  Ok, I could do this, I thought.  Now how to do keep 5 chickens from flying around (remember, ol' one leg Chick Norris can't fly)?  Ah hah!  A camping tent.  Being the budget minded Amazon girl that I am, I was able to score a tent off Amazon for $14 and have it delivered in two days. (You know back when Prime delivery was actually two day delivery, not the 3-50 day delivery it is now.) So for almost a week, we had a tent in our garage (non heated by the way) with 4 hens and a rooster.  CN already had her own pen.  One big chicken sleepover.  It was pretty easy.  Set up tent, throw in a bag of pine shavings, put in waterer and feeder, and a couple homemade roosting bars. Throw disorientated, mad chickens into tent, zip up.  Enjoy.  All laughs aside, it really did work out well.  The Chick Pack was out of the cold, sub zero temps, and snow.  I had fun climbing in the tent with them in the evening and chatting with them.  When the temps started rising, everyone was happy to go back outside.  Including me, it was starting to get a bit smelly in the garage.  The tent did end up going in the trash but it served it's purpose well. 

This is one option if you have a small flock.  And if you have a way to put them somewhere the isn't heated. Putting them in your heated basement and having them get used to the heat then throwing them straight back out into the cold could be even worse for their systems. I have also seen this technique used for people in the south when hurricanes come through.  It would definitely not work for my flock of 31 now!

Arctic Air December 2022:

By the end of 2022 we had all of our chickens moved up to the converted barn coop.   A lot more space, but also means for a lot more planning as far as cold weather.  We usually line our walls with straw bales, then as winter gets colder we break a bale open here and there to let the girls scratch and it helps cover the floor. Like I stated above, we also staple empty feed sacks to the walls behind the roosting bars.  This prevents those super cold metal walls from radiating the cold to the chickens little fluffy butts. During the first cold snap with all the chickens in the barn, we didn't let the chickens out into their runs we kept them 'cooped' up if you will and out of the wind. The canvas tarps we keep down over the large opening to our run, we completely closed off and put straw bales in front of. We made sure to put Vaseline on all combs and wattles to prevent frostbite. Having no electricity or water to our barn coop on the hill, we use a solar system for heated waterers.  We have found that a heated dog bowl works wonders.  However, we do unplug at night to lessen the chance of humidity in the coop.  And depending on weather and temperature, it may not always keep up.  This particular arctic air blast we did have some frozen water, so I had to make a few trips a day up to keep the girls in fresh water. Warm meals were provided at least once a day along with cracked corn at bedtime. We up their feed rations in the winter to keep the energy going. 

Polar Vortex January 2024

This brings us to our current state of BS we are in now. Sorry for the words, I am one worn out feather mama. It was a long week last week with the snow and ice and then add in temps down to -18 this weekend, I am pooped. Until this last week, we had been pretty lucky here in Missouri with the winter temps.  We are most definitely paying for it now.  Snow last Tuesday.  Which melted a bit and froze over again, only to have more snow dumped on top.  That is a ton of fun if you didn't know.  Makes for getting gates and coop doors open really tricky. In fact one morning last week I couldn't get the gate into the chicken run open at all. It was 6 am, cold, dark, snowy and I panicked. How was I going to get in to feed and water my girls?  Luckily my rational side took over and I ran down to grab my shovel and was able to get in to the coop quickly.  The duck coop gate hasn't been so easily fixed.  I have a funny little move I have to make to get my curvy body into the run. 

Knowing this weekend was going to be a doozy, I went ahead and put a heavy duty blanket over the large wired window that already had plastic over it above our main entrance to the chicken run.  I went out and shoved straw in any spots I could shove straw in.  I have one little chicken who insists on sleeping by herself in the rafters of the barn, has for almost two years, so she got a lot of straw stuffed around her spot. Extra straw was packed into the nesting boxes to keep eggs from freezing so quickly. 

Our weekend was a long one.  The solar system didn't keep up in the -15 weather to run my dog water bowl.  So I made a lot of trips with water. I added electrolytes to the water to keep them hydrated. So far my best luck has been to use rubber livestock bowls, they seem to freeze a lot slower. Today I used a medium sized one, put a couple hand warmers down, put a smaller one on top, stuffed straw around it, then filled with lukewarm water with a ping pong ball on top. I will let you know how that worked. Midday each day the Chick Packs got warm meals- Saturday was scrambled duck eggs with oats and red pepper flakes.  Sunday was homemade flock blocks, I will post recipe at the bottom.  Straw was taken down to the duck coop and placed in all corners of the run for them to pile up into during the day, and also stuffed into their house.  Their K&H Heated Duck Waterer has worked like a champ in this cold weather.  However the girls didn't do the best in the cold and momma tends to humanize them too much.  So to ease my anxiety a little, they got moved to the brooder pen in the garage.  

We also had one of my favorite girls, Arizona Robbins my beautiful Jubilee Orpington acting a little wonky on Friday, not like herself on Saturday, and completely off kilter yesterday.  So Big Booty Judy got a trip into the house (slowly, to let her little body get acclimated to the temperature change) where she hung out on a blanket in my bathtub while I gave her a good assessment.  Seems our girl has decided it is a perfect time to become egg bound.  Likely from the stress of the cold. BBJ got a lukewarm epsom salt soak, a nice blow out, some vaseline around her vent, and a plate of scrambled eggs laced with Tums (the calcium helps eggbound chickens).  She is hanging out in a crate in our spare bedroom.  Hoping the peace and quite and warmth help move the egg along.  

So, here we are mid Polar Vortex...exhausted but alive.  All of us.  I have studied the long range forecast and if we can make it through this week, we have it whooped.  So send up warm, happy thoughts for us!  And we will for all of you.  Hopefully this gives everyone a few ideas on how to get through winter with those little T Rexes.  

Must Haves For Winter Chicken Keeping:

-Heated Dog Water Bowls/Heaters

-Extra Bowls/Feeders

-Rolls Of Plastic, Greenhouse Plastic

-Straw Bales

-Canvas Tarps, Old Blankets, Tarps

-Electrolytes

-Pine Shavings

-Vaseline

-Staple Gun/Staples

-High Quality Feed

-Cracked Corn

-Shovel/Rake

Heat Versus No Heat- The Controversy

Like I said above, I am not going to tell you what to do with your coop. Your coop, your rules. You can decide whether or not to supplement heat. There are pros, and there are cons to heating and also to not heating.  Just know that I do not supplement heat in my chicken coop.  It is my personal choice for the safety of my chickens, my barn, and my piece of mind.  As I say in my life a lot- YOU DO YOU BOO.