Today in last post in ourBackyard Chickens 101 series.
Well our chickens have made it through one tough Midwest winter and they are fine!
I am happy to reportno frostbite for our chickens.
The coop kept a nice, draft free environment for our chickens.
Since need eggs in the winter too,we opted to supplement with light.
It was very simple, actually.
But my husband was nervous with the light in the coop and stories of fire.
Something you oughta be aware of is that the chickens water will freeze during the cold winter months.
Chickens must have access to water daily.
you could eitherchange the water dailylike we ended up doing or getting a water heater.
Short of taking pitcher after pitcher out (no thanks!
)it wasnt going to work.
Here was our routine.
I went out in the morning to kick off the run door.
When they all went down I would grab the bucket of water (frozen) from the previous day.
It gets cold in the Midwest during winter.
So the eggs were kept warm until early afternoon.
With this system we only had 3 eggs freeze.
Frozen eggs will have a crack as the whit expands it needs room to grow.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but chickens poop.
They poop a lot!
The majority of our poop 80%) was under the roosting bar.
So it ended up looking like a mountain.
But it froze so it was impossible to deal with.
Backyard Chickens Tips & Tricks Weve Learned
Weve had our chickens over a year now.
Here are some things weve learned.
I had done the research and knew chickens ate less with pellets.
Its just less fun to eat.
But it wasnt an option at our feed store until late this fall.
When we switched the chickens did turn up their proverbial nose to it.
We supplemented with some vegetable and fruit scraps to just get through the transition.
Within a week or so they began getting use to it.
It has cut our feed bill in half!
Ihighly recommend pellet chicken food.
Whenever the runsand got wet, it smelled.
Since we live on less than a quarter acre in a suburban neighborhood that was not a good thing.
So we tried various things and the most effective was adding a roof.
A good thing when you want to keep pecking at one another from boredom out of the equation.
I knew chickens pooped before we got them.
But I had no idea the amount of poop!
Ive already addressed how and when to clean up their poop earlier in the season.
Poop does take 6-12 months to thoroughly compost so plan accordingly!
If chickens are bored they will pick on each other.
Pecking doesnt sound that bad at first.
So if you dont want cannibal chickens (yikes!
)then follow those simple proactive techniques.
Throughout the winter I noticed various tracks including raccoons around the coop.
But none could get in!
So what tips and tricks do you have for us?
Do you have any questions?
