Sure, right now we’re savoring autumn in east Tennessee (and many other places), but the balmy temps will soon drop. Maybe your first chicks are big girls now and you’re thinking What do we do when it gets really cold? Maybe, like our first brood, it hasn’t crossed your mind just yet. In either case, read on for insights and tips that can help prepare for keeping happy chickens in winter weather. Having the pieces you need in place before the coldness arrives, means less time outside make-shifting solutions while your fingers and toes turn to ice cubes.
CAVEAT: I cannot address raising chickens in places like northern Alberta or Alaska, where winter is fierce and lasts for months. However, this past January we navigated about ten very deep, very cold winter days. The lowest nighttime temps were -4° F / -20° C. It was no Edmonton, but dang it was cold.
Many people (thank you, friends!) asked how our girls would fare and what we would do keep them warm. Would we put heaters in their houses? Would we bring them into the house or onto the porch? How would we help our chickens in winter weather?
Of course we wanted bring them all in from the cold and keep them warm and cozy, but even if we had another spot for them all to roost. . . changing the routine for twelve hens, y’all? Moving them into a new space would have added stress beyond the weather and offered less security from cold, hungry critters. Adding stress to stress never helps a hen. Never.
And, as much as a warm cozy bed is a good idea for us featherless folks, heating a hen’s sleeping place means her body has to shift from very cold to much less cold to very cold throughout each day. This adjusting back and forth can be harder on her system than just adjusting to the cold and hunkering down for a spell. Sure, they do not love the cold, but they can adjust and make it through.
Rather than adding heat, and treating your tiny dinosaurs like they are humans, here are some insights and tips to care for your chickens in winter weather:
Chickie girls run hot! A chicken’s body temperature is 106° F or 41° C. 106°, y’all! Remember that last crazy-high fever you had? Maybe 103° F / 39.1° C? It still wasn’t as warm as your chicken’s everyday glow. She’s internally equipped to be a-ok, as long as the needs below are managed. In fact, this bit of data on chicken body temp shows that, while winter weather is not a without a need for care and adaptations, it is often in the high temps where our flock need the closest eye.
Prevent drafts!* Chickens are outfitted with down duds, often replenished with their fall molt, so they are all set for colder days. When their built-on jacket is puffed out it creates a cloak of warm. However, if there are cold drafts ruffling through their feathers where they roost, this cloak will be breached and less than cozy. Batten down the hatches that might be otherwise intended for ventilation where drafts will impact their roost. This is easily done with the temporary addition of a tarp, cardboard, or single-use plastic bags (adding a second use, hooray!). If you do close up some spaces or ventilation, there must be ventilation above the roosting level. More about that next.
Keep them dry!* Much like a soggy down jacket, a damp chicken cannot maintain peak warmth. If they have been rained or snowed on in the cold, do what you can to dry them off before they roost. You’d be surprised to see the appreciation chickens can have for a little blow out, far more so that being towel dried, which I can safely say they hate. And, back to the ventilation: too cooped up a coop means that the humidity from chicken body heat, breath, and poops don’t exit the building. Steaminess and moisture are kryptonite for chicken down and body heat will be lost. Leave space for the hot air to rise up and out.
(*Full credit for our well-ventilated, non-drafty chicken houses goes to S, who researched best practices before he built them. Our little girls can poke their heads up to say hello though the ventilation windows, however, when they hunker down even the comb tips of the biggest girls are well below most drafts. When we did have cold weather with high winds he used a combo of cardboard, plastic, and (our beloved) zip ties to cover some vents where the big gusts were coming from. TAKE YOUR TIME when choosing your chicken house, or the plan for it. What may look real cute from the outside, may be no good for the chickens on the inside.)
Business as usual! As ever, be vigilant with the basics: keep easy access food and fresh water. Higher protein food (or adding black oil sunflower seeds or dried meal worms to regular food) will give them a boost as they’ll likely eat less with less activity. Do not let their water freeze. A heated waterer may seem a luxury item, but it’s really a necessity if you live in climates where there are weeks or months of freezing nighttime temps. Often the first thing the girls do when they wake is sidle up to the waterer for a nice big drink. Pre-thawed water allows that without a moment’s delay. Some say that a little cracked corn before bed can boost body heat, but corn (or scratch) should not outweigh the balanced nutrition of chicken food and plenty of water.
All cold, and no play! Do what you can to keep your girls entertained, especially if you live somewhere that has extended winter days. Boredom isn’t good for anyone, chickens included. They’ll get testy and pecky with each other. They’ll get bummed out and stop eating what they need to keep their little heater stacked. If you can keep the run shoveled or open a space for them to get out for a bit, it’ll mix up their days. Evidently 8 out of 12 chickens prefer grass under their toes to snow.
Pick your breeds! If you do live in a place with long, cold winters, think about building a flock of more cold-sturdy breeds. A general pointer for breed picking is that birds with shorter combs and fluffy feathers will be better suited to the cold. Birds with long combs and wattles and long sleek feathers, that look a little more like jungle fowl, well they’re likely more closely related to jungle fowl and less adapted for the cold. Our little Snoopy, a California White with crazy long wattles and comb, seemed to have the hardest time in our cold snap . . . and that may be what led to her starting a surprise, mid-winter molt once the cold eased up.
Thankfully our coldest days this January were not windy, just a steady and still cold. Also, thankfully the cold was also very dry, so there wasn’t extra rainy frozen moisture in the mix. We made it through, but not without worry and me lying in bed sending loving-warmness wishes to each chicken girl each night, one at a time, before I pulled the covers up to my chin and let somewhat worrisome sleep take me away.