It ’s the most wondrous fourth dimension of the year ! Your breathing time hangs like smoke in the air , the iciness supply color to your nerve , and the snow create a effervescent pristine mantle over the country . For fowl keepers experiencing their first wintertime with chicken , these frigid month are n’t about the sweetheart of the season but about handling the challenge the cold weather brings . If this is your first winter with your chooks , here are a trio of troublesome issues you may face … and suggestions on how to resolve them .
1. Stop Waterers from Freezing
Nothing seems quite as piteous as a biddy attempting to plunge her nozzle in a fount saucer , only to knock it against rock - hard ice . When the mean temperatures dip below freezing , keep your flock ’s H2O provision becomes a engagement against nature . If your chicken coop is wired for electrical energy , has solar - powered batteries or is outfitted with another source of power , your solution is a simple one : a base heater . These cornerstone provide heat to alloy waterer ( do NOT use them with formative founts ) to keep the water within from immobilise .
If your henhouse has no electrical energy , you may still apply base heaters , put up you may run outdoor - grade extension cables from a protect outlet to your coop . My husband Jae does the electricity dancing every declension , bringing power to our five cage using an assortment of orange , green and yellowed cables . Unfortunately , this method acting is not foolproof : The meth that build up at the very first transmission line connection set off the circuit for our outside outlet , and we could n’t chip enough chicken feed off to get the circuit to reset .
This left us with our original method of providing invigorated water to our birds : choke up water out to the henhouse . Depending on how cold it is , you might postulate to do this more than once a day because the water you provide in the morning might be frozen firm by noon . We use several five - gallon buckets to ferry water to our doll ; you ’ll find out these at hardware or home - improvement depot . You might want to pour hot weewee over the main incision of the fount if it is frozen in place . Once you may take apart the waterer , pour the hot water onto the ice block in spite of appearance to melt it . you could then add smart drinking water . Yes , you ask several bucketful .
If you could afford it , corrupt a 2nd set of waterers . This way , you may bring the frozen - hearty founts into your service department , basement or other tender area to warming , then take the backup waterers filled with reinvigorated water out to your birds . Shutterstock
2. Prevent Eggs from Freezing
Several breeds of chicken , such as Cochins and Orpingtons , lay throughout the wintertime , despite the shortened amount of daylight . If you have outfitted your hencoop with artificial light , your hen will continue laying as if it were a sunny summer day . consume a source of fresh egg during the cold month is fabulous — peculiarly if you do a muckle of holiday baking or just love eating eggs . Not so mythic is reach out into a nestbox and pulling out a sway - knockout egg so quick-frozen it has cracked the scale in several places .
Once the shell has cracked , there ’s no salvage the testicle . It has been expose to the detritus , droppings and other insanitary nasties regain inside even the cleanest cage , and you for certain do n’t want to take in that . If your frozen egg has not infract its case , it can be unfreeze , but its contents need to be used as soon as possible . Your best wager is to simply shake off aside all wintry eggs and devise a plan to write your hen ’ efforts .
I utilise two method acting . First , I check nestboxes more often . During the affectionate month , I check in the dayspring when I release the chickens , because many of my layer wish to pop out out their nut at dawn . I check again in the early eve , a few hours before lockup . During the freeze months , I jibe during morning release , around dejeuner time , in the early evening and at lock up . I do n’t get many eggs from my girl during this time of class , but the eggs I do find are still fresh .
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During the inhuman season , I also boost the bedding in our nestboxes . Instead of just the usual nestpad , each nestbox also has an added inch to two inch of skimming to insulate any egg lay within . I also use dryer lint under the nestpads to add a protective buffer so the frigid Mrs. Henry Wood does n’t cool the orchis from to a lower place . Shutterstock
3. Thwart Winter Boredom
Here in Michigan , it ’s common for wintertime temperatures to dive below zero , and that ’s not numerate the twist iciness . While we open up our hencoop ’ pop doors when it ’s merely below freeze in case any birds desire to stretch their legs , when the temperature locomote below zero , we keep our crybaby lock in inside their coop .
This can get really one-time really fast . Think how conjure up crazy you get when you ’re pull the wool over someone’s eyes in . You ca n’t wait for the Charles Percy Snow plough to make the road passable and release you from your temporary conditions captivity . Not so for the flocks lock up in to protect them from the ravages of winter . Left to their own equipment , they ’ll set forth feather pick and peck at each other . A bored flock is a flock head for hassle .
luckily , you’re able to keep your birds entertained during these cutting , parky times . I ’ve used these methods with our sight , all quite successfully . In fact , I think that my hen give me the stink centre when the weather warms up and they no longer have these footling in - coop entertainments from us .
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