It has been called the gateway drug to prepping. Keeping backyard chickens does feel revolutionary in this age of total dependence. We are supposed to get all our food from the supermarket like good little lemmings.
The first time you take an egg from your coop and hold it in your hands, you feel something. You realize that you are producing food. You are producing one of the most nutritious foods on the planet. It’s liberating.
Long summer days afford your chickens plenty of time to forage and all the bugs they could want. Before long the weather will begin to change. The days will get shorter, and you will be tasked with preparing your chickens for the winter.
Here is exactly how we do it on our urban homestead.
Cracked Corn for Calories
One of the first steps you can take to prepare your chickens for winter is to add calories to their diet. The colder months will test your birds, and they will need more calories to keep warm.
Feed your birds cracked corn in the early evening before they head into the coop to roost. The digestion process will raise their body temperature overnight and help them keep warm. Not to mention the cracked corn will add the calories needed to their diet.
Deep Bedding for Warmth
Chickens don’t need an HVAC system to stay warm. In fact, they don’t really need anything if you give them nice deep bedding to hold their body heat. Roosting together they warm one another, and the deep bedding holds onto the heat even better.
Simply start adding about 2x the amount of bedding compared to what you normally add. This will give them plenty. They will move it where they need it.
Bedding is cheap so use a lot of it and keep your chickens warm through the winter. Also, change it often, no one wants to sleep on cold chicken poop.
Fortify the Coop
There are a lot of things that you can do to insulate and fortify your coop for the winter. Your chickens are very hearty, and they do not require a ton of work out of you.
- Close Up Openings
Some coops have large openings for chickens to enter and exit at will. These should be closed off in the winter while they sleep. It will keep the much warmer.
- Add Foam Strips to Doors
A roll of cheap foam strip with adhesive on one side can be a great way to fix a drafty coop. Place this on all the doors, including those that lead to the laying box.
- Cover the Entire Coop
A very easy step you can take is to simply tarp your entire coop. You can use a tarp with a heat-reflecting mylar lining or just a simple tarp. Covering the coop in a tarp will trap a lot of the animal’s heat overnight.
Should you Use a Heat Lamp?
If you are concerned about the cold temperatures, you can install a heat lamp in your coop. This might seem like overkill to some, but I have seen better egg production when using a heat lamp in the coop at night.
Not sure why this happens. I always assumed it was because the chickens were getting more rest. I think it makes sense if you are nesting your birds in a large spacious coop to heat where they sleep, too.
Heat lamps can be purchased online or at any pet store. You can also use heat rocks that plug in, too. These can be placed under the bedding, but you might need several to do what one heat lamp can do.
Upgraded Security
Another thing that happens when the temperature dives is predators get more desperate. The bounty of the warm weather disappears and for those predators that do not hibernate, your chickens look like one of the best things on the menu.
The average chicken coop is not built to stand up to repeated attacks from predators at night. Replacing the latches on your doors can go a long way. If you bought your chicken coop and assembled it from a box then the latches are too small.
Another game changer is to put the entire chicken coop inside of another fence. A chain link dog kennel is great for this. These are much harder for predators to break into. It’s like having castle walls for your birds.
Conclusion
When the weather turns there are home maintenance preps that must be taken care of. Caring for your animals a little bit can ensure they are safe and comfortable. I think the chickens will have a much more productive winter for you, too.
In a single afternoon you can prepare your birds and their coop for the winter season. This is also a very cheap project. Your biggest investment will come by way of a $12 bag of cracked corn.
