Roosting chickens under the house?

[FarmerChick]

Hmmm....I don't know if you need too but I am not there with your weather.

My birds are in a 3 sided open shed situation. Yeah. They have their main area against wind etc....but we get into the 20s in winter. Occasionally those few weeks of 0.

I do not do anything special for them at all actually. They huddle, are fed super good to combat cold and are draft free.

They do fine.


Maybe leaving a small heat lamp situation in their coop? Is that possible to provide a warmer area for them?

For me, I would try to provide in their coop then to move them.

 

[freemotion]

My folks are moving in with us in a few days and my dad is bringing seven of his hens. They will think they are in the tropics here! His winters are often -40 overnight, not counting windchill. It will get to a mid-day high of -10 for several weeks with no let-up! His coop is insulated but unheated. Deep litter method creates some heat if you get it really deep and don't clean it until spring, just add bedding if you get a whiff of ammonia, and keep adding bedding until it smells clean again. Throw some corn in the bedding so they will stir it up, especially under the roosts.

I managed a show and breeding stable up there for ten years. I got a kick out of tossing a bucket of water high into the air and listening as the drops hit the ground FROZEN!

So I think your girls will be just fine!

 

[big brown horse]

Thanks you guys!!!! I will be able to sleep better tonight. 16 degrees is nothing like what free mentioned. I would love to see that water bucket trick too!!

I made their coop out of shipping pallets and ugly shelving (that I pulled off the brackets on the walls here in the casa). So shipping pallet bones and basically clapboards for the skin over the pallets. It has a fake floor (can be lifted up to check on the bunny if needed) and the floor is currently piled high with shavings. Didn't think to have them stir it up though with scattered corn. I just add more and more fluff. The deep litter system doesn't seem to provide much warmth though. They free range all day and only sleep in the coop at night.

I have a photo that I will share...I'll post it tonight.

 

[SKR8PN]

My girls must be spoiled. I moved their chicken tractor over closer to my shop so I could run power out to it. The tractor is parked so the back side gets the wind, I stacked up bails of straw around three of the sides, covered everything else with a tarp, installed a water warmer and an infra-red heat lamp in the run right next to their roost, just to knock the chill off. They are prolly warmer than we are in the house!

 

[big brown horse]

My girls must be spoiled. I moved their chicken tractor over closer to my shop so I could run power out to it. The tractor is parked so the back side gets the wind, I stacked up bails of straw around three of the sides, covered everything else with a tarp, installed a water warmer and an infra-red heat lamp in the run right next to their roost, just to knock the chill off. They are prolly warmer than we are in the house!

Um, can I move in with them?

 

[me&thegals]

Deep litter method creates some heat if you get it really deep and don't clean it until spring, just add bedding if you get a whiff of ammonia, and keep adding bedding until it smells clean again. Throw some corn in the bedding so they will stir it up, especially under the roosts.

This is what we do. It's a barn, but the door stays open and it's not well insulated. It's cold enough to freeze water, so we keep a heat lamp over the water when it gets that cold. The chickens do fine.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

I managed a show and breeding stable up there for ten years. I got a kick out of tossing a bucket of water high into the air and listening as the drops hit the ground FROZEN!

I cannot even fathom it being that cold. I just have no point of reference. That's scary cold!!

 

[Beekissed]

BBH, I do what these folks do....I didn't even use the DLM last year and the birds were fine. My coop is very old and drafty and I leave the pop door open at all times. The coldest we got here last year was around 5-8 degrees and that lasted for about a week.

This year I am doing the DLM and tossing some BOSS in there every other day to encourage fluffage....that is working so far. I also throw some in my sheep pen and the chickens fluff that also.

I love letting the animals help do the work.....

 

[Big Daddy]

Our chickens, turkeys and geese are all outside in woden coops. They are not insulated but are fradt free and the windows have double layers of plastic sheeting on them. temp has been in the single digits every night for a week. So far no signs of frostbite and there is no stinkin heat in the coops.

 

[big brown horse]

Yeah, the DLM is the bomb dot com. I never did that in TX. Of course they did not stay in a coop at all, just an open air coop with a simple roof and a sand floor. (Picture a giant bird cage.) I raked out the poop when it got dirty and composted it. During the day they were out and about. Funny thing is, I never even heard of the DLM until I joined BYC, we had been raising backyard chickens since I was 5 years old too.