Yes, Our chickens huddle in the winter and the worse we have seen is the lost of some combs... of course we picked a breed with cold-hardiness in mind... the also get some frost bite on the combs but do just fine down to -30 (our record since we moved here).

I was a little worried about the cold here in Ontario but it seems like my chickens will likely be ok. If the temps are -30F for Wisconsin_cur then I know for sure we'll be ok. I don't remember my dad doing anything different for the chickens in the wintertime, but it made me wonder. This is my first year at raising chickens on my own. I'll probably seal up some of the cracks a little better now that the new lumber has shrunk and settled a little and I may add a few more bags of shavings.

Winter's a coming!

Some have feather on there legs

So what if I were to build a cage around the heat lamp and carefully staple the cord to the ceiling or something? Should be ok then right?

I have to smile because that is exactly what I did... I thought it would be ok... your choice... It ought to be ok but if it isn't the consequences are pretty high.

Your kidding Do you know what happened?

I've never used a heat lamp for my chickens. The older ones are very cold hardy, and I never let the hens set in the fall/winter, so I don't have to worry about the babies in the cold.

Last January, I did have a heat lamp in the barn when two of our goat kids were born (the coldest night of the evening last winter - it was 12 degrees outside). BUT, that heat lamp was literally screwed to a ceiling board and there was no way of knocking the lamp down. That, and I checked on them many times (the first week, once or twice throughout the night) as long as I had the lamp up. Then, when I decided to take the lamp down due to my paranoia , I made the babies little goat sweaters to keep them warm. They probably wore those sweaters till they were two weeks old. Very cute, and it kept them warm too

Now, don't go thinking about knitting little sweaters for the chickens, burton I don't think they'd take too kindly to that.
K

I concur with WisJim. The cold is not the biggest problem up in the northern latitudes (at least not here in Idaho, our coldest winter only gets down to the teens) it is the lack of sunlight. We've been using a heat lamp in the coop that is set on a timer to come on at 5 am and stays on for several hours. This gives them the required hours to ensure that their egg production remains at the same level as in the summer.

One of my very first projects when we moved here was to build chicken tractors, its funny to me they haven't been moved or inhabited now in 2 years.

We have only a small flock in a little wire bottomed, elevated coop and a little yard that gets scraps, some hen scratch and fresh water when needed. We have Speckled Sussex and Buffs still reproducing by themselves and haven't bought or touched a chick (except to sell) in 4 years.

Pretty well just like we did when we only had 1 acre.

Work smarter not harder is a good plan and sometimes the old ways are the best.

When we started raising Narrangansett turkeys, I went back to the heady days of my youth to recall the things my folks did to protect their much larger flocks.

Since we have an abundance of predators... eagles, fox, coon, bear, cougar... we built the combination growing/roosting pen with high security in mind.

First, we used a standard dog kennel package from the local farm supply. The 10-feet long panels lock together at each corner (top and bottom). The panels themselves are heavy gauge welded wire over a powder coated steel frame. One of the panels has a swinging door.

We then built a roofed structure around the kennel. The upper portion on all sides is shielded with plastic roofing panels and in the winter, exterior grade plywood is screwed to the lower part to provide protection from wind and blowing snow.

Inside the shelter are sufficient roosts, hanging feeder, straw/wood shavings on the floor.

When the poults are ready to come out of the brooder in the early summer, we clean and disinfect the pen and run the poults in there until they are big enough to join the main flock. After they leave, we keep the pen empty until after the adjacent fenced-in garden is harvested. At that point, I connect the pen to the garden with a chute and place a couple dozen turkeys there. They spend the winter eating in the pen and crapping in the garden... converting all that expensive high-protein feed into cheap fertilizer.

In the spring... I clean the pen... raking the bedding into the garden to be roto-tilled in and prepare the pen for the next batch of poults.


Never lost a single bird to a predator. Even skunks can't get in.

Alas, the skyrocketing cost of steel now makes this arrangement prohibitively expensive.

I put a heat lamp in with my chickens which prompted the neighbor to say "I wonder what chickens did before electricity?"
The chicken book says cold is not the problem, wind is. If they can get out of the wind, they can stay warm.

As I have posted in the main Poultry thread about my chicken coop and even included pictures, I won't elaborate on that fine structure. The entire flock of some 30+ birds roosted in that coop every night. Then, last spring, the "incident" happened. Some killer got in there and caused quite a ruckus. One rooster was terribly bloodied and died within two days. After that the hens would not roost in there again. Unfortunately we lost 12 hens in the subsequent two weeks. It turned out to be feral cats to which was applied the trusty 10/22.

Problem with killers solved we started raising a new flock but the flock had changed its habit and took to roosting in the trees that surround the chicken yard and one hen took off to the barn and set up her own little flock of her chicks there.

As the weather has been getting cooler I start to worry about those hens that are still outside. About 10 of the newer hens have gone back to the coop but that leave 20+ out in the night air.
We're thinking that we will get up real early one day (say 2am) and go out a collect the tree flock and lock them in the coop for a couple weeks. Maybe that will re-pattern their behavior and they'll go to the coop at night. It's a lot warmer and, if I remember to close the hatch, safer.

I found a motherlode of chicken tractor designs. Many interesting features sprinkle the 100+ different tractors. Together with our own PFTF member designs in this thread, this gives substantive inspiration for that winter project...

Is a roost actually needed in a chicken tractor?

If so, are there any rules of thumb for designing roosts, especially in conjunction with laying boxes (e.g, do the boxes need to be close to the roost? At the lowest perch or highest perch? etc)?

I recently moved my new set of layers out to the ranch in to a new coop. I had an idea for an easy to build set of laying boxes and wondered if you all have any opinions.

My idea is to use clean used 5 gallon buckets and lay them on their side in a row. They will stack well, are sturdy and water proof, and the design allows for stacking without allowing poop buildup.

I'd appreciate constructive criticism as well as suggestions for the elevation, if any, above the floor and in relation to the roosts.

Thanks in advance,