Getting ready for winter

You know when it's cold when you go out to greet your chickens in the morning and you get a chicken wanting to be picked up and cuddled. Buffy decided that being held by a warm human was such a good idea that he really snuggled down. His rested his head back to such an extent that he was having trouble breathing! No thanks at all to the human holding him, shielding him from the wind -__-

This made me realise that I had better start preparing their coops for winter. I've read on many forums that chickens can brave sub-zero temperatures and they will be fine in the much milder Adelaide winters. But it's hard to think that when you go out in the morning, it's 7 degrees and Penguin and Buffy both want to be picked up because they are shivering.

These are a few things that I did to keep their coops warmer at night.

The first thing was to eliminate as many droughts as possible. Penguin's coop is basically closed on 3 sides and open on one. We found out in our location that the wind generally comes from the east and the south, which was OK for Penguin since his opening faced North. But being right on top of the hill, we also found out that the wind can come in pretty much any direction it wants. Putting the chickens to bed one particularly cold and windy night (I have to physically put DumDum on the roost, she can't make it up by herself, but that's a story for another day), I found that the wind was whistling through the coop, their feathers were being ruffled and one of the chickens decided to sleep in the nest box to keep warm (she still sleeps there!).

We had some glass panels on our property and we carried one over to sit behind the mesh of Penguin's coop. This was only going to be temporary until we could get to Bunnings to get some builder's film/plastic.

My aim was to put up plastic blinds that could be raised on warm days, but put down on cold days, just to keep the wind out. I still wanted airflow and it didn't want a tight film over all the openings.

This was the end result. I know my chickens hate dark coops, they refuse to go inside a dark coop, even to eat their favourite cheese, so clear builder's plastic was a great (and cheap option). This film was 2m by 30m for about $54. These blinds just have a bamboo rod at the bottom to weight it and the blind can be raised to let some extra air flow in. We used the leftover to make a polytunnel for the veggie patch and a small one for the chickens too! Here's Flopsy scratching away. It's a good way to keep a dust bath area dry for them in winter.

So this brings me to my second winter-readiness preparation. Providing a dry area outside for the chickens. For Buffy's group, I made a small shelter with the plastic. It doesn't look to pretty, but it works. Underneath that is a veggie patch with sprouted seed. I'll wait till the chickens manage to eat it all and scratch out the seeds before I fill it up with some dry sand for their dust bath needs.

I also made their nest box cosy. Unfortunately, Buffy's coop faces East and the wind just howls through every crack in that coop and the nest box had plenty of gaps in it. I bet they appreciate the gaps in summer when it is hot though!

Mmm...cosy, they all choose the right hand nest box.

Speaking of straw, I placed straw above the sand floor of Penguin's coop, as it was much bigger and colder than Buffy's coop. Of course this makes it harder to pick up their poos in the morning, but it's ok. Not that bad.

The large piece of cardboard was also placed above their roosting area, to provide some roof insulation for them. Even with the two roosts, they all have to sleep on the same roost. Go figure.

That's about the best I can do at the moment. I sometimes give them warm oatmeal in the mornings, which they absolutely love and lots of cuddles. Although it is only Buffy and Penguin that really demand the cuddles. 

Keep warm and dry everybody. Time to go and cuddle a chicken ;)