Prepping Chickens For Cold Weather

Are you asking yourself how to take care of chickens? No matter when you start your backyard chicken journey, it’s important to keep in mind prepping chickens for cold weather.

Essential Tips For Prepping Chickens For Cold Weather

When you are raising backyard chickens or have chickens on your homestead, you might be wondering what the best way to prepare chickens for cold weather is. In reality, there are plenty of ways to protect your chickens from cold weather. Today we’re going to go through some of the most essential tips for prepping your chickens for cold climates.

Avoiding Frostbite In Cold Climates

There are a few things you need to know about avoiding frostbite in your chickens when you live in a cold climate. First, keep in mind that due to the protection of the chickens’ feathers, only a few body parts are susceptible to frostbite. These body parts include the comb, the wattle, and the feet.

These are the parts of the chicken that are exposed and need to be protected from particularly cold weather. The good news is, it’s really easy to protect your chickens from getting frostbite.

The easiest way to protect your chickens’ feet from frostbite is by providing them with roosts that are wide and flat rather than skinny and round. When the roost is skinny and round, your chickens will need to wrap their little feet around the roost to avoid falling off, leaving their toes exposed and susceptible to frostbite in freezing temperatures. 

When you use a wider, flatter chicken roost, your chickens will be able to hunker down and protect their feet with their warm, fluffy bodies. Your chickens can easily keep their own feet warm when given the proper equipment.

Combs and wattles are a different story. When you live in a particularly cold climate, you will need to protect those exposed combs and wattles from getting frostbite. This is easily done by spreading some vaseline on their combs and wattles.

If your chickens get frostbite, you will know because their pink, flesh-colored wattles and combs will turn black. This is the dead skin and it cannot recover so it’s essential to protect your birds when you’re expecting a cold front. 

The 411 On Chicken Coop Heat Sources

If you live in a cold climate and are trying to prepare your chickens for cold weather, you might be considering adding an external heat source to your chicken coop. Let me explain why this is a bad idea.

While it may seem intuitive to add some heat to your chicken’s coop when raising chickens, the danger comes in when that heat source goes out. Depending on your specific heat source, this is usually due to an unexpected power outage or something unintentionally getting unplugged.

When your chickens become accustomed to a heat source and then that heat source suddenly goes out, the chickens are even more at risk for freezing to death because they have not become acclimated to the cold This sudden change in temperature will cause some, if not all, of your chickens to die.

This is why it’s so important for most chicken owners to avoid adding an external heat source to your chicken coop.

Another concern with adding an external heat source is the risk of fire. When you add electricity to your coop, it becomes a very dangerous fire hazard. 

If the cord breaks due to getting pecked at, chewed on, or some other reason, it becomes a hazard. When the chickens are flapping around, bedding and feathers fly up to the heat lamp and pose the risk of catching on fire. It’s really safer all around to avoid this danger and keep external heat sources out of your chickens’ coop.

So how do you go about adding extra heat to your coop without posing the risks that come with a heater or a heat lamp? One popular method, and our personal favorite, is called the Deep Litter Method.

What Is The Deep Litter Method?

The deep litter method is the oldest, most natural heat source for chickens. The Deep Litter Method involves simply adding extra bedding to your coop and allowing the chickens to remain on top of that bedding all winter long.

Rather than shoveling all the old bedding out and replacing it with new stuff, just add new stuff straight to the top.

When you do this, your chickens will naturally create their own little microclimate in their coop. The chickens will lay on top of the deep litter and their little bodies will provide warmth to their environment.

When we use this method, our girls’ winter egg production continues well into December and January and it doesn’t make a bit of difference whether or not we leave a heat lamp on in the coop. And the good news is, there’s no danger of the heat going out in this type of coop because your girls are keeping it ‘hot’.

While adding extra hay may not seem like much when you’re shoveling the old stuff out, it’s a serious heat source after several inches pile up. You can expect your chickens to stay warmer and continue producing eggs for you all winter long without the risk of fire hazards and unexpected power outages.

Build A Proper, Enclosed Shelter (Chicken Coop)

Keep in mind that your chickens have full bodies of fluff and feathers that are fully equipped to keep your birds warm in most climates. This becomes even easier when they have the proper shelter.

What is the proper shelter? A good, protective chicken coop is one that is fully enclosed and protected on all sides from wind, rain, snow, drafts, and so on. Let your chickens fill their coop with their own body heat by making sure all corners and cracks are closed tight.

One thing to keep in mind, if you use the deep litter method, you will need to provide a way for their coop to air out so that they are not breathing in all that ammonia. However, this can easily be done by opening the door during warm days.

Some climates might be able to get away with sheds or lean-tos, but if you really need to protect your birds from the cold, they will need a coop that is tight and warm.

Take Advantage Of Body Heat

Chickens can create and give off their own body heat. One easy way to keep your birds warm is by making sure you have enough in your flock to huddle together and keep each other warm. When used in conjunction with a proper shelter and the deep litter method, a flock of birds can easily stay warm when they bunch close together.

When we lived in the Idaho wilderness, I’d go outside on days when we had -40 degree wind chill, pick up a bird, and the bird’s body was completely warm and toasty. Birds are tougher than we give them credit for and when they have the proper circumstances, they can easily keep themselves warm and protected.

Depending on your particular breed of chicken, I would recommend having at least 8-10, if not more chickens, in a cold climate flock. This will provide the best circumstances for keeping each other warm and safe.

Will Chickens Keep Laying Eggs Throughout The Winter?

Will chickens keep laying eggs throughout the winter The answer is yes and no. This depends on the breed of chicken you choose, how you choose to keep them warm, and how light it is in your chicken coop.

Chickens stop laying eggs in the wintertime not due to cold but rather due to sunlight hours. Chickens need between 14 and 16 hours of daylight in order to continue laying eggs.

If you want your chickens’ egg laying to stay high all winter long, and you are already purchasing cold-hardy chicken breeds and keeping them warm and sheltered, you can encourage year-long egg production by adding a light that shines into your chicken coop.

You might be saying, “But Charlene! You just said electricity in the coop is bad!” Yes, I did. When we add light to our coops, we add it just outside the coop so the birds do not have any access whatsoever to the cords but the light still points into where the chickens spend most of their day.

This solves the problem of electricity posing a fire hazard. And if the light goes out, it’s not a big deal because it was just there to encourage egg production anyway. It’s not like they were using it to keep warm.

Prepping Ducks For Cold Weather

What about prepping ducks for cold weather? Is there something different you need to do?

So long as you make sure your ducks have a big area of water (for swimming) that doesn’t freeze over, you don’t need to do anything different vs what you’re already doing for your chickens. Both birds can survive the winter just fine with the same basic adjustments.

Do Some Chicken Breeds Do Better In Cold Weather Than Others?

Some chicken breeds absolutely do better in cold weather climates than others. It is important that chicken keepers get the right breed for their climate. You can easily tell if a bird will do better or worse in colder climates by looking at its comb and wattle.

A bird with a long, flappy comb and wattle will not do well in cold climates and will do better down where it is warmer. On the other hand, chickens that have short, stubby, small combs and wattles, will have a much easier time staying warm and safe, even in the coldest of winter weather.

When picking out chicken breeds for your homestead, be sure to keep the size of their wattle in mind and get a breed that will do well in the cold temperatures that frequent your area.

Cold-Hardy Chicken Breeds

Some examples of cold-hardy or cold weather chicken breeds include:

• Orpingtons (Buff Orpingtons, Lavender Orpingtons, etc)
• Wyandottes (Gold Laced Wyandottes, Silver Laced Wyandottes, etc)
• Rhode Island Reds
• Buckeyes
• Welsummers
• Dominiques
• Australorps
• New Hampshire Reds
• Plymouth Rocks
• Brahmas
• Faverolles
• Ameraucanas
• Cochins
• Chanteclers
• Speckled Sussex
• Barred Rocks
• Silkie Bantams

Keep in mind that some of the above chicken breeds are also considered to be dual purpose and can easily handle both warm and cold climates. Some breeds to especially stay away from if you live in a cold climate include:

• White Leghorns
• Brown Leghorns
• Andalusians
• Fayoumis
• Sumatras
• Minorcas
• Campines
• Penedesencas
• Cinnamon Queens
• Austra Whites

And there you have it! Your one-stop guide for protecting and prepping your chickens in cold weather winter months. I hope you found this article useful and that you and your chickens have a fantastic, if not cold winter!