December 20, 2024 • 8 mins
The episode focuses on essential winter care strategies for chickens, explaining how to keep them healthy and comfortable in cold weather. Key topics include the importance of cleaning the coop, managing moisture and drafts, and dietary adjustments during the colder months.
• Understanding winter hardiness among different chicken breeds
• Explanation of the deep litter method and its benefits
• Importance of cleaning the coop before winter
• Managing potential drafts and ensuring proper ventilation
• Discussing the impact of moisture and ammonia on chicken health
• Dietary changes needed during molting season
• Protecting chickens from frostbite and signs to watch for
• Cautions about using supplemental heat in the coop
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello friends, and I hope you guys are enjoying the
episodes that I put together,and I'd love to hear from you to
be able to get more ideas.
But, as you can imagine, doingthis is not free.
So if you could find it in yourheart at some point to maybe
think about wanting to supportthe show a buck or two, you know
, I mean, that's not a big dealbut if that's something you
would consider doing, you can goto any of the episodes from
(00:22):
your podcast app.
I personally use Apple Podcastapp.
Scroll down, click on supportthe show and if you do, I'll
give you a shout out on the showand again, I will answer and
read and answer your questionson the show as well.
Or you could just simply go tochickenseverydaybuzzsproutcom
that's chickens plural.
(00:43):
Everyday, all one wordbuzzsproutcom and it every day,
all one word dot, buzzsprout,dot com.
And it would be very helpful.
Believe it or not, I haveequipment that I need to upgrade
.
I pay a monthly fee for the,the podcast service.
I pay a monthly fee for theediting software that I use.
So anyway, I thought I wouldbring this to your attention and
if it's something that youwould consider doing, I would be
eternally grateful.
(01:04):
Thank, thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiasts
, and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul feathered friends.
Check out our videos at CENLA.
That's C-E-N-L-A BackyardChickens on YouTube, tiktok and
(01:32):
Facebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Hey everyone.
Gary, with CENLA BackyardChickens here and winter is upon
us and for some of you,winter's been here for a few
weeks now Got some pictures frommy cousin who lives in Alaska
the other day and they aresnowed in.
It is very deep.
So what we want to talk aboutnow is how do I get my chickens
through the winter.
There's a lot of videos outthere that you guys can see on
(02:01):
YouTube, but really it's afairly simple thing.
Chickens, by and large, are avery winter hardy breed of birds
.
They're very fluffy.
This fluff that they have iswhat helps keep them warm.
So you know, generally it's notnot a worrisome thing that you
want to do.
I'd usually recommend not toput supplemental heat inside a
chicken coop.
Now there's, of course, reasonswhy you may want supplemental
(02:24):
heat inside your coop.
If you have older chickens, ifyou have small chickens, if you
have those turkey neck neckyneck chickens may require some
supplemental heat.
So what your situation may bemay be different from the next
guy's situation.
If you're under an extreme coldsnap and you have, you know,
five degree weather that's goingto be there for a week, you may
(02:45):
want to think about it.
But by and large chickens donot need supplemental heat, but
what they do need are a few goodbasic things.
Now, first thing you want tothink about is am I doing deep
litter in my chicken coop or doI need to clean it out?
If you don't know what deeplitter method is, it's basically
you take your shavings orwhatever you have for the lining
(03:06):
in the bed of your coop and youjust kind of stir it up as the
chickens defecate on it and youadd another layer on top of that
.
What this does?
It composts over time.
You just keep adding layers,mix it up, add a layer, wait a
while, do the same thing and itbuilds up and it composts over
time.
The microbes that are in thiscompost are the good guys.
(03:26):
They're not going to doanything detrimental to your
chicken.
In fact, deep litter helps getrid of mites and lice.
They don't like to live in thatenvironment, so that's kind of
a plus to that.
So if you're going to deeplitter, know that that also
generates a little bit of heat.
Just the act of compostinggenerates heat.
(03:47):
If you don't do compost now,it's the time to clean out your
coop.
You want a good winter.
Clean, you get everything niceand clean for those birds before
you start the winter out, sothat they have that good, fresh
foot going forward, so to speak.
The next thing you want tothink about is drafts.
You do not want any drafts inyour coop.
The wind starts blowing andit's cold.
You don't want that cold airhitting your birds in there.
However, you do needventilation at the top of the
(04:10):
coop because ammonia andmoisture can build up and that's
the true enemy that you haveduring the wintertime.
Moisture can bring on illness,it can bring on stress, it can
make your birds uncomfortable.
Moisture is a big deal in thewintertime and the fact is
summers are generally harder onbirds than they are winters.
But you have to remember in thewintertime there's fewer
(04:32):
daylight hours.
Your birds spend more time inthe coop in the winter than they
do in the summer.
So we need a good, clean coop.
We need to have moisturecontrol in there.
We need to have ammonia controlin there.
You'll see, like in my coop,how I try to seal up any drafts
that I may have in it, and youalso know that right now is
molting season.
As the birds get ready forwinter, they're gonna start
(04:53):
dropping feathers, getting readyto put on some new feathers.
So a little extra protein intheir diet makes a big
difference for them.
I like to give my birds a snackin the afternoon times or the
late evenings before they go tobed, especially if it's going to
be cold that night.
Now a lot of people like to usecracked corn and I like to use
that too and they say, well, thecorn heats up their bodies.
(05:15):
Well, that's really not theactual case.
Corn has a lot of carbohydrates.
The carbohydrates require a lotof energy and they produce a
lot of energy so that in factgives them more heat through
their systems.
Athletes, you know, boxers andrunners and all these kind of
folks they will eat cars beforethey go out and do a physical
activity because it energizesand stresses up your bodies, and
(05:38):
spaghetti is a good one forthat.
But I don't really feed mychickens spaghetti, so usually
cracked corn in the evenings isusually suffice for that.
You want to think aboutprotecting those birds against
frostbite.
You have the big tall cones onsome of the birds.
A lot of people put Vaseline onthere, especially if it's going
to get down in the teens orlower than that, to protect your
(05:58):
birds against frostbite.
Other than that.
Take care of your animals.
Look after them every day.
Make sure that you don't seeany signs of stress going on, no
signs of frostbite.
You double check that yourdraft control is doing what it
should.
You see when you go in yourcoop you don't have those strong
ammonia odors in there.
Do your part so that comespringtime chick season, chick
(06:20):
seasons here you're going to behappy and ready to get those
baby chicks.
You're going to have happy andhealthy young birds taking care
of your birds throughout thewinter.
It's not all that difficult, butit does require some attention.
If you're in really, reallycold climates, you got to think
about freezing water.
So if you have a water warmer,that that helps right there.
Or you can just go out thereevery day, break through the ice
, put new, fresh water in.
(06:42):
Obviously, we could do a deepdive on this subject.
That would last over an hour.
But you know and get the gistof this take care of your
animals the best way that youknow that you can.
I do want to caution you on onething before I close out today
If you decide to putsupplemental heat in your coop,
be careful about that If yourbirds get overly dependent on
(07:03):
having that and you lose powerfor several days during a heavy
cold snap.
Their bodies are not used tohandling this and it can really
be detrimental and you couldprobably lose some animals if
you did that.
So really be careful before youthink about using supplemental
heat.
Give this some long, seriousthought If you need to
absolutely do it.
(07:24):
If you use a heat lamp, takeextra, extra and then extra
precautions again on the heatlamp, make sure that it is tied
up out of the way, completelysecured, and it's not going to
fall and get on any ashes orwood chips or anything that can
cause a fire, because every yearsomebody ends up losing their
chickens because of fire or that.
So if you're gonna use a heatlamp and I use a heat lamp I
(07:46):
don't have an issue with them.
I'm pretty good with electricalitems but make sure it is extra
secure to do that.
But chick season's gonna behere before you know it.
Make sure you birds stay strong, healthy and happy going
through winter and we'll chatwith you soon.
Bye.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
That's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my pup, gary,and me, sylvie, thanks for
listening.
Hello friends, and I hope you guys are enjoying the
episodes that I put together,and I'd love to hear from you to
be able to get more ideas.
But, as you can imagine, doingthis is not free.
So if you could find it in yourheart at some point to maybe
think about wanting to supportthe show a buck or two, you know
, I mean, that's not a big dealbut if that's something you
would consider doing, you can goto any of the episodes from
(00:22):
your podcast app.
I personally use Apple Podcastapp.
Scroll down, click on supportthe show and if you do, I'll
give you a shout out on the showand again, I will answer and
read and answer your questionson the show as well.
Or you could just simply go tochickenseverydaybuzzsproutcom
that's chickens plural.
(00:43):
Everyday, all one wordbuzzsproutcom and it every day,
all one word dot, buzzsprout,dot com.
And it would be very helpful.
Believe it or not, I haveequipment that I need to upgrade
.
I pay a monthly fee for the,the podcast service.
I pay a monthly fee for theediting software that I use.
So anyway, I thought I wouldbring this to your attention and
if it's something that youwould consider doing, I would be
eternally grateful.
(01:04):
Thank, thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Are we ready, pawpaw?
Hello friends and welcome toChicken.
Every Day, a podcast for you,the backyard chicken enthusiasts
, and mine.
Your host is my Pawpaw, gary,gary Valerie of Senla Backyard
Chickens.
Here we have fun while sharingideas and learning how to care
for our foul feathered friends.
Check out our videos at CENLA.
That's C-E-N-L-A BackyardChickens on YouTube, tiktok and
(01:32):
Facebook.
So, without further ado, let'sstart today's show.
How was that?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Hey everyone.
Gary, with CENLA BackyardChickens here and winter is upon
us and for some of you,winter's been here for a few
weeks now Got some pictures frommy cousin who lives in Alaska
the other day and they aresnowed in.
It is very deep.
So what we want to talk aboutnow is how do I get my chickens
through the winter.
There's a lot of videos outthere that you guys can see on
(02:01):
YouTube, but really it's afairly simple thing.
Chickens, by and large, are avery winter hardy breed of birds
.
They're very fluffy.
This fluff that they have iswhat helps keep them warm.
So you know, generally it's notnot a worrisome thing that you
want to do.
I'd usually recommend not toput supplemental heat inside a
chicken coop.
Now there's, of course, reasonswhy you may want supplemental
(02:24):
heat inside your coop.
If you have older chickens, ifyou have small chickens, if you
have those turkey neck neckyneck chickens may require some
supplemental heat.
So what your situation may bemay be different from the next
guy's situation.
If you're under an extreme coldsnap and you have, you know,
five degree weather that's goingto be there for a week, you may
(02:45):
want to think about it.
But by and large chickens donot need supplemental heat, but
what they do need are a few goodbasic things.
Now, first thing you want tothink about is am I doing deep
litter in my chicken coop or doI need to clean it out?
If you don't know what deeplitter method is, it's basically
you take your shavings orwhatever you have for the lining
(03:06):
in the bed of your coop and youjust kind of stir it up as the
chickens defecate on it and youadd another layer on top of that
.
What this does?
It composts over time.
You just keep adding layers,mix it up, add a layer, wait a
while, do the same thing and itbuilds up and it composts over
time.
The microbes that are in thiscompost are the good guys.
(03:26):
They're not going to doanything detrimental to your
chicken.
In fact, deep litter helps getrid of mites and lice.
They don't like to live in thatenvironment, so that's kind of
a plus to that.
So if you're going to deeplitter, know that that also
generates a little bit of heat.
Just the act of compostinggenerates heat.
(03:47):
If you don't do compost now,it's the time to clean out your
coop.
You want a good winter.
Clean, you get everything niceand clean for those birds before
you start the winter out, sothat they have that good, fresh
foot going forward, so to speak.
The next thing you want tothink about is drafts.
You do not want any drafts inyour coop.
The wind starts blowing andit's cold.
You don't want that cold airhitting your birds in there.
However, you do needventilation at the top of the
(04:10):
coop because ammonia andmoisture can build up and that's
the true enemy that you haveduring the wintertime.
Moisture can bring on illness,it can bring on stress, it can
make your birds uncomfortable.
Moisture is a big deal in thewintertime and the fact is
summers are generally harder onbirds than they are winters.
But you have to remember in thewintertime there's fewer
(04:32):
daylight hours.
Your birds spend more time inthe coop in the winter than they
do in the summer.
So we need a good, clean coop.
We need to have moisturecontrol in there.
We need to have ammonia controlin there.
You'll see, like in my coop,how I try to seal up any drafts
that I may have in it, and youalso know that right now is
molting season.
As the birds get ready forwinter, they're gonna start
(04:53):
dropping feathers, getting readyto put on some new feathers.
So a little extra protein intheir diet makes a big
difference for them.
I like to give my birds a snackin the afternoon times or the
late evenings before they go tobed, especially if it's going to
be cold that night.
Now a lot of people like to usecracked corn and I like to use
that too and they say, well, thecorn heats up their bodies.
(05:15):
Well, that's really not theactual case.
Corn has a lot of carbohydrates.
The carbohydrates require a lotof energy and they produce a
lot of energy so that in factgives them more heat through
their systems.
Athletes, you know, boxers andrunners and all these kind of
folks they will eat cars beforethey go out and do a physical
activity because it energizesand stresses up your bodies, and
(05:38):
spaghetti is a good one forthat.
But I don't really feed mychickens spaghetti, so usually
cracked corn in the evenings isusually suffice for that.
You want to think aboutprotecting those birds against
frostbite.
You have the big tall cones onsome of the birds.
A lot of people put Vaseline onthere, especially if it's going
to get down in the teens orlower than that, to protect your
(05:58):
birds against frostbite.
Other than that.
Take care of your animals.
Look after them every day.
Make sure that you don't seeany signs of stress going on, no
signs of frostbite.
You double check that yourdraft control is doing what it
should.
You see when you go in yourcoop you don't have those strong
ammonia odors in there.
Do your part so that comespringtime chick season, chick
(06:20):
seasons here you're going to behappy and ready to get those
baby chicks.
You're going to have happy andhealthy young birds taking care
of your birds throughout thewinter.
It's not all that difficult, butit does require some attention.
If you're in really, reallycold climates, you got to think
about freezing water.
So if you have a water warmer,that that helps right there.
Or you can just go out thereevery day, break through the ice
, put new, fresh water in.
(06:42):
Obviously, we could do a deepdive on this subject.
That would last over an hour.
But you know and get the gistof this take care of your
animals the best way that youknow that you can.
I do want to caution you on onething before I close out today
If you decide to putsupplemental heat in your coop,
be careful about that If yourbirds get overly dependent on
(07:03):
having that and you lose powerfor several days during a heavy
cold snap.
Their bodies are not used tohandling this and it can really
be detrimental and you couldprobably lose some animals if
you did that.
So really be careful before youthink about using supplemental
heat.
Give this some long, seriousthought If you need to
absolutely do it.
(07:24):
If you use a heat lamp, takeextra, extra and then extra
precautions again on the heatlamp, make sure that it is tied
up out of the way, completelysecured, and it's not going to
fall and get on any ashes orwood chips or anything that can
cause a fire, because every yearsomebody ends up losing their
chickens because of fire or that.
So if you're gonna use a heatlamp and I use a heat lamp I
(07:46):
don't have an issue with them.
I'm pretty good with electricalitems but make sure it is extra
secure to do that.
But chick season's gonna behere before you know it.
Make sure you birds stay strong, healthy and happy going
through winter and we'll chatwith you soon.
Bye.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
That's all we have time for today.
I really hope you enjoyedlistening to the podcast.
Be sure to watch our videos.
So, on behalf of my pup, gary,and me, sylvie, thanks for
listening.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.