Chickens just stay in coop most of the winter (Michigan)

Hello,

Here in Michigan we are having a very mild winter this year. My free range flock wont go outside unless its a nice calm sunny day. They spend every bit of summer light outside but have barely come out in winter.

Should I remove food and water from coop and only give it to them outside?

I was under the impression that fully feathered chickens can handle much colder temps than we have been getting, or is this normal? Is the cold snow dangerous to their un-feathered feet?

This is my first winter with chickens.

Thank you.

Chickens, in my experience, don't really like walking around in the snow. Putting the food and water outside might help some. Also depending on the depth you could flatten or shovel some of the snow and scatter a treat on the ground. Any sheltered areas you can create will help too. I have a fence panel leaning against another fence so there is never any snow back there. My four hens like to hang out there right after a light snow. Days when it is actively snowing though I would keep the food and water inside both to protect it and just to be nice. The birds really are not going to go out on those days.

Agreed. Chickens definitely don't like the snow, particularly when it gets deep. But they will get used to it. I have found that it helps to keep moving the feeders and waterers around and to have various objects about for them to shelter under or perch on. That gives them an incentive to get out and explore. I've never bothered to shovel for them, but then I have ducks and geese that keep the area around the coop trampled down flat.

Ducks have the ability to regulate the temperature of their legs separate from that of their core. This allows them to conserve energy in the extreme cold, since they only need to keep their feet warm enough to prevent frost bite. Chickens are not so adept. But they do manage by standing on one foot and warming the other. And cold alone is less of a concern than cold and wet. So as long as they have a place to keep dry, and they should be just fine.

A basic explanation of the physiology:
http://askanaturalist.com/why-don’t-ducks’-feet-freeze/

I keep my chickens and ducks penned up for the winter and found I get much higher egg production because of it. Considering their very short productive life it is important to me to keep them warm and happy and pumping out eggs. Granted their coop is super well insulated so I don't use a supplemental heat sourse, just the chicken own body heat, but unless it dips below zero (F) it stays above freezing inside the coop. This helps with dealing with frozen water buckets and all that too.

I do plan on using geothermal heat next year to keep temps above freezing even in extreme cold. I'll use a little in electricity but it will be vastly less then using electric heaters to keep the water unfrozen, and again, egg production up during cold snaps.

We build a chicken bunker for the birds in the winter. It is great as a wind break, keeps them dry, cover from predators, and it gives the birds room to spread out. It is 2 cattle panels side by side formed into an arch with clear or translucent plastic over it. It gives them approximately 8' by 6' foot space to hang out in that is not the coop. It is tall enough to walk into and we have our water, feed, dust bath and mulch hay under it. The black rubber water bowl has a bird bath heater in it on the coldest days to keep the water from freezing. The birds love it and it gets them out of the coop. The only time we have food and water in the coop is when it is actively snowing. Once the snow stops I shovel a path to the bunker and they all head on over.

We keep all of the food in water out side of the coop, actually underneath it (elevated coop). It forces them to come out. I'll spread a bit of hay around every morning as part of their feed regimen. This really gets them out unless it's actively snowing, then they'll just come out and go under the house to get their feed. They really like scratching through the hay though!

My chickens are babies when it comes to snow. They're excited for me to open the door, only so they can all crowd around and look out.... I've put some hay, straw, shavings, whatever, out the door and they'll venture onto that, but it just turns into a chicken island. No adventuresome chickens past that point.

I've recently added some older Isa's to my flock and they don't seem to mind skiffs of snow as much. Or standing in icy puddles for that matter. But the rest of the birds haven't picked up this inclination yet. Lucky for them lots of the snow has melted so they're getting around on grassy patches just fine right now.

Oh, and many of my birds are Cochins or Cochin crosses and despite having feathered feet, they still don't like the snow!

Chickens never cease to fascinate me.... Really good to know that there is nothing wrong with my flock, besides being babies. And My ISA's are always the most courageous birds in the flock. They are the only 2 that venture outside in the snow.

Thank you all for your feedback, love the quick responses.

I live in Chelsea Quebec, zone 4, so I put their movable roost and nesting buckets I inside an unheated movable greenhouse with piles and pile of leaves as deep mulch.
No matter how cold it gets the chickens keep on keepin' on. The only slow down in eggs is photoperiod related. We get weeks at -20 Celsius so I keep their water on a seed starting mat.
Makes ridiculously good soil.
The down side Is that the entire thing needs to shovelled. Just had 50cm (20") of snow.

Kate Muller wrote:We build a chicken bunker for the birds in the winter. It is great as a wind break, keeps them dry, cover from predators, and it gives the birds room to spread out. It is 2 cattle panels side by side formed into an arch with clear or translucent plastic over it. It gives them approximately 8' by 6' foot space to hang out in that is not the coop. It is tall enough to walk into and we have our water, feed, dust bath and mulch hay under it. The black rubber water bowl has a bird bath heater in it on the coldest days to keep the water from freezing. The birds love it and it gets them out of the coop. The only time we have food and water in the coop is when it is actively snowing. Once the snow stops I shovel a path to the bunker and they all head on over.

That is the same way I make them. The cattle panels are great. Save yourself the shoveling by putting the shelter right up to the coop around the chicken door

Matt and Kate, awesome job! I am doing this for next winter, for sure. And I could only imagine how great the space would be for gardening in the following year. You guys rock!

Just a 5 gallon bucket in a hole works surprisingly well!

Here in southern Wisconsin, previous years, I've used a heated water fount, but this year tried something new. we keep our hens (~12) in half of an unheated high tunnel (veggies in the other half.) This year I just dug a hole, placed a 5 gallon bucket in that and most of the time the water stays liquid for a few days, till get's dirty anyhow. Seems like outside temperature of about 5 deg F is critical point when freezes too much. We've had a mild winter, so hasn't been a lot mornings where have to dump out bucket (has never frozen solid) and refill with water from the hydrant, and stick back in the hole.

Another trick I've used with our sheep for late fall/early spring is using insulated "frisbees" for top of heated livestock water tank, (supposed to minimize heat loss.) I've put two of those on top of buried bucket, and that works out surprisingly well to keep water from freezing too quick also.

Rick Knoll wrote:Just a 5 gallon bucket in a hole works surprisingly well!

Here in southern Wisconsin, previous years, I've used a heated water fount, but this year tried something new. we keep our hens (~12) in half of an unheated high tunnel (veggies in the other half.) This year I just dug a hole, placed a 5 gallon bucket in that and most of the time the water stays liquid for a few days, till get's dirty anyhow. Seems like outside temperature of about 5 deg F is critical point when freezes too much. We've had a mild winter, so hasn't been a lot mornings where have to dump out bucket (has never frozen solid) and refill with water from the hydrant, and stick back in the hole.

Another trick I've used with our sheep for late fall/early spring is using insulated "frisbees" for top of heated livestock water tank, (supposed to minimize heat loss.) I've put two of those on top of buried bucket, and that works out surprisingly well to keep water from freezing too quick also.

Yeah I am sure burying the bucket with a heater may work for me. It was however -8f this morning. And the frost line is probably 3 feet deep (and its a mild winter). But the earth surrounded waterer would def save on energy.

Thanks for that.

Looks like I'm the coldest of the bunch here! I'm in the Northern Laurentians with -30 regularly
My chickens don't go out in the winter. They do like to gather by the door when it's open, just curious, but not tempted!

We transfer them into our unheated greenhouse for the winter where they have plenty of room, dust bath galore and deep litter under the perches (6-8 in.)
Being off-grid, we can't heat the water so we bring in a full bucket of warm water in the morning. When it gets really cold, I make sure to shovel a pile fresh snow in there to make sure they can drink... Yes, they drink snow! A neighbour keeps his chickens in an outdoor pen, covered with tarps on top and 3 sides, he doesn't give them ANY water, just snow!

And by the way, on the shortest day of the year, not quite 8 hours long, we got 9 eggs from the 9 ladies! And they kept that up all winter, 8 eggs most days. I think our secret is giving them a couple of cups of sprouted grains everyday.

Love the rammed earth tire wall, Helen! Awesome. I love earthship stuff, and that will make up the north wall of my future greenhouse when I buy new land and get out of the yuppie central I am living in at the moment.

My in-laws' chickens had a big outdoor run with small trees and bushes, but once the snow got deep they were not interested.

One year I helped them get back outdoors a little early just by doing a half-hearted cleaning on the undercover run area, pitchforked some of the picked-over hay onto the snow to make a path up to the area with trees.
The next day they were all outside exploring the trees again, and the path was all covered with chicken footprints. Way more effective than throwing food out there, in my limited experience, though I'm sure the combination would work even better.

The basic setup was not too bad to let them have some wiggle-room even in deep snow. We just wondered if they were getting enough sun, as this was all on the north side of the barn.


The basic setup:
Coop with nest boxes and roosting poles, attached to barn (they would be let run loose in the garden at pre-planting time but otherwise not interested in permie chicken-tractor or herd moving strategies).

We get to -10 F most years, -30 F not uncommon, so they used one or two electric-heated water dishes, and a light bulb inside the coop to keep the temperature up a little bit.
(I have heard that running a light all winter will make them lay more during winter, but stop laying/wear out their laying capacity sooner in life. However, we were still getting an egg or two a day with the last 4 hens in there, at 5 to 8 years old. I hear the commercial ones only lay for a couple years, so it seemed like at least one of ours didn't mind the light too much.)

They would definitely hunker down more in winter, a few feet of snow is normal, and it tends to stick around for 4 to 6 months.
My father-in law built a little sheltered run area outside the coop.
There was a dirt bath area with a variety of logs, frames, and boxes; and some plywood floor area with hay on it, where they could scratch around the feed trays for grain, kitchen scraps, and oyster-shells.
They'd feed some alfalfa hay that was on hand for the horses, let the girls pick out the leaves and good stuff, then leave it in there as bedding. That's what I forked out onto the snow to make them a path - beats shoveling, in my book.

We ended up retiring the setup as my mother-in-law can't stomach cooking or eating birds that she has fed and raised, and my father-in-law was tired of running a rest home for elderly hens. He nixed the idea of getting 50 more chicks "to keep the last one company." But other than that, it worked pretty well - and they sure made tasty eggs.


-Erica

Hey, Erica thank you for the good info. Head is racing with all the good ideas in this thread. Looking forward to setting up something real nice for next winter.

Sadly have to say though, my broody hen was found this morning being torn apart by a hawk... Really a shot through the heart for me. None of the others have that broodiness to them and I really do not want to hatch and raise chicks... I just want the momma to do it for me.

My chickens don't like the snow, but they will come out of their raised coop to sit on the bare ground underneath the coop itself. I put their food and water under there to keep their coop clean and dry.

I have noticed that on the windier of days, it pushes the hens to go into the coop for comfort so I might work on trying to create some kind of windbreak to buffer this under-the-coop den area. The current idea is to get my hands on a number of straw bales and just put them on the outside of the hardware cloth fencing that encloses the run. Have some accumulated snow on top of those and the chickens will have a comfortable igloo-ish walled bunker. That is the idea at least.

First of all, chickens are "jungle fowls". So inviting them to like snow in Michigan or Wisconsin [where I live} can still be done, but with modifications.
One reason they don't like snow is the same one that deer are browsers and not pasture eaters: When the snow covers the ground, deer have a tough time eating grass and chickens have a tough time scratching the ground.
My solution  is to have a hoop house attached to the insulated coop: When you need to clean the coop, [I have poop shelves that can easily get cleaned once a week or every other week] push them into the hoop house and shut the small trap door. That is also where they can take dust baths, in sandy D.E a very necessary hygiene ritual for them. On sunny days, the hoop house is where they are scratching and dust bathing.
On a nice day, I open the hoop house and they can still go outside. Most don't, [their feet doesn't support their weight in the snow and they sink bottom deep in the snow] but they have the option.
You might think that an insulated coop is extravagant, but it is not, really: Insulating it also makes it critter-tight, with no nooks & crannies where they can establish nests, so less grain lost to mice, less parasites, more comfort for my birds. Of course, all grain is kept in tight pails. [Chickens will kill mice if the mice can't find a way out, and I pity the silly ones that barge in when the door is open!]. I'm more comfortable feeding and watering them and doing whatever else needs doing in the coop and the hoop house. The cost of insulation is more than made up: Insulation is a one time cost. Feed is an every day cost. The small ceramic heater is more than adequate to keep them warm since the coop is insulated, and their water doesn't freeze. Before I insulated, I had mice, lost grain, frozen water. That was a nightmare!...
The hoop house also helps with the ventilation by pre-warming/pre-cooling the air without creating a draft, creating a different zone of comfort.
We can't make them love the snow, but we can still keep them happy and safe.

Does anyone do an Inoculated Deep Litter System (IDLS)?  As taught by Master Cho? I doesn't require cleaning. Once I started using it I never had any more disease, not even mires.

The floor acts as a probiotic dust bath, composts manure and uneaten food almost instantaneously.

The microbes in the bedding keeps it warm enough to brood chicks without a hen or any other heat source. It keeps the building where they are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Personally I choose the tropics because, well, winter, so I have used this system for many years but I have not kept chickens through I cold winter. But I know it works.

I have another question. Why do you feel it necessary to get chickens outside in the winter? There aren't any bugs to forage.

Sher Miller wrote:Does anyone do an Inoculated Deep Litter System (IDLS)?  As taught by Master Cho? I doesn't require cleaning. Once I started using it I never had any more disease, not even mires.
The floor acts as a probiotic dust bath, composts manure and uneaten food almost instantaneously.
The microbes in the bedding keeps it warm enough to brood chicks without a hen or any other heat source. It keeps the building where they are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Personally I choose the tropics because, well, winter, so I have used this system for many years but I have not kept chickens through I cold winter. But I know it works.
I have another question. Why do you feel it necessary to get chickens outside in the winter? There aren't any bugs to forage.

Please tell us more about  this method. How long do you keep adding litter? To work, doesn't it require the bedding to stay hot? [That would be the biggest problem here. You can get down to 40 below and stay that way for a few days, although not the last few winters. Do you do it on bare soil? My coop has a wood floor, painted, so rotting stuff on top of it, if I understand it right, might not be so good.
Good hygiene is indeed critical, and to that effect, I have poop shelves about 6" below the roosting bars. On top of the shelves, I placed some stiff plastic like they use for showers walls. [Even at $24.00 for a 4'X8' sheet, they are worth every penny!]
For litter, I use wood chips, and they last 5-6 months without getting very dirty. Dusty, yes, and that's my main problem, but sh*tty, wet or stinky no. That was actually one of my greatest discoveries about raising chickens: They do 95% of their pooping while roosting.  So if you get in the habit of collecting this rich poop in a homer pail once a week, you can get one free homer pail/ week of free poop. [with 24 chickens]. [That's 56 homer pails of free fertilizer/year!]
That beats removing the whole litter any day.
I usually give them fresh chips in October-November and I don't have to change it until April or even May. When I remove it, it isn't even caked together. It is fluffy enough to use a stiff bristles broom and broom it out of the coop.
I now have 30 young chicks who will start laying in mid to late January and they finally discovered the poop bars =Started roosting. Yippee! I have one of these big scrapers with a long handle to clean the plastic sheeting.
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-6491/Mops-and-Squeegees/Stainless-Steel-Industrial-Window-Squeegee-22?pricode=WA9164&gadtype=pla&id=H-6491&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7Py4BhCbARIsAMMx-_K-6gtaYqgLCmOn1cTZACNkfDb8AeeTcPDP4C0oXLHx4bfvCbEh4TcaAjlYEALw_wcB
Mine has a 3" wide blade mounted on a long handle. I removed the rubber part of it and use only the metal part. I also have a trowel to push the stuff in  the pail.
You can put some D.E. on that plastic, and that keeps their poop hard enough to scrape easily. I used BDT for a while, but I saw them trying to eat it and coincidentally, they stopped laying. I don't know if that did it but I'm not taking a chance! I also put that kind of plastic under their water. [That is the other place they do the 5% left of their pooping.]
Getting them outside in the winter isn't necessary as indeed, there are no bugs available then. But just to vary their routine, when there isn't too much snow on the ground is good for them. They have a hoop house in which the go scratching/ dust bathing all the time, so even though it is winter, they don't feel too deprived.

We had a hill against the run, so it was muck all winter. Laying a few pallets out gave the chooks a dryer place to walk, and a place for poop and snow to fall between boards. Most snow melted on the wood faster than on the ground. Once the ground dried, I stood them up and leaned them elsewhere. They served me well.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:

Sher Miller wrote:Does anyone do an Inoculated Deep Litter System (IDLS)?  As taught by Master Cho? I doesn't require cleaning. Once I started using it I never had any more disease, not even mires.
The floor acts as a probiotic dust bath, composts manure and uneaten food almost instantaneously.
The microbes in the bedding keeps it warm enough to brood chicks without a hen or any other heat source. It keeps the building where they are kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Personally I choose the tropics because, well, winter, so I have used this system for many years but I have not kept chickens through I cold winter. But I know it works.
I have another question. Why do you feel it necessary to get chickens outside in the winter? There aren't any bugs to forage.

Please tell us more about  this method. How long do you keep adding litter? To work, doesn't it require the bedding to stay hot? [That would be the biggest problem here. You can get down to 40 below and stay that way for a few days, although not the last few winters. Do you do it on bare soil? My coop has a wood floor, painted, so rotting stuff on top of it, if I understand it right, might not be so good.
Good hygiene is indeed critical, and to that effect, I have poop shelves about 6" below the roosting bars. On top of the shelves, I placed some stiff plastic like they use for showers walls. [Even at $24.00 for a 4'X8' sheet, they are worth every penny!]
For litter, I use wood chips, and they last 5-6 months without getting very dirty. Dusty, yes, and that's my main problem, but sh*tty, wet or stinky no. That was actually one of my greatest discoveries about raising chickens: They do 95% of their pooping while roosting.  So if you get in the habit of collecting this rich poop in a homer pail once a week, you can get one free homer pail/ week of free poop. [with 24 chickens]. [That's 56 homer pails of free fertilizer/year!]
That beats removing the whole litter any day.
I usually give them fresh chips in October-November and I don't have to change it until April or even May. When I remove it, it isn't even caked together. It is fluffy enough to use a stiff bristles broom and broom it out of the coop.
I now have 30 young chicks who will start laying in mid to late January and they finally discovered the poop bars =Started roosting. Yippee! I have one of these big scrapers with a long handle to clean the plastic sheeting.
https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-6491/Mops-and-Squeegees/Stainless-Steel-Industrial-Window-Squeegee-22?pricode=WA9164&gadtype=pla&id=H-6491&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7Py4BhCbARIsAMMx-_K-6gtaYqgLCmOn1cTZACNkfDb8AeeTcPDP4C0oXLHx4bfvCbEh4TcaAjlYEALw_wcB
Mine has a 3" wide blade mounted on a long handle. I removed the rubber part of it and use only the metal part. I also have a trowel to push the stuff in  the pail.
You can put some D.E. on that plastic, and that keeps their poop hard enough to scrape easily. I used BDT for a while, but I saw them trying to eat it and coincidentally, they stopped laying. I don't know if that did it but I'm not taking a chance! I also put that kind of plastic under their water. [That is the other place they do the 5% left of their pooping.]
Getting them outside in the winter isn't necessary as indeed, there are no bugs available then. But just to vary their routine, when there isn't too much snow on the ground is good for them. They have a hoop house in which the go scratching/ dust bathing all the time, so even though it is winter, they don't feel too deprived.

I guess I wasn't clear. There is NO POOP to deal with. It composts almost immediately! You never see it.

Pics attached are a pig farm Master Cho set up. The sheep were mine. I kept 50+ chickens, 12+sheep, a cpl pigs and a rabbit in the barn. I didn't clean it for 7 yrs before I moved on, didn't have to.

It stayed clean, no smell, no flies,no disease, not even mires.

I took out inoculated compost as needed, never more than a third at a time. The bedding is always fully composted at all times. That stuff is amazing for plants!

Once Inoculated the bedding stays warm because it is so full of active microbes feeding on the manure and uneaten food. Everything stays dry & crumbly, smells faintly of bread yeast. It becomes a living floor

It's best on a dirt but my barn was already poured concrete. It worked well. Your floor should do fine.

The bedding needs to be deep, 2-4 feet. I used grass clippings. It's what my farm produced, but it can be anything. I needed to add additional bedding about once a month. But grass breaks down quickly and I had a lot of animals. Wood chips should last longer.

I will say the only time I had an issue was when the tractor was down and I didn't get new bedding added, although once I did everything was fine again.

I made a little video about it. I don't know if I'm allowed to share it here

The secret sauce is the IMO, Indigenous Micro-Organisms, a complete culture, an entire ecosystem taken from local soil.

It can be a little tricky for a beginner, but you can get an animal barn established without going thru all the steps.

Master Cho pigs on inoculated Deep Litter System. Notice the poop?

Hmmm... my chickens actually like the snow.  (Various layer and dual purpose breeds.)  They don't enjoy high winds, but snow is fine, as is some rain.  They'll go out and wander to the place on the ground where our sump pump water exits, and play around there even in below freezing temps.  A few new birds one year started roosting in a large lilac bush, and stayed there through single digit temps and being covered with several inches of snow!  The only thing that stopped that was an owl (I think) who stole one hen out of the top of the bush one night and scared the others so badly they stopped roosting there.  Now all are roosting inside coops, but they still love to go out and play all year long.  I have plans to build an enclosed run, but have not gotten around to that yet.  

We don't have mouse issues with feed, only sparrows flying to wherever they can find the feed, inside coops or outside, and chowing down.  The chickens completely ignore them, sadly.

Donna Lynn wrote:Hmmm... my chickens actually like the snow.  (Various layer and dual purpose breeds.)  They don't enjoy high winds, but snow is fine, as is some rain.  They'll go out and wander to the place on the ground where our sump pump water exits, and play around there even in below freezing temps.  A few new birds one year started roosting in a large lilac bush, and stayed there through single digit temps and being covered with several inches of snow!  The only thing that stopped that was an owl (I think) who stole one hen out of the top of the bush one night and scared the others so badly they stopped roosting there.  Now all are roosting inside coops, but they still love to go out and play all year long.  I have plans to build an enclosed run, but have not gotten around to that yet.  

We don't have mouse issues with feed, only sparrows flying to wherever they can find the feed, inside coops or outside, and chowing down.  The chickens completely ignore them, sadly.

Indeed: Some of my chickens did like the snow. I'm not sure if it was the breed or the different winters but yeah. I had black Brahmas whose comb got damaged because they stayed out a bit too long. They were also better able to handle deeper snow. I also had ISA Browns that didn't seem to mind the snow, some even eating it! My last batch last year, the Sapphire gems, They didn't seem to like it very much, but they stayed in the rain till they were drenched! We didn't have much of a snow fall last winter but they took one look at it and decided it wasn't for them. I left the door to the hoop house open so they could still go outside, as fresh air is healthier for all our critters, just like it is healthier for us. Even when we stay in because of foul weather, a big bowl of fresh air makes me feel so much better.
Variety is the spice of life, they say The best we can do for all the critters we have is to give them options...
Like you, I don't have mouse issues but yes, I have birds that land in their yard and chow on seed. Here, it is mostly crows and blue jays, and boy! can they eat! and yes, my chickens let them eat their fill too, sadly...
I feed them the more expensive grains inside their winter run and the kitchen leftovers in the yard, but still blue Jays and crows help themselves to what they can reach.

I'm not familiar with the Inoculated Deep Litter System and the pics are impressive: Not a single poop in sight. I didn't know it could compost this fast.
It feels like I should have a degree in biochemistry to make it work. Since a person keeps adding [and never subtracting? Am I correct?] I'd be worried, if something went wrong, that I'd have to remove 7 years of litter some day and start from scratch.
But yeah, I'm impressed.