5 Easy Ways to Care for Your Backyard Flock This Winter

When it comes to winter, and cold weather, your barnyard birds are much more hardy than you may realize. While our chickens prefer to stay in the coop on snowy days, the ducks and geese can usually be found running around or laying in the snow. They’ll only spend the day in the coop if I force them to, or if it’s too windy.

When it comes to caring for your birds during winter, if you make sure to take care of a few things, you’ll find it isn’t any more work than during warmer months.

(None of the links in this post are sponsored. The Product linked in this post are just there because they are products I like and use.)

Water

(If you live in a climate that doesn’t get below freezing, you can skip this one.)

The biggest challenge when taking care of your birds in cold weather is freezing water. Chickens need water to consistently lay, and waterfowl need water to eat their food.

There are many different ways to make sure your flock’s water doesn’t freeze.

If you have electric nearby, you can get a heated waterer, like this one from Primer1. We have one of these that we used for our chickens last year. It holds around three gallons, and does a great job of keeping their water clean. We’ve used it the past two summers without the cord as well, and love it.

Not everyone has electric near their coop though. So what to do if you’re off-grid, just don’t want to use electricity, or your coop is too far from a power source? (Additionally, your waterfowl require an open water source they can fully submerge their heads into.)

Our solution here on the homestead has been rubber feed bowls. Yes, we have to carry water in 5-gallon buckets, as it’s too cold during winter at 7,300ft in Colorado for a hose. Yes, on colder days we have to fill the water bowls several times, and break up ice. However, the ducks and geese play in the water so much, it generally doesn’t ice over except on the coldest of days. Even the chickens’ water bowl takes longer to freeze than I expected. Just make sure you empty the water each evening. However, even if you forget, the rubber bowls make it easy to get the ice unstuck.

Shelter

If you live in an area with cold winters, you will need to make sure to have adequate shelter for your flock.

A word about supplemental heat: In most places you DO NOT need a heated lamp. They are a huge fire risk! And unless you have silkies, or live in an area that stays in the negative temperatures for extended periods of time, they are unnecessary. We do not have a heat lamp in any of our coops and our birds have been fine, even down to -22°F during our extreme cold snap earlier this year.

(One caveat is that you need to be aware of the hardiness of your birds. Some breeds of chickens are more sensitive to cold than others. For example, silkies, though adorable and fluffy, do not have the kind of feathers that hold in body heat. If you are just starting out, I would recommend going with cold hardy breeds. If you do need to add supplemental heat, look into safer alternatives. The last thing you want is to burn down your coop or your house!)

Make sure that your birds have a shelter that is draft-free, but still allows for ventilation. Humidity is the most dangerous thing to your birds on a cold night. (Assuming they are out of drafts.)

Generally, ventilation should be up high and on the opposite side from your prevailing winds. We have a small run attached to our coop that we turned into Fort Knox, so we leave the pop door open on all but the coldest or windiest nights.

We do cover up most of the open parts of our coops with plastic for the winter, including the chicken coop human access door. The previous owners put the coop in a spot that was convenient, but prevailing winds push snow through the cracks around the door.

In our experience, chickens do not like the snow, so we also cover their run with hard greenhouse plastic from Homedepot for the winter. This was much easier to put on than the 6mil plastic and is holding up nicely. The hope is we can reuse it for years to come.

Bedding

In addition to a draft free, well ventilated shelter, you’ll also need adequate bedding.

In our chicken coop, we use pine shavings and follow a deep litter method. Pine shavings soak up moisture well, and the deep litter helps to keep the hen house a few degrees warmer. We use wood chips in the run, as they last longer, and don’t get as gross in snow or rain.

For the ducks and geese, we use straw or pine shavings. Their coops are much larger and deep litter doesn’t work as well for water fowl. While we only clean the chicken coop once or twice a year, the other coops get mucked out every few months. Waterfowl also get everything wet if we have to keep them inside all day due to weather. It’s the only time we put their water and food in the coop.

Food and Treats

The last thing you’ll need to consider when keeping birds in winter is their food. You’ll want to keep feeding them their regular food. However, depending on your setup, you may need to make sure their food does not get wet. Wet feed will spoil quickly.

If you free feed your birds, you either need to make sure to keep snow and rain out, or switch to daily feeding. Here on the homestead, we do daily, rationed feeding year round. Not only does it keep us from having to worry about wet feed, it also keeps our feed bill down.

In addition to their regular feed, all our birds get extra treats during cold weather. If you didn’t know, birds eat to stay warm. So during the winter we also give our birds black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS) or organic scratch before bed. On especially cold nights, since we don’t have supplemental heat, they’ll get a little extra. (They do not get these during the warm months, except for a small bit to get them into their coops each night.)

Observation

The last thing to successfully keeping chickens, ducks, and geese during the winter is to observe your flock closely.

What do they like or dislike?

Our first winter with chickens, we noticed they would not leave the hen house for food or water if there was snow in the run. Now we cover our run, and it’s much easier to make sure they eat and drink.

We have noticed our ducks and geese enjoy being out in the snow and cold. So while the chickens are confined to their run on snowy days, the waterfowl have the option to free range except for the coldest/windiest/snowiest days.

When you observe your flock, you’ll be able to adjust your plan as needed for the healthiest, happiest birds.

There you have it, five ways to successfully keep birds in winter. If you have any additional tips, please share them in the comments.

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