Are you northern members ready for winter?

[Brodes]

Great job on the coop and god love ya for supporting the utility companies this winter.

Is that foam insulation that I see (its hard to tell as everything is white). If it is then I know that my girls will have it all destroyed before the first month of use. They treat my foundation insulation like its a bowl of popcorn, even the covered foam gets pecked into. I am not sure what I am going to do to chicken proof it.

M

 

[wildorchid053]

we basically built a coop in a coop with insulation inbetween.. very expensive but aren't they all.. we have electricity because if you go out there in the dark you get attacked! so light on if there is a problem.. not turning on the lights for them to lay.. i want them to have a break. will turn on the heat lamp (i have a light socket) in the ceiling if it turns bitter cold but other than that we are ready. put in flaps to close the north vents if it is too windy and added a vent on the west side of the coop for less wind air flow.. wish us luck this is our first winter too

 

[scarter]

I totally agree with too much heat. Where do you live? We live in WI and if I kept my chickens indoor heat at 55 then when they went outside they'd freeze because they wouldn't have built up sufficient feathering for winter. More than likely they would get sick. We don't heat but have a heater for the water. When it gets below 0 degrees I do put up a light for early mornings and then leave them in the coop for the day. It suddenly turned fall yesterday. Guess it's time to think about winterizing again.

 

[LynneP]

We insulated but we don't heat unless you count the heat from a morning light from 5- 8 am to assist in laying. Electric dog bowl and a thermometer in doors, snow boards outdoors, shown here with pics-

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-seasonal-concerns