Portable chicken coop and winter

[jmk3482]

Hello all.

I am thinking about building a portable chicken coop in the future. I have found lots of great ideas about design, etc. However, this would be the primary house for my chickens and I probably won't have more than two. I want to have one with an open floor so they can graze. But I'm concerned about the cold during the winter.

Does anyone here keep chickens in a portable coop during the winter?

I do have some places I can keep the coop during the winter that would block the wind. Should I just keep them in one spot during winter? And what about snow. If the run part of the coop is wire fence, should I cover it with a tarp or something to give them more protection?

Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

 

[suzyQlou]

"Winter" is probably going to mean something different to you in Missouri than it does to me in Pennsylvania, but here's my scoop.

I just finished up my first year with chickens, and they spent the winter in a portable coop. I was lucky that we had such a mild winter this year. It gave me some time to think about what I would do in worse weather before my girls' survival depended on it.

"Portable" meant something different to me in winter than in other months. I needed a space that would be accessible to electricity to heat the chickens' water. This lead me to park the coop close to my garage. I didn't have a ton of space there, so I only moved the coop once a week (instead of daily). It was much harder to move the darn thing in winter because I had rigged a wind screen out of hay bales, concrete blocks, and leftover plywood. Even though I had chosen the spot to be partially protected from the wind, I still needed more protection from the wind. The chickens HATED it. Who doesn't hate freezing cold winter wind?

On snowy days, I did cover the run with a tarp. It was nice to remove the tarp, though, to maximize sunshine on clear days. My girls did not really mind the snow falling on them, but they didn't like to walk in it at all. Because my enclosed coop area is so small, I keep my food and water outside in the run. I needed it to be accessible all through the winter. I was fortunate this year to have the snow melt withing a week. If it had lasted longer, I probably would have tried clearing a new area for them, and moving the tractor there. The grass recovered nicely (even lush) where the tractor had been for a week. But I am thinking two weeks may have killed it off.

In very extreme weather, I rolled my coop into the garage for the night. My coop and run are in two separate pieces, and I had sized the coop to fit in the garage for this exact possibility. I'm glad this only happened one night last year because it was a pain, but I just didn't trust my own meager coop construction skills to keep the birds warm enough with negative wind chills.

Here are a couple highlights of my winter. Can you tell I've been thinking a lot about this? I'm not sure if I'll try for something more permanent next winter or not.

Freak October snow. It got me thinking hard about what winter would mean.



That freezing cold night when I just couldn't imagine leaving the girls outside:


A look at how the grass is handling a week of chicken life.

 

[mxmarg]

Thanks for replying SuzyQ. We're building a chicken tractor here in Wisconsin. Insulation is going to be mandatory! I hope other folks post their experiences too.

 

[LLMama]

I like your coop. How many chickens are do you have and how big is it? I live in PA too. My yard has a grade and I am concerned about moving a heavy coop around in the winter. Is your hard to move?

Thank you.

 

[suzyQlou]

Hi LLMama. It's nice to see a PA neighbor online. Hope you are having a good chicken experience!

My coop is pretty small. It is 3x4 and holds 4 chickens (right now). It is easy enough for me to move by myself, and I do so every few days now that it's summertime. The "coop" part is like a heavy wheel barrow. I move the "run" part separately. I just drag it along.

The hilly part of my yard is harder to deal with than the flat part, but the coop still moves pretty well. I guess it depends how much of a grade you are dealing with in your own yard. Luckily, I only move my coop a yard or so at a time. It's manageable. In the winter, the girls don't make as big of a mess, and I move everything less frequently.

 

[NCC-21]

Hi everyone! One design that we considered was a more stationary coop with a detachable run/tractor to minimize weight. We considered making multiple exits around a coop that you could attach the run to therefore changing its location around the coop and allowing access to nesting boxes and such.

In the end snow became our biggest concern, on average 100 inches a winter. We were afraid we may have snowed in birds and not be able to move the tractor to an area were they would be comfortable so we made a 10 x 4' pallet coop. We are going to attach a sturdy run as our new neighbors 75lb black lab has a love for chickens that has me a bit nervous. When they go out of town I will let the babies free range which was our original plan for them (9 acres and no garden)

Our coop cost us $89.00 to build. I'd estimate that 90% is reclaimed materials. Where the light is coming inside is wired and has hinged "shutters" to allow for battling down the hatches when need be or to crack open for venting in the case of prolonged confinement.

SuzyQlou I love your coop it is super cute and some of my favorite colors.