Winter Management For Your Backyard Chickens

The term of winter brings is special care problems with your backyard chickens. In a number of geographic areas the temp gets lower than freezing and other areas will  colder although not so critical. Whatever the case you will want to organize for these cold months of winter to protect the health of your chicken flock.

Oddly enough you have to nip in the bud your chickens from being dehydrated. This is because of the water freezing over and then they just cant drink. A useful answer to the problem is to put in a heat lamp and this would beoth keep the water starting freezing and be of moderate temperature to drink.

Drafts are a true winter problem and chickens though able to cope with wind as the move about about ijn the coop don’t do well where drafts are over their roosts or bedding area. Therefore yhou need to make a good inspection of l;your coopn from walls to flooring  and seal up the drafts . This should never simultaneously inhibit aeration as good oxygen filled air is important fo the healthiness of the backyard chickens.

The eating habits requirements of chickens are  ought to be supplemented over the winter months . Poultry need extra fat in the body for winter and this can be best achieved by adding wild seeds and oily seeds like sunflower into the every day diet feed.

Predators are more lively and aggressive all through winter as their food supply will not be as plenteous in the open and therefore the chicken coop is where their attention will shift to.

So ensure that your cage is predator proof not only in walls and roofing but in the ground encircling the enclosure as a hungry predator such as fox will dig their way inside if other avenues are blocked.

If you have new chicks in the coop at beginning of winter you need to create particular provision by ensureing the temperature in their section doesn’t get below seventy five degrees F and if they’re in the initial weeks they need temperature above 90 degrees F