Time for a post about how I winterize my birds. Seem to learn something new all the time and am changing the way my chicken houses are set up, things to make life easier for me and better for my birds. Cold here in the deepest darkest days. I know it gets much colder in other places, and that shivers me timers. We seem to hit the lowest point of about -18, and doesn’t seem to go much colder than that. Although Daughter has told me it has gone to -30, blah...hope not in my lifetime up here, smiling. Anyways, it is freakin’ cold. Having lived on the wet West Coast, my entire life (save for a good many years we lived on the Sunshine Coast, but that is pretty similar to the Western Coast, Vancouver coastal area), coming up to a dry area has rocked my socks. Over and over and over. And guess what, lovin’ every minute of it. I would not trade this dry climate for the cooler moister climate of the Pacific Northwest for all that tea in China, smiling again. So onwards with the tale I have to spin.
I think that this is probably going to be a lengthy post, can’t seem to make them shorter, when I set fingers to keyboard and carry forth. So here we go.
We have a large coop, which was before chickens a horse barn. The larger side is earthen floor, the other side is a wooden floor. That is where my chicken stuff lives, and an area that I have set up for little ones. My Husband built an addition to the chicken barn the year we moved here. In there was the buckeyes. It no longer houses buckeyes as I have chosen to work on the mottled java breed. So actually have two separate chicken coops, but the addition was built using the end wall as one of the walls.
So first we are going to have a look at what a pop door looks like. Look at the cochin hen coming out. Beside her you will see a red partition. This partition is removed in the hot summer time, it allows at least 2 birds to easily come out at a time. In summer, they seem more of in a hurry to exit in the morning, smiling. Wonder why. Hmm...could it be because it is beautiful out there. The doors face west, so they have morning shade, afternoon sun. Not the best, should be the opposite, but it is what it is, I can’t turn the building around. When we ever build a new coop in our new place, should that occur, I would have the opposite. Sun on the opening door side, what a glorious thing to look out the door to sunshine, yahoo!! Each of the pop doors has this option, to close the opening in cooler times, larger opening in hotter times. The pieces of wood that I use for the narrowing are screwed to the walls of the coops above the doors when not in use in warmer weather, so they are handy. Like so many other things I screw to the walls, so they are handy, good storage spots.
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I hang things, like the extra nest boxes when I need them for broodies and such – many things are hung, including the great big 20 litre water jugs. They hang, yes, I like hanging stuff
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I still call the smaller coop that my Husband built as an add on, the buckeye coop. I will have to train myself and my family that it is called the Java Coop now. So many changes...so when I had little ones in the java coop, I had part of it segregated off with poultry wire wall so that the little ones, of which there were many, many, so that they could not be bothered with the older birds. I had the pop door made quite small by using plywood to reduce size, so what I thought only the little chicks could get outside to. They could go into the big chicken yard, but I had a dog kennel fence to keep them a little more safe. Little chicks are not the smartest and sometimes a big bird can peck just a little too hard. They need that first chance at life (we are talking like 6 weeks old here) to understand the great outdoors. Anyways, when the time came for me to remove the outside dog kennel fence I did. The pop door has been made much smaller, using plywood, like I said. I thought for surely that no big girls (there were big Orpington pullets in the java pen at the time) could get in to sneak the chick food, that for some reason is just so enticing to the adults. Probably cause they were not supposed to be eating it. You know, we always want the things we can’t have. So...one fine day I was outside, sitting and watching all these little charms of nature, and oh man. That big fat buff Orpington pullet put her little pinhead in through their pop hole and went on to squeeze her big fat body through the hole. If I had not seen it, I would never have believed it. It shocked the blinkers out of me. Of course, now curiosity reigns with this gal. I thought OK, big girl, gonna see what you are doin’ in there. Of course, big girl was eating her brains out in the chick feeder. Gads. How small does that little pop door need to be made to stop the birds from going in still. She was big, so were her counterparts, and the other breed was smaller. So of course they could all squeeze through. I did not give up and made it even smaller. That day the chicks had a change of diet. Getting near the end of the starter food anyways, might as well carry forth. They, that day, had access to the big bird house too. Too much work to try and make that door just a little smaller. Let nature take its course. They made out just fine.
Ya, as one says to the other, “bet we could get in through that little door, I’ll go give it a try”
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Yep, got through, certainly not a full sized bird, but on the way
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Smaller, just made a quick fix, and now the birds are saying, well, we used to be able to fit....
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Oh I wish I could, I wish I could
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A java, showing how small that opening really was.
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Boy, getting rather long here...
So this is what I was really getting at. The windbreaks. I think I will be revamping them a little more this year, just slightly, and of course, painted red before they go up. Still not that cold that I am worrying about it, but in the next month I will be prepared. It was near the end of January last year that I had my Husband design the windbreaks and boy did it make a huge world of difference. When I take them off (they are screwed on), those too get hung inside the chicken coop...
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Shows how they work. Yep, had about 3 feet of snow last winter. The job each morning when it snows, is to go and shovel out the chicken yards. The chickens are pretty much confined to the yard, and if I make the effort, pretty much the entire yard is clear of snow. To me it is worth it to be able to have the chickens still get to outside. I do not have the option of any roof over the coops, so I work hard to remove snow. Hubby helps too. He is a tall, strong man, and with the two of us, it is only about a half hour job. Thankin’ me lucky stars that I have that man that supports his lil’ gal, yahoo!!
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Another angle
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Hope you enjoyed the walk by my side as we entered the world of my chickens. With that, have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.
Oh, if you got through all this, I actually looked at my word counter in my document and it is 1,385 words long, that be a whole lotta words coming your way, now 1,398, smiling....
I think that this is probably going to be a lengthy post, can’t seem to make them shorter, when I set fingers to keyboard and carry forth. So here we go.
We have a large coop, which was before chickens a horse barn. The larger side is earthen floor, the other side is a wooden floor. That is where my chicken stuff lives, and an area that I have set up for little ones. My Husband built an addition to the chicken barn the year we moved here. In there was the buckeyes. It no longer houses buckeyes as I have chosen to work on the mottled java breed. So actually have two separate chicken coops, but the addition was built using the end wall as one of the walls.
So first we are going to have a look at what a pop door looks like. Look at the cochin hen coming out. Beside her you will see a red partition. This partition is removed in the hot summer time, it allows at least 2 birds to easily come out at a time. In summer, they seem more of in a hurry to exit in the morning, smiling. Wonder why. Hmm...could it be because it is beautiful out there. The doors face west, so they have morning shade, afternoon sun. Not the best, should be the opposite, but it is what it is, I can’t turn the building around. When we ever build a new coop in our new place, should that occur, I would have the opposite. Sun on the opening door side, what a glorious thing to look out the door to sunshine, yahoo!! Each of the pop doors has this option, to close the opening in cooler times, larger opening in hotter times. The pieces of wood that I use for the narrowing are screwed to the walls of the coops above the doors when not in use in warmer weather, so they are handy. Like so many other things I screw to the walls, so they are handy, good storage spots.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I hang things, like the extra nest boxes when I need them for broodies and such – many things are hung, including the great big 20 litre water jugs. They hang, yes, I like hanging stuff
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I still call the smaller coop that my Husband built as an add on, the buckeye coop. I will have to train myself and my family that it is called the Java Coop now. So many changes...so when I had little ones in the java coop, I had part of it segregated off with poultry wire wall so that the little ones, of which there were many, many, so that they could not be bothered with the older birds. I had the pop door made quite small by using plywood to reduce size, so what I thought only the little chicks could get outside to. They could go into the big chicken yard, but I had a dog kennel fence to keep them a little more safe. Little chicks are not the smartest and sometimes a big bird can peck just a little too hard. They need that first chance at life (we are talking like 6 weeks old here) to understand the great outdoors. Anyways, when the time came for me to remove the outside dog kennel fence I did. The pop door has been made much smaller, using plywood, like I said. I thought for surely that no big girls (there were big Orpington pullets in the java pen at the time) could get in to sneak the chick food, that for some reason is just so enticing to the adults. Probably cause they were not supposed to be eating it. You know, we always want the things we can’t have. So...one fine day I was outside, sitting and watching all these little charms of nature, and oh man. That big fat buff Orpington pullet put her little pinhead in through their pop hole and went on to squeeze her big fat body through the hole. If I had not seen it, I would never have believed it. It shocked the blinkers out of me. Of course, now curiosity reigns with this gal. I thought OK, big girl, gonna see what you are doin’ in there. Of course, big girl was eating her brains out in the chick feeder. Gads. How small does that little pop door need to be made to stop the birds from going in still. She was big, so were her counterparts, and the other breed was smaller. So of course they could all squeeze through. I did not give up and made it even smaller. That day the chicks had a change of diet. Getting near the end of the starter food anyways, might as well carry forth. They, that day, had access to the big bird house too. Too much work to try and make that door just a little smaller. Let nature take its course. They made out just fine.
Ya, as one says to the other, “bet we could get in through that little door, I’ll go give it a try”
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Yep, got through, certainly not a full sized bird, but on the way
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Smaller, just made a quick fix, and now the birds are saying, well, we used to be able to fit....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Oh I wish I could, I wish I could
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A java, showing how small that opening really was.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Boy, getting rather long here...
So this is what I was really getting at. The windbreaks. I think I will be revamping them a little more this year, just slightly, and of course, painted red before they go up. Still not that cold that I am worrying about it, but in the next month I will be prepared. It was near the end of January last year that I had my Husband design the windbreaks and boy did it make a huge world of difference. When I take them off (they are screwed on), those too get hung inside the chicken coop...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Shows how they work. Yep, had about 3 feet of snow last winter. The job each morning when it snows, is to go and shovel out the chicken yards. The chickens are pretty much confined to the yard, and if I make the effort, pretty much the entire yard is clear of snow. To me it is worth it to be able to have the chickens still get to outside. I do not have the option of any roof over the coops, so I work hard to remove snow. Hubby helps too. He is a tall, strong man, and with the two of us, it is only about a half hour job. Thankin’ me lucky stars that I have that man that supports his lil’ gal, yahoo!!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Another angle
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Hope you enjoyed the walk by my side as we entered the world of my chickens. With that, have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.
Oh, if you got through all this, I actually looked at my word counter in my document and it is 1,385 words long, that be a whole lotta words coming your way, now 1,398, smiling....
Last edited by CynthiaM on Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:03 am; edited 1 time in total
