How to Care for Chickens in the Winter

Winter is a time of mud, snow, more precipitation, and a dirtier chicken coop overall. Every winter, I wonder how I can keep eggs cleaner, the coop cleaner and refreshed, and the chickens comfortable, fed, and watered.

One of our oldest Buffs is posing for me.

Feeding Chickens in Winter

Grain

We free-feed our chickens with my husband’s amazing little feeding system. We keep food outside in their covered chicken run. It’s important our chickens get outside, move around, get a dust bath, and stay active. This also keeps mice out of the chicken coop, making mice less of an issue. This is the feeder we use.

Water

We keep our chicken water in a 50-gallon barrel that keeps light out, keeping the water algae-free. We then put a heater in the water to keep the water from freezing. We drilled holes near the bottom and put nipples in so the chickens always have clean water. We must fill this 50-gallon barrel 1-2 times during the winter. This makes winter chores for the chicken coop less, which is always nice when it’s freezing out.

Treats/Scraps

Scraps don’t stop in the winter for us as I continue to cook, meaning there are always leftover scraps I hate throwing away. Instead of wasting them in the trash, I give them to my chickens, who happily eat and digest them, making less trash for me! Make sure to give scraps before dusk to avoid attracting mice when the sun goes down. This usually means the scraps from dinner the night before are sent out to the chickens the next morning or afternoon.

I also give my chickens black-oiled sunflower seeds as a treat. This gives them something to look and scratch for.

Collecting Eggs

Remembering to collect eggs every day in winter is important. With the colder temperatures, eggs can freeze, making them inedible. Sometimes, we collect twice a day. But like all chicken farmers, there are times when collecting doesn’t happen, and you find cracked eggs in the egg box.

I have found that because things are more wet in winter, there is more likely to be poop and dirt on the chicken eggs in the egg box that don’t get collected right away. Finding clean, uncracked eggs in the egg box in the winter is always a treat. This happens to us when we go out right away in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.

Mouse Control

Keeping mice out of the chicken coop is always hard. Our pest control guys, who care for our house, say that mice will surely be around if you have farm animals. It’s not about not having any mice; it’s about keeping the population down so they don’t take over. Unfortunately, mice are part of farm animals.

We have tried bucket traps with peanut butter and only caught two mice. We had a ton of mice because they were feasting on the dropped grain. Some chicken keepers have treadle feeders, which we have looked into, and we want to try to DIY one, but as of now, we are using our favorite no-mess feeder. Mice were in the storage area of our chicken coop where our food was stored. To combat this, we keep all our grain in metal garbage bins.

To keep mice away and stay away, we have found the best way to do this is to use poison. We know the risks of this, but to keep mice from ruining our coop and wasting food and bedding, this is the way that works for us. I simply put out the poison, making it easy to see the mice’s activity because you can see the bites out of the poison. We don’t have any poison on the actual chicken coop side of the chicken coop; it is just in the storage area. It’s worked well. We have also used mice deterrents, but it’s not foolproof. Mice deterrents work better when there hasn’t been a mice problem before. So, if you are getting chickens, get mice deterrents to keep mice away.

Keeping Chickens Warm

Chickens stay warm by being next to each other while roosting, so putting a heat lamp in their coop is unnecessary. Plus, they will not be used to the temperature if the power goes out. Sudden temperature shifts like this are not good for them and can put them in a stressful state. It’s best to let your chickens be in the elements, providing them a way to get out of them in a coop with no drafts but still good airflow. You also do not risk the heat lamp causing a fire. For these reasons, we let our chickens just be. They go through a molt right before the cold weather hits, so their feathers are brand new, fluffy, and can keep them warm.

Keeping their combs, wattles, and feet warm is essential, as they can easily be frostbitten. In the coldest weather, our chickens sleep outside on our roosts in our covered chicken run. They all get super close together for warmth, covering their feet, but their wattles and combs can become frostbitten with drafts and wind. So, we put plastic on our chicken run wall to keep the drafts down and hopefully keep them a bit warmer.

Using their natural instincts of fresh feathers after their fall molt and the deep litter method in the coop where heat rises from the bedding where the poop is breaking down is the best way to keep chickens naturally warmer.

Providing Boredom Busters

A flock block is a great boredom buster. Some chicken owners string up lettuce or cabbage for their chickens to peck at. As mentioned above, throwing out treats like black-oiled sunflower seeds or mealworms gives the chickens something to hunt for and scratch for. Remember to keep these treats in a metal bin to avoid attracting rodents.

If your chicken run doesn’t have dry dirt, provide a dust bath for your chickens. This allows them to bathe, getting any nasty critters that want to hitch a ride on their warm bodies. Our chicken run is covered and has soft dirt they can bathe in year-round.

Keeping the Coop Cleaner

We try to collect eggs every morning and sometimes in the afternoon. We find that collecting eggs more prevents them from getting frozen, causing them to crack, keeps them from getting dirty from the mud, and consequently gets bedding stuck to them. This makes for washing a lot of eggs in the winter. So, if we can, we go to the coop to collect eggs at least once, sometimes twice daily.

With the chickens in the coop more during the winter and less outside, the coop gets dustier and dirtier. I find I have to dump more bedding in the coop to refresh the bedding, and I have started vacuuming the storage side of our coop once a week with a mask on. I also sweep the walls in the coop to keep the walls clean of dust. With the right amount of airflow, the chicken coop should not stink, and the poop should dry out and start to decompose.

I always look forward to spring, when I clear out the coop of everything, wash the roosts, put down all new bedding, and touch up paint. It’s best to walk into a clean coop, but chickens are dusty creatures, and dust is part of the situation.