*Original Article written Fall 2020*
** Bottom of article has a few additional details and pictures, showing snow results. Added 12/17/2020 in the midst of a Nor'easter**
We live in SE New England. Pretty close to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Our winter comes with reduced light, cold and plenty of snow. This is a brief article to describe the preparations we do to the coop. Note that these preparations are done in October and November when our weather is still "nice", for working in the yard. In mid November water heaters, plastic covered runs are not yet needed by the chickens in this area.
One thing we do not do is heat the coop. Heat in our climate is completely unnecessary. IMHO & YMMV. Please note based on a comment I clarified below the inside temp in one picture is in our home.
Here is a link to our coop page The Coop
** 12/17/2020 edit during snowstorm **
We had a snowstorm start at 8pm last night. High winds, temps started in the mid 20's, closer to 32F by morning. The snow is pretty heavy (weight). It also seems to have blown into the run a bit more than normal. So far we have about 10". The side plastic top gaps are 12-18". And the whole east side is wide open. Maybe for future storms I may add a sheet of plywood on the east wall just to stop some of the snow. That is something I could add and remove with little fuss.
The hens were up and out in the run early this morning when the lights came on. At 6am the coop was 35F and humidity of 79% humidity. The town official temp was 33F and 80% humidity. It always takes the coop a while to catch the outdoor temp/humidity when it rises or falls. The temperature is now falling back into the 20s. More snow is expected. Here are a few pictures. Note that the girls are out in the run. although they try to avoid snow where they can. I moved the feeder little bit closer to the coop where there is a little less snow on the ground. They are all eating. Have yet to clear the flat roof or ridge vent. Will get that done later today and snap another picture. As the day goes on the girls will probably scratch up some of the snow.
** Bottom of article has a few additional details and pictures, showing snow results. Added 12/17/2020 in the midst of a Nor'easter**
We live in SE New England. Pretty close to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Our winter comes with reduced light, cold and plenty of snow. This is a brief article to describe the preparations we do to the coop. Note that these preparations are done in October and November when our weather is still "nice", for working in the yard. In mid November water heaters, plastic covered runs are not yet needed by the chickens in this area.
One thing we do not do is heat the coop. Heat in our climate is completely unnecessary. IMHO & YMMV. Please note based on a comment I clarified below the inside temp in one picture is in our home.
Here is a link to our coop page The Coop
- Put the vegetable garden to bed, by pulling all the remaining plants and throwing them in our auxiliary run. That is the fenced area beside the coop. The girls scratch through the plants.
- Take some compost from the runs and add this to the garden. Cover the garden with some straw. In the picture below the garden is ready for winter.
Note the huge snapped oak tree. Still have to get that squared away. It came down in a wind storm a few weeks ago. - Full cleanout of the coop shavings. The shavings go in the covered secure run. See this brief article. Lazy man's coop & run maintenance and composting.
- Throughout the Fall we rake leaves, cut the grass, add all the yard waste to the secure run and side run. We also take the remaining straw bale from the Halloween display and place it in the secure run. The girls scratch at it and it eventually falls apart.
- We put clear shower curtain liners on three sides of the run (South, West, North). The coop faces East and toward our house. We leave 12-18" open at the top on the south and north side. Under the coop there is no gap. The shower curtains are cheap ($1). They make it through the winter. I save the wood strapping, screws and washers to reuse every year. The plastic allows us to leave the windows open even on the coldest days. This picture shows one of our below 0F days. The temp gage is in the coop at roost height. (Note, the Indoor temperature, is the temperature in our human home, not the coop.) We only close the windows if we have a storm. And that is to keep wind blown snow and rain out of the coop. As soon as the storm is over, we open the windows. Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation...
- The water is kept under the raised coop. We have an outlet installed by an electrician in the run. We have a 250 watt stock tank de-icer in the bucket. I do check that the water is still flowing on the really cold days. We generally plug this in starting in November. Although it is temperature controlled and only goes on when needed.
- We get a decent amount of snow. Sometimes measured in feet. You can see that our run has a flat roof. And the coop has a ridge vent. After snow storms, I use a roof rake to remove the snow from the run and ridge vent. Our girls don't really care for snow, so they tend to stay in the run after snow. The roof and plastic wrap keep the run mostly free of snow. And the leaves, shavings never really freeze solid. So, the girls get in some scratching throughout the winter. Here is a picture from a few years ago. It shows the snow before removal. It also shows that some snow gets in the run. Not a big deal. This picture has more opaque which was not as see through.
- We supplement light in the mornings to get the girls to to lay in the winter. We wait until after the fall molt. Then start our lighting program. The lights are on a timer. They are old Christmas icicle lights. They shine in the open windows. My not well thought out theory is that it simulates sunrise. You can see a few of the girls out on the run roost. This is about an hour before sunrise.
** 12/17/2020 edit during snowstorm **
We had a snowstorm start at 8pm last night. High winds, temps started in the mid 20's, closer to 32F by morning. The snow is pretty heavy (weight). It also seems to have blown into the run a bit more than normal. So far we have about 10". The side plastic top gaps are 12-18". And the whole east side is wide open. Maybe for future storms I may add a sheet of plywood on the east wall just to stop some of the snow. That is something I could add and remove with little fuss.
The hens were up and out in the run early this morning when the lights came on. At 6am the coop was 35F and humidity of 79% humidity. The town official temp was 33F and 80% humidity. It always takes the coop a while to catch the outdoor temp/humidity when it rises or falls. The temperature is now falling back into the 20s. More snow is expected. Here are a few pictures. Note that the girls are out in the run. although they try to avoid snow where they can. I moved the feeder little bit closer to the coop where there is a little less snow on the ground. They are all eating. Have yet to clear the flat roof or ridge vent. Will get that done later today and snap another picture. As the day goes on the girls will probably scratch up some of the snow.
