How to Keep Chickens Warm in Winter?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fall is the perfect time to learn how to keep chickens warm in winter. It’s time to start preparations before the weather turns bad. With proper planning, backyard chickens usually weather quite well in the winter.

Helpful Nutrition for the Molt and Winter

When do chickens molt? The answer is usually (but not always) “fall,” and this molt hopefully draws to an end before the cold temperatures arrive. Feeding your chickens healthy, high-protein, and vitamin-packed treats during the molting time will help them prepare for fall and winter.

With the arrival of fall, many ask: Can chickens eat pumpkins? You bet! Pumpkins are a great source of both high-quality food and extra protein in the seeds. Omega 3 fatty acids, beta carotenes, vitamins C, D, E, and the B complex vitamins make this a super food to feed to your flock. Additionally, cucurbitacin, contained in the pumpkin seeds, may act as a mild wormer, paralyzing tapeworms, and roundworms so they can be excreted.

Mealworms are always a welcome treat and these little goodies bring a protein punch. Great for helping your chickens recover quickly after a hard molt and a great training tool. Chickens will cooperate better when mealworms are involved!

Seed blocks, peanut butter treats and other commercially available boredom busters are good to keep on hand for times when the chickens have to be cooped up. If you don’t normally purchase scratch grain, fall and winter are a good time to have some on hand.  Scratch grains help increase the chicken’s body temperature while being digested. I feed a small amount to my flock in the evening during cold weather to help them keep warm overnight.

Now that you have taken care of buying lots of pumpkins and treats for the fall and winter, you’re on your way to knowing how to keep chickens warm in winter.

Preparing the Coop for Winter

Molting makes the dust and mess in the coop even messier, so I recommend making sure you know how to clean a chicken coop thoroughly, which is best done while the weather is still nice. Scrape out old chicken bedding. Inspect for rodent holes, insect evidence, and wet areas. Take care of any structural problems now so you don’t have to take care of building maintenance during a winter storm.

Clean the chicken roosting bars and treat with DE powder (diatomaceous earth). This is an excellent diatomaceous earth use because it will kill off any chicken mites trying to take up residence on the roost bars.

Check for leaks in the roof or other parts of the building. While you are checking for leaks, also check that your ventilation is optimal. Ventilation refers to the airflow that circulates air inside the coop and keeps it from becoming stagnant. Ventilation is very important in winter because stagnant air can also lead to moisture collection. Moisture in the presence of sub-freezing temperatures can lead to frostbite on combs, wattles, and feet. A good coop with proper ventilation is the foundation of how to keep chickens warm in the winter.

Winter Heat and Additional Light

Do chickens need heat in winter? I can’t speak about every area of the country but I will say this: Chickens are extremely cold hardy. If the chicken coop is draft free, has good roof ventilation, can be closed securely at night and during storms there is little chance that you need additional heat. After the chickens go through the molting, they grow in healthy new feathers and downy under feathers for winter. Chickens will go to roost at night, fluff up their feathers and cover their feet on the roost bar. It is amazing to me, how much heat is generated by my chickens during the night. The coop is usually very comfortable inside when I arrive in the morning. The chickens are happy and there is less chance of fire. Only once in our chicken raising have we used additional heat. Now, perhaps you live in a particularly frigid area during the winter. I can’t make this decision for you. Draft free goes a long way to keeping the chickens warm enough, though so don’t rush to heat the coop just because you are feeling the chill of winter. Another thing to consider is what happens during a power outage if your chickens have not been allowed to acclimate to the seasonal change in temperature? They are more likely to succumb to cold if it occurs suddenly and they are not prepared.

Adding light may in fact keep the hens laying eggs longer into the winter. I prefer to let them have a natural rest and we use lights only for a short time in the evening while we are cleaning up and feeding/watering the animals for the night. This extends their light by possibly an hour and is not really a factor in their egg laying. Naturally, egg laying slows down during the cold, darker months. This gives the hens a rest and allows energy to be used for warmth. I still collect enough eggs for our use during the winter.

Water in Winter

If your coop is a distance away from your home as ours is, planning for water should be part of your fall readiness. Emptying the hose after each use, or filling containers of water to keep at home will help you avoid frozen water when you are feeding in the morning. I will refill gallon jugs and sit them by my back door. In the morning, I grab the water jugs, dump out the frozen water in the coop and refill with room temperature water from home. The chickens all run to get a warm drink!

With some foresight and minor upkeep and repair during the fall, you and your chickens will be ready for winter weather.

What tips would you share with someone seeking to learn how to keep chickens warm in winter?

JANET GARMAN is a farmer, writer, instructor, and fiber artist living in central Maryland on the family’s farm. She loves all subjects related to small farms and homesteading. Raising chickens, ducks, sheep, and fiber goats led her to write her most recent books, 50 Do-It-Yourself Projects for Keeping Chickens, (Skyhorse Publishing 2018), The Good Living Guide to Raising Sheep and Other Fiber Animals, (Skyhorse Publishing 2019), and 50 Do-It-Yourself Projects for Keeping Goats (Skyhorse Publishing 2020).
Instagram.com/timbercreekfarmer
Facebook.com/timbercreekfarm
timbercreekfarmer.com

Published in the October/November 2023 issue of Backyard Poultry magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.