Preparing chickens for winter

We are having a nice little warm spell this past week and it should continue for several more days. This is great for preparing for winter. I can’t forget that a couple of weeks ago we had a small blizzard. Winter is on the way, no doubt about that. So while the weather is in the 60s and sunny, I should be winterizing the garden, the bees and the chickens.

I found a great article about ‘winterizing’ the chickens in a blog at The Guardian, so rather than reword and retype, I will just reference. The article is full of great information, which will spur me to action right after lunch and a nap.

Coop insulation

The article talks about sub-zero temperature which we rarely have, so our chickens will be fine, but we do need to put up a little more plastic wrap around the coop screens just to keep the wind, rain, and snow at bay. Ventilation has never been a problem and the new chicken palace was designed with plenty of air flow. We may still want to move the chickens around between the three coops, but with four roosters creating new groups is tricky.

Tarick

Our two-and-a-half-year-olds are all still in the middle of a big molt and I am hoping that they develop their new feathers soon. They look awful, but more importantly, they are very vulnerable to the cold in this condition. Percy is one of them, and along with the loss of feathers, he has clearly lost his mojo. He was the alpha bird until the molt and how he will run and hide if put in the same space as the new, much smaller, Tarick. We really should just get rid of Tarick. We are not planning to breed with him, and poor Percy would sure like to get his old space back.