10 Frugal Ways to Keep Your Chickens Warm in Winter

If you’re anything like me, you love your backyard chickens and would do anything to keep them happy and healthy. And with winter around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about ensuring your feathered friends stay warm and comfortable during the chilly months ahead.

But keeping your chickens warm doesn’t have to break the bank. There are plenty of affordable and practical ways to ensure they stay warm without spending much money. In this blog post, we’ll share tips for keeping your chickens warm this winter using what you have around your homestead.

 

Regarding frugal living, you want the best way to do something for the least amount of money. Unfortunately, this winter here in upstate New York has been frigid.

With temperatures below freezing and highs in the -2. It’s been brutal, so I have gathered up our best tips on how we are keeping our chickens warm this winter and how you can, too.

This is our seventh winter on our little farm, but we have lived in cold, harsh winters all our lives.

We don’t use a heat lamp with our chickens. I read many things about the realization you don’t need one, but a few of our chickens did get frostbite a few days ago when the temperatures dipped into the single digits and negatives overnight. I quickly realized some mistakes that we made.

We did a few things wrong, and I want to share with you how we fixed it, and it’s working for us now.

Here are 11 Frugal Ways to Keep your Chickens Warm this winter

Just after 6 a.m., I went out to the barn to let the chickens out. I knew they would need water, a path shoveled to come out to the heated bucket of water.

Our winter has been the coldest this year since we started raising chickens five years ago. So the chickens haven’t left the barn for the past few days- not even for water.

So, I have been making several trips to the barn to fill up some water bowls. That was getting old. The ducks weren’t even coming down for water. The wind was just too brutal.

Then I saw a chicken with blood, and her feathers pulled back, and I immediately thought she got attacked. I looked around the barn, but nothing. Then I looked closer and realized she had frostbite.

Tip: When our chickens got frostbite, I would put them in a small dog crate with a bunch of straw and bring them in the garage. I kept them hydrated and fed away from the flock until they warmed up.

In the past, when a chicken was sick or had an injury, we kept it in a dog crate in the barn with the others, but given the temperature, I decided the garage would be a bit warmer.

You also don’t want to bring them to a heated area, as a drastic warm-up isn’t suitable for the affected area. 

The other chickens were probably pecking at her blood, which worsened the whole scene. I walked around the barn and saw a few other chickens had black spots on their combs.

I felt awful. Now after living here in the country for seven years, I make sure to winterize our chicken coop in the fall.

 

USE OLD CHICKEN FEED BAGS TO FILL DRAFT HOLES

Our biggest mistake was not filling every hole in the coop. Overnight temperatures are the lowest they have been with this flock, and most frostbite occurs during the night.

We save all our chicken food bags and have them sitting in a corner of the barn. It is incredible how thick these are.

I shoved these bags into holes and stapled them to the walls where any holes were—the cost to do this was nothing.

I’m not sure why I thought just covering their window last year was good enough- although the previous year, 2017, our winter was not as harsh.

To fill in gaps in your chicken coop this winter, you can use any clear plastic, tarps, etc.

 

 

USE PLEXIGLASS TO INSULATE & LET SUN HEAT COOP

We have two chicken coops. Before we moved out to the country, I had my six chickens in town, living across the street from Walmart! It was an adventure. My husband built that chicken coop and used Plexiglass on the side. This allows light into the coop, but we don’t have to worry about insulating it in the winter.

HAVE ADEQUATE VENTILATION

To prevent ammonia build-up, you must have adequate ventilation in any building where chickens live. You don’t want your chickens exposed to high levels of this toxic gas, so ensure that you include plenty of vents in the design when you’re building the chicken coop.

If chickens breathe in a lot of ammonia, they will have to pant like dogs when it’s hot, which means that your chickens will be spending less time laying and panting, which is unhealthy for them and makes egg production drop dramatically.

Keep the coop dry

Moisture in the coop can make your chickens feel colder than they are. To ensure your coop stays dry, provide proper ventilation and clean up any wet spots or leaks. When you build your chicken coop, you need roosting spots for the chickens. This helps keep them off the cool floor and their feet warm because they will sit and fluff their feathers on their feet.

Keep Their Food and Water filled to the Top

It’s also important to keep chickens’ water filled all the time. The chickens will drink much more often when it’s extremely cold or hot out, so ensure that there is always plenty of water available for them. They will quickly become dehydrated if their water supply runs low.

Food for the chickens also needs to be available at all times. Feeding the chickens will keep them warm and happy.

SALTWATER BOTTLE TO KEEP WATER FROM FREEZING

I saw this idea floating around on Pinterest. Surprisingly, we found a heated water bucket on the side of the road that still works. Last year, I shoveled a path from the barn down to the bucket, and it worked fine.

This year, it’s not happening. There is too much snow and wind. So the water bucket is at the edge of the barn, but there is still snow up to it. Unfortunately, some of our chickens refuse to go to it.

We tried an old water bottle filled with half saltwater and half water. We ensured that the lid was tight and that nothing was leaking.  An excessive amount of salt can kill chickens.

Then we filled our waterer, and it worked! Yet for the past week, when the temperatures have been in the negatives, the saltwater hasn’t worked.

The water bucket continues to have ice around the rim. It’s just too darn cold. This is a free way to keep your chickens hydrated. Once the temperatures rise again, I will continue using the water bottle method.

Update: I will splurge for the electric waterer if you have it in the budget and your temperature hits below freezing a lot. I finally got one this year. 

Our old barn has fallen since we first wrote this post, and we built a brand new barn and put a chicken coop inside. The drafts, oh my, are so much better. 

You can also try a heating pad. I read several forums of others trying a reptile heating pad for the chickens, and it worked well. As always, do your research on this before trying.

Like the Zilla Heat Pad, using a heater for chickens is an excellent way to ensure their water stays warm enough for chickens to drink it all day.

These heat pads are perfect for chickens because they don’t heat up high enough to burn them if they touch them directly. A heating pad for chickens will help them drink lots of water to stay warm.

 

 

RED PEPPER FLAKES

I have been feeding our chickens Red Pepper flakes I bought from Aldi for under $2! Supposedly this will warm your chickens up. There are a bunch of different spices you can use to create a healthy flock. 

I have been doing it the last couple of days, and if anything, it gets them up and moving to increase their blood flow, so it’s a win for me.

Also, there are many articles about cayenne pepper increasing egg production and even saying it thickens the shell of their eggs.

Related:

• 6 Fun Tips to Sell Eggs From Your Home
• How to Get Your Hens to Lay Eggs Longer

 

FEEDING EXTRA SCRAPES/TREATS

Our chickens are pasture-raised. They only go in the barn at night. In winter, they have their coop inside the huge old barn. So, for the most part, they hang out in the barn on extreme weather days.

I give them any extra veggie scraps that are not going to our indoor pot-bellied pig. For example, the ends of bread seem to be their favorite. I throw the ends in the toaster, then toss them in a blender and feed to the chickens.

In conclusion, those five tips are the most beneficial. Keep your flock free from drafts, hydrated, and fed should keep them up and alive through the winter months. Always ensure they have a full feeder before they sleep, which keeps them warmer through the night.

We also keep thick layers of straw in the coop and around the barn, where they hang out during the day. Then, we shovel a path from the barn down to the grass when the weather warms up.  This gives the chickens a bit of an area to forage.

You can apply these tips to ducks as well. Our ducks share the same coop as our chickens and follow the directions above.

Make use of natural sunlight

Even on colder days, the sun can warm your coop. Place your coop in a spot with plenty of natural sunlight throughout the day to help keep things warm and cozy.

Provide roosting bars

During the cold winter, your chickens will instinctively huddle together for warmth. Providing roosting bars will give them plenty of space to do just that. I mentioned this above but it keeps their feet warmer too.

Keep Them Occupied

If you keep your chickens inside the coop all winter and do not let them out in the run, add some enrichment activities. Eating and drinking help them stay warmer in cold weather, too. Check out this fun post about DIY chicken toys.

I hope this helps you feel confident about providing for your backyard chickens this winter. The first couple of years are always the hardest and get easier as you learn your area, land, and flock.

More chicken tips:

• How to Stop Chickens From Eating Their Eggs
• How to Turn A Trampoline into a Chicken Coop and Still Jump on It!
• 8 Adorable Chicken Coop Gardening Ideas
• 15 Ways to Keep Chickens Cool in Hot Summer Weather
• How to Make the Perfect Chicken Dust Bath