Thursday, October 21, 2010
Chickens in winter
We are not experts....but what we believe that will make chickens happy in a greenhouse with old blankets and straw bales with heat lamp and light is to make sure they have a good nestly box. either make it with bales of straw or an old cardboard box or make it with wood and surround it with bales of hay. The opening should be 8 to 9" hole and all 3 chickens will use the one box. Have it off the ground 3 or 4 feet with poles so they can get up. They like a hidden private spot to lay eggs and they will probably sleep the night in there also. We collect wild hay and store in cardboard-boxes so that we have box straw for them all winter. The heat lamp will work in -30 -40 no problem. You should have eggs all winter!!!!! Sure like to know where you are located approximately. We also still have all the old cabbage leaves lettuce leaves etc out in the garden .... once the finally freeze up has happened we pick all the frozen leaves and put them in our greenhouse. We feed our chickens these greens plus all the vegitable scrap (cut up fine) all winter long beside their laying mesh plus grain plus oster shell or washed ground up old egg shells. they also LOVE leftover rice or pasta. Their beaks plugged ...
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2 comments:
Thanks for the advice. I do in fact have a nesting box surrounded by straw and they seem happy with it, although at night they actually roost on some bales of straw near the heat lamp. I am lucky in that I get organic food scraps from a local grocer in Whitehorse (I live in the city) so I can supplement their laying mash and table scraps with the produce. I find they love mashed potatoes, cheese, yogurt, sprouts and all sorts of greens. Things like carrots and apples, etc. I need to grate for them. I fed them noodles once and they went crazy - I guess they thought they were worms. They really like it when I turn over my compost pile so they can find all the worms there, although it's starting to freeze right now so those treats won't be available for a while.
I forgot to mention that I too give them oyster shells or washed ground egg shells, plus some gravel to help them digest their food.
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