Animals in the winter

Winter is here!

Ok, not technically, but we went from beautiful fall days of 68-70 degrees to below freezing temps in one day so it feels like winter is here!

A lot of discussion has been happening on the BYC forum about chickens and cold weather. I figured I'd write a post about how we handle the cold weather and our animals. I can sum up what we do by saying we try to keep things as natural as possible here. An important thing to keep in mind is the lower critical temperature (LCT) of an animal. This is the temperature at which an animal will suffer ill effects and needs additional care including shelter and/or extra feed. Note that does not mean heat. Just shelter and food. Here is some common farm animal average LCTs:
Horse: -15F
Chicken: 12F
Dairy Cow: -22F
Goats: 32F

Goats

I don't really do much for them since they have their usual loafing shed area that is full of straw. The only thing I did was put a piece of wood at an angle in a corner to block the wind a little more since it usually blows from the west and their open side is the south. This gives them a little corner that is free of wind and snow. I feed them in this area and give them a small water dish that is easy to dump and refill if it freezes. A heated water dish for them is on it's way, so they'll have that soon. I have upped their hay in the frigid weather we are having right now (currently 2 deg outside). Despite all the nice straw in the loafing shed, they have been spending the nights in the space under the tack room. Go figure.

Dogs

The pugs barely step foot outside longer than it takes to do their business and if they could get away with it, they wouldn't even do that. Barley will stay outside for a minute when I go out. He'll follow me out to the animals but if I'm not back in a minute he runs back to the house. If it's not below freezing and the sun is out, then Jasmine will go lay in the snow, but on frigid days even she is inside. She has a thick winter coat so she gets hot inside, though so I will usually find her in the laundry room laying right next to the dog door where the cold air is coming in. 

Cats

Rocky stays inside when it's cold. Apollo (the new barn kitten) sleeps in the tack room. He is the only outdoor animal we provide extra heat for. We have 2 lamps with incandescent bulbs shining on his water and bed. It keeps it above freezing in his little area. I don't let him out of the tack room for his usual outdoor time when it's snowy and/or below freezing. I think he's ok with that. 

Chickens

I hear a lot about this topic and have done a lot of reading on it. I get asked a lot about what I do for the chickens when it's cold out. I don't do much. I do not provide supplemental heat or lighting to the birds. I have read that providing heat is worse than not and increases the risk of frost bite. The one thing we did do was put plastic up over the secondary coop's large window to keep the wind and snow out. And it's a good thing we did because even through the small holes we didn't cover there is a dusting of snow in some areas of the coop. We are looking at ideas to block off at least a portion of the run to keep the snow out but so far we haven't found anything feasible, the run is just too large. So for now on subzero days I leave the flocks in the coops simply because they wisely spend their time there any way so I might as well keep the doors shut and the cold air out as much as possible. 

I use a heated dog dish for the main coop and a bucket/nipple system with an aquarium heater for the secondary coop. I feed indoors if there is snow on the ground and I don't do fermented feed in the winter. I do still sprout the peas and lentils for them in the house though. 

I am considering trying to do a fodder system again this winter. I read that 65-68 is the perfect temp and we keep our house around there in the winter so I might be able to do it without getting mold. I would love to give the animals some greens throughout the winter. 

People ask me all the time, "The chickens are ok in this weather!?" Sometimes I find myself drawn in by the concern and seeing all the animals that are receiving supplemental heat and start questioning myself. The internal struggle between doing things naturally and putting my own feelings on the animals starts again. But then as I was sitting on my couch this afternoon I saw some song birds come up to our bird feeder and bare tree and was reminded if they can make it, I'm sure my big fluffy chickens in their down coats will be fine in a nice dry coop!