Winter in the chicken coop too often means a lack of eggs, chilled water, and cold, unhappy hens. But with focus on a few key details, your hens can maintain laying through much of the winter, although egg processing might decrease a bit. A bit more importantly, you'll rest easy knowing that they are convenient and warm. The following is a practical winter preparation check list:
Lamp. A hen's laying is affected by her pineal glandular, which consequently is handled by daylight. Sixteen hours of light on a daily basis, supplemented by a 60-watt lucent light bulb or 2 on a timer, is ideal for keeping birds active-- and laying eggs.
â?¢ Roosts. By nature, chickens prefer to roost at dusk. This is also their step to remain warm: with wings fluffed, they offer specific heat by roosting near to each another. See to it that your chickens have relaxed roosts by having 6-8 inches of roost spot each bird.
â?¢ Warmed water. According to how colder it receives exactly where you stay, you might must keep the hens' water supply from cold. Feed stores sell heating system bases that fit underneath the typical galvanized metal hen waterers.
â?¢ Deep litter. The deep litter method is low-maintenance, and it stays hens warm through winter when the litter and manure slowly compost and produce heat into the mew. Just start off with a clear coop and around 4 inches of litter (grass, straw, wooden shavings, or a mix) in the summer or early fall. Simply add extra litter throughout the season as required to retain the bedding fairly dry and clean. By winter, the litter must be about 8 to 10 inches low. It will be composting perfectly and producing heat. The poultries' scraping may maintain it oxygenated and changed, particularly if you throw scratch grains in the coop for them, but you can give it a hand with a pitchfork from time to time.
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