The hens may live there but they aren’t gonna clean it or repair it, you are. Make it easy for YOU! Who cares about the chickens, they get along just fine, but if you hate going in to clean water bowls, to refill food bins, to clean nest boxes or roosts then you will put it off, potentially causing injury or illness for your little feathered friends. 

So many books & websites for small flocks give the deets on what the chickens or ducks need with a just a small name drop about what you, the farmer, the rancher needs. 

Especially in winter. 

Everything takes longer in winter. Requires more clothing. Gloves. Hats. Headlamp. Jacket. Boots. Everything is harder in clunky gloves and if it’s cold enough you don’t wanna take those off to open the metal gate latch that is frozen shut or to wipe down the water bowl. 

Don’t do it. I’ve done it. It’s not fun.​

So these are my key tips and hints for making it easy and breezy to clean and care for the structures that care for your hens even when if is -15F and you are hindered by clumsy gloves, headlamps, and winter gear.

This might seem an obvious tenant to keep in mind while building to ensure easy access, but I've found that I always think that one, small one will be good enough. And it may be for while but soon as chores and snow pile up and temperatures drop it won't be. You'll get frustrated and hinges might break or come loose and you might need to quickly close off one, so having another is vital!

Place nest boxes near doors - the human-sized doors that is. It makes it easier for you to grab 'em often as the temps drop so less eggies get frozies!

Place heat lamps in a useful but accessible location - bulbs will break. It's a fact of life. Especially if the temps drop fast and a little frost forms on the bulbs before you turn them on, then they go POP! Changing the bulbs in steeply cold temps with big bulky gloves with restless hens underfoot is so easy you'll never curse while getting the job done. 

Also, even though hens don't like deep cold, you'll be surprised at what they can find comfortable. Feathers are an supreme insulator (think of all those fancy down coats used on Everest) so give the hens some space to move away from the heat. At some point they'll wanna cool off.

Minimize or Eliminate dark corners, nooks, and crannies - The hens will lay there eggs there, you will need to crawl in to get them (unless you are a jedi knight who can summon them to you), these are the droids - I mean eggs - you are looking for. 

A dirt floor is great, but ... - 

• rodents will burrow in - the warmth, light, unfrozen water, food scraps will draw them in like moths to a flame. And if you don't find rodents icky enough, behind them follow their predators and the small ones, like weasels and mink, can wipe out an entire coop in one night.
• everything will freeze to it and since there isn't a hard, smooth surface to scrap along that shit ain't gonna shovel. Not until spring and it has built up under the roosts like little stalagmites of shit. yay!
• You can 'fix' it!
  • cut boards to cover the dirt to be removed and scraped clean
  • cover the boards with straw to make it cozy for the hens and the poop will stick to it and not so much the boards

Place food and water near where it is easiest for you! - of course the hens need easy access to both, but so do you. They don't get any fresh water or more food unless you give it to them, especially in winter! Make it easy on you first! They are little and can hop up and down, can kinda fly, and have long necks (longer than they look at first) so making them work for it isn't so bad, especially when they would just be sitting on their rumps all winter waiting for fresh grass and grubs!

Like most things, snow can be both a pleasure and a pain. Beautiful but difficult to deal with when it piles up. It’s fitting that I am late with writing this post because of heavy snowfall. This last few days we got almost 1.5 feet of snow with more falling for the next day, and for days after. To manage all this snow, you need more than a shovel, more than a plow; you need to plan for it, to have structures and fencing that can handle the weight and give you access to move the snow away if needed.​

 Since chicken runs are usually covered to protect them from hawks and bobcats, having to shovel the snow out is not easy. No just throwing it over the fence. Instead you have to move it out the doorway. It’s better to keep the snow out in the first place. This can involve a tarp or sheet of plastic to cover the run, but if you expect more than just a dusting of snow, you need to support it from the weight of all that snow. And just like homes in snow-heavy regions don’t have flat roofs, its best to build your structures so that they shed the snow they accumulate on their own (or with a little help).

 Snow is heavy and takes time and energy to move, so limit how many paths you need to keep clear by carefully placing your structures. No matter what I have to keep a path to the barn, so I placed each coop and run along that path so I don’t have to loop through the field to clear the access to the chickens (& ducks) and can easily keep a path wide enough to pull the ‘tea trolley’ filled with water and food each morning.​

The two basic options for heated waterers is to use a separate heated base to heat a normal waterer or to have a waterer with an integrated heater. In my shopping around, most heated bases cost the same as most integrated heated waterers, so I like to go with an integrated one since its one less piece of equipment. In general, I use the integrated heated waterers year-round (just unplugged in summer) and have a few normal waterers to add so everyone stays hydrated when the temps rise.​

The main difference between any waterer is how easily can the little shitters get the water dirty. I find this happens even quicker in winter when I have a sometimes daily freeze/thaw cycle and can’t rotate their space because of snow pack, thus everything is mud and all that mud is half poop.
 If you want them to never be able to get their water dirty, use a nipple waterer. They have to peck at a little metal nipple to get a drop or two of water at a time. Honestly, I hate these. I have a heated one in with my bachelor pad of only roosters but never use it with my laying hens (eggs are mostly water and laying hens need to drink a lot even in winter). For me it takes too long for them to drink a decent quantity and because it only has a few points to get water from they like to fight over it. Chickens will fight over everything. They are the most merciless creatures. Get used to it. Accept it. Learn to work with it. They have a hierarchy and enforce it at all times.

Plus, they are super important for the ducks. They can stick their heads all the way in (which is a must) and can even jump in for a full splash around (which is a BIG perk in winter and keeps my from trying to heat a whole kiddy pool or stock tank). 

      Tip: If you wanna give the ducks a fun, full-size bath use the rubber tubs. I don’t bother heating them as it’s just for a fun pool party during the day. They won’t break when frozen and since you can bend them, the ice breaks away easily. I just take them outside the run and drop them on the ground upside down until the ice block comes out. Just do it in a place you don’t mind having gallon bricks of ice in the way until spring (like not the walkway, oops). 

I first ‘discovered’ them as a way to keep their moist, fermented whole-grain feed unfrozen and then started using them as waterers (even in summer, since the cords coil up outta the way inside the walls). I liked them so much that I only use them for water now and use the shallower (more residential size) heated bowls for the feed. 
 They are also either the same price as similar sized ‘chicken’ waterers or cheaper. Almost every winter I end up breaking one as the plastic will crack in sub zero temps if you are too impatient with it or they will get ‘submerged’ by a fast snow melt or by ducks splashing out all the water (if possible, keep it on a ~½’ thick riser, like a scrap of plywood, if it is getting to wet outside as they are not fully sealed from the underside and sitting in too much water will destroy the heater), so the cost of replacing one doesn’t give me a headache.
 I fill them in the field, using repurposed 1 gallon milk or water jugs to cart out as much water as I need when bringing out the feed in the morning. I call it the tea trolley as I go from coop to coop dropping off feeders and refilling waterers, turning on lights, and letting the chickens into their run.

After you have your heated waterer, you gotta plug it in. Most only come with a 2-4ft cord attached so get ready to play with extension cords. If your winter stays well below freezing and/or you gotta run that cord across a lot of ground, get the blue, winter-rated cords that don’t get super stiff. They cost more but the plastic won’t crack when bent, are usually grounded (3 prong), and are high enough amps to handle the heaters. The dog water bowl manufacturers suggest to not use with extension cords.  The main concern is the heater not getting enough juice to keep the water unfrozen, but I got them on multiple 50ft + cords running at least 4 heated waterers, 4+ LED bulbs, and (as needed) 2 250W heat lamps. I only ever notice a problem in sub-zero temps (~ -15F) and if the water level is low. Keep the bowls out of the wind, full, and use the higher amp extension cords and you should be golden. I keep the connections (cord to cord, or cords in a power strip) either outside of the animal area in a covered space or keep it in a waterproof connector box. I’m not worried about the chickens electrocuting themselves (maybe a little bit) as much as once they get their dirt and poop in the female ends of the cords or power strips, it will be hell to get it out and a little baby saver cover won’t cut it, it will just become a new thing to rip off and peck at.

    Tip: keep an extra laying around. They will always break when its the coldest. You will always drop it during the worst blizzard of the season. Unless you wanna bring out fresh water every hour or two, keep an extra.

Even though some waterers are easier or more convenient to use, none eradicate basic farm labor and animals need proper care and management to stay healthy and thrive. No matter which style waterer you use, just keep those chickies and quackers hydrated so they can keep dropping those golden-yolk yummies. 

Next week, I’ll describe how I keep the winter weather from ruffling their feathers and freezing their toes!
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-Farmer Megan: chicken herder, cat wrangler, duck whisperer, dog walker, vegetable plucker, and flower buncher.
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