Features of keeping laying hens in winter

Hosts who decide to have chickens for the sake of fresh homemade eggs, of course, want them to fly all year round. However, in winter, hens need special conditions so that egg production does not drop. Our tips site will give you some tips for winter keeping laying hens..

Thanks to the portal, you already know how to build a chicken coop with your own hands. For winter maintenance, the most important thing is to warm it! Inexpensive styrofoam works best.

However, if you do not cover the foam plates with anything, the chickens will peck them. And for rodents – this is a great chance to make minks. Therefore, the foam must either be hidden under the cladding – we recommend using OSB boards or plywood, or simply plaster.

Advice from experienced owners – cement plaster on foam does not hold well. Therefore, it is better to apply a layer of it first, wait three days until it dries, then nail the foam to the walls with dowels, and then plaster it again. Two layers will turn out, the plaster will hold on tightly, more reliably.

The most important thing is that there are no drafts in the chicken coop, because layers are birds that can endure frost, but react rather painfully to them. At the same time, we must not forget about ventilation, so that excessive humidity does not form in the hen house..

To keep the hens warm and comfortable in winter, we advise you to make a deep bedding in the hen house. It’s simple – for one square meter of area you need:

• About 10 cm layer of straw, you can sawdust – what do you have on the farm.
• 1 kilogram of lime.

Lime is poured first, then straw or sawdust. Chickens will bury themselves in such bedding and bask. If they tamp the straw hard, stir with a pitchfork and do not forget to regularly add fresh.

The deep bedding and insulation of the chicken coop save on heating costs. But in severe frosts, it is still worth using heating devices..

We recommend installing a convector with a thermostat in the chicken coop. This electronic device allows you to set a suitable room temperature and significantly save on electricity. As for the power of the convector, 1 kW will be enough for 10 square meters..

One or two energy-saving lamps with a power of up to 7 watts are enough to illuminate the chicken coop. It is important that the daylight hours for layers do not exceed 14 hours! Let the birds rest. It is optimal if the light in the chicken coop will be turned on for only three hours in the morning and in the evening, when there is still natural light or no longer.

Note that there is a positive experience of winter keeping hens in polycarbonate greenhouses. If the greenhouse is used only in spring to get early seedlings and vegetables, then in winter it can be given to chickens who lived in a light uninsulated barn in summer or even behind a net under a canopy.

However, the greenhouse needs to be prepared:

1. Set up perches and nests for laying eggs.
2. Make a deep bedding – on the ground, the layer of straw or sawdust should be increased to 40 centimeters!
3. Put the heater on in case of severe frosts.
4. It will be ideal if you put bales of hay or straw along the walls of the greenhouse for additional insulation.

In such a greenhouse, the chickens will calmly overwinter and will not stop laying..

As for the diet of layers in winter, of course, it is impossible to leave them without water. Yes, they can peck at snow, but it doesn’t replace water.

You need to feed chickens nutritiously, giving a mash of crushed and whole grains or mixed feed twice a day. It is necessary to add fish or meat waste, boiled peelings of vegetables, including potatoes, carrots, hay to it. Remember that chickens need chalk, which can be replaced with shells if you can find them..