Late fall seems to have come early to the PNW this year. It’s been cold and rainy for more than a week, with today topping out at 50 degrees and the forecast not promising anything better for at least the next five days. We may get lucky and be graced with a bout of indian summer, but I’m not holding my breath. Usually when the rain shows up it just settles in for a while.
One of the questions I’m asked most by people considering keeping city chickens is “what about winter?”. Well, it’s a mixed bag here in the PNW, at least in my opinion. For the most part it doesn’t get cold enough to really worry about the hens. They need somewhere to get out of the wind, rain and cold to sleep, but they don’t need heat or a lot of insulation. On the other hand, we get a lot of cold wet rain, and rain means mud and wet straw/shavings and damp birds. Which can lead to illness if you’re not careful.
Last year we tried a few different things before we really hit our stride for how to help our birds through the damp days of winter. This year, I’ve put the plastic (details below) up early as the heavy rains of the past few days have made things really damp and wet in the coop. So, if you’re curious, keep reading for what we do to keep our hens healthy and happy all winter.

We put plastic panels up about 3.5 feet on the sides of the main coop to keep out the rain and snow. This is less for warmth and more to keep them dry but the side benefit is that it gives the girls a wind break and keeps them a bit warmer. The coop is open completely on the south side to give them access to rain, snow, sun and fresh air. The plastic panels are made of clear PVC corrugated roofing panels. We just cut them with a fine skill saw blade and screw them up. During the summer we store them in our shed.
We also change the straw more often during the winter to keep it drier. We have a door flap made of a vinyl floor scrap that we put over the roost box door anytime it’s below 40 or so at night. And since I’m a softie (and we’ve got a couple of banties) I turn on a heat lamp in the roost box on nights that drop down into the 20s or lower. The heat lamp isn’t strictly needed, but we had a round of the sneezes last year and the extra warmth was a factor in getting rid of them.
The girls eat a fairly standard diet of organic layer crumble and huge amounts of table scraps and weeds / grass / bugs that they scavenge in the yard. We always treat with cracked corn year round but much more heavily in the winter, giving them corn both in the morning and at night. The extra calories help them keep their weight when the temperatures drop.
Finally, I’ll be dusting with either diatomaceous (sp?) earth (if I can find some) or Sevin powder this weekend to get rid of any mites or lice before cold really sets in. And as soon as they stop laying, we’ll do a round of worming as there’s a good chance they’ve picked some up this summer. Both of these are somewhat preventative measures to be sure that the girls go into the cold months in good health.
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