Chris,

My personal experience doesn't go below about +15F. According to the literature, chickens in reasonably windproof housing don't suffer until the temperature hits -20C or so.

Traditional wisdom is that heating the whole chicken house works, but is too expensive, and if you do it wrong the house tends to burn down (the chicken manure and ammonia tend to rot equipment, and feathers and straw are bad for fans and heating elements, etc.)

Grain and Exercise. The traditional method of keeping the hens warm is to have fluffy litter, usually of straw, and to scatter grain in the litter first thing in the morning and again before dark. In the daytime, the hens warm themselves through the exercise of hunting for the grain in the litter, and the grain provides the fuel to keep them warm. At night, the hens to to roost with a crop full of grain, which they digest throughout the night to provide readily available calories to keep them warm.

I haven't tried the following, but I suggest two methods of keeping the roosting area less frigid:

Aluminized bubble insulation above the roosting area This stuff goes by brand names like TekFoil and AstroFoil, and consists of a couple of layers of bubble wrap sandwiched with layers of aluminum foil. It reflects heat. Stapling this to the ceiling and back wall, above and behind the roosts, should make the area warmer.

Heated roosts. I've always meant to try this, but it's just not cold enough to be worth my while. Make roosts out of electrical conduit or galvanized pipe. Run heating cable down the inside of the pipe. Hook up to a thermal switch if the cable doesn't have one already. Plug in. In sub-freezing weather, the thermostat will turn on the heating cable, and the roosts (and the hens perched on them) will be warm.

Hi Robert,
I am wondering if you have any ideas for chicken producers who live in actually really cold climates. I live in Northern Alberta where we get -40C which is the same as -40F every year. We also get extended periods of time where it is around -20C. I don't know what that is in F except it is really cold. I want to have a feed made up at the feed mill but I am not really sure what to have in it. I don't like to buy the small bagged stuff because I don't know what is in it nor do I like the price. this is the 2nd year I've had hens through the winter and they seemed fine last year I would just like them to be better this year.
Thanks
Chris

I have tried live traps, with all types of different baits and had no luck. Now I am using electric fencing and I hope it works. I have lost about 30 birds this season. Some were quail eaten through 1" hard wire inside the yard. I have not seen the predator, but it must be a racoon. Any suggestions or advise would be helpful, thanks, Darren

Live traps work great to catch Racoon and possum. Just use dry dog food for bait. Works every time.

We've caught a raccoon in a live trap

I've used live traps. The main problem with them is that predators won't enter them. I have never caught a cat in a snare. Usually domestic pets aren't injured by snares anyway.

Have you tried live traps? If you end up catching a neighbor's cat accidentally, it is easy enough to let it go.

Just be glad your laws still allow snares. We cannot snare or trap anything without a special permit and are only allowed one trapping permit for a max of 30 consecutive days per calendar year. Too bad because you are right, properly done snares and traps are excellent ways to get only the predators causing the problem.

This is clearly the work of Sasquatch, trying to communicate with Human Beings. He/she has observed us and our fellows using tools in the woods and so in his/her simple logic is showing us that he/she can use tools as well.
The tool in the tree is a 'message'; so yes, you must pull it out and Sasquatch will then leave you a note!
This is like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
How exciting-what a break through. Congratulations Robert!
(Do you think I have too much time on my hands? Maybe I should just go do my chores.)

I received a mostly dead order from Mt. Healthy this year also. I also out of many years with Murray McMurray had one chick die several days after I received them. I assumed it was probably the tubes that allow them to eat drying out in the incubator that caused the death.

I can't be sure of this but it was one out of many years of ordering from them.

Do yourself a favor and get them from Murray McMurray.

In defense of Mt. Healthy, they also sent me a new order the following week so their customer service is top notch, but I did have that bad experience. Strange that it matches the person above.

You may have found a place where some hunter feild dressed a dear.

Remember the shovel in the trunk of the myrtlewood tree at Homestead Park?

We feed a scratch mix of cracked corn, whole wheat, grain sorghum, and proso millet. They come running when I start to spread it in the coop. It is a good way to bring in the stragglers at night and they calm down and are easy to count that way too. The grain sorghum, also called milo adds a lot of orange color to the yokes, but they have found that it makes red specks in the meat, so you have to discontinue feeding it a couple weeks before slaughter.

looks to me more like the handle of a chain saw file.

We have started a flock this summer. My wife grew up in the city so it has been an adventure for her. We have a cam for our blog in our chicken house, this morning you can see a little snow that blew in but the chickens and guinea fowl do fine with it. My parents had guineas when I was growing up but they lost most of them to an ice storm. We trained ours to come in with the chickens and so we don't have to worry about it. Good job, I look forward to following your adventures in farming.

Chickens in a tractor will eventually eat down even higher grass. However, they still prefer the shorter, more tender grasses over the taller, more woody ones.

One point about planting grasses... don't forget that chickens love scratching in the soil and to take a dust bath from time to time. Don't rush to fill in all bare spots. A healthy hen needs a variety of terrain rather than a consistent, thick turf that is expected in your suburban lawn.

Hi Robert.

Do the recommended grass heights also apply for chicken tractors?

Great site. Very informative!

My production red hens just can't eat enough protein to support good sets of feathers and still lay every day, so they just continue to lay every day and go naked most of the year. Our Dark Cornish, on the other hand, look pretty good even when molting. But they only lay once in a while.

I've kept chickens since 1971 and have noticed most of the softer feathers from a molt are eaten by my hens. It's a crude form of protein.