The Early Prepper Gets the Egg

In anticipation of a hectic end of November/all of December, I started our winter chicken coop preparations early.  Many of you know that Michigan experienced an early "Polar Vortex" in mid-November.  It seems that my usually ridiculous planning ahead obsession ended up being the vital step in the survival of our chickens!

We consulted one of our urban farming friends about their chickens in winter.  They don't have electricity to their coop, so they just check on the water 2 times a day and break the ice off of it, and their full-sized chickens just huddle together for warmth.  Our little Bantams could probably survive this way too, but I'm hoping to keep up their egg production during the winter, and I'm too lazy to check their water twice a day in feet of snow.

I also found some blogs on Pinterest with tips for tending chickens during the winter months.  One idea was for a water warmer made from a cookie tin, a lamp kit and a 40 Watt light bulb.  It seemed worth a try.  So I purchased the necessary supplies and got to work.  The cookie tin cost 90 cents, about $10 for the lamp kit and a pack of 40 watt light bulbs.



Photo from blog link.  My photos are in limbo on a broken external hard drive.



Photo from blog link.  My photos are in limbo on a broken external hard drive.

We installed a heat lamp in the coop when we built it, with the intention of setting it on a timer over the winter to give the girls a little extra light and warmth.  However, our only electrical source has to run the heat lamp and the water warmer.  After our cold November, the water was not staying ice free on an intermittent warming schedule. We can switch to a higher wattage light bulb in the dead of winter if it seems the 40 is not keeping up, but for now, the timer is no more and the chickens are enjoying 24 hour heat lamp comfort, and ice free water.

So far, we have seen continued egg production, although not always salvageable.  A few eggs have cracked from freezing if we didn't get to them fast enough.

When we first started getting eggs, they were always in the laying boxes.  It seems that we can attribute this solely to the fake egg that I put in there.  We had to remove the plastic egg from the boxes to eliminate broody behavior in our non-laying hen.  Since then, we have found eggs everywhere.  On the ladder is one of the favorite spots.  Every once in a great while they end up in the laying boxes.  While we were gone for Thanksgiving, she laid all of her eggs in a spot directly behind the laying boxes... so close.