Here in the Northeast, we have had one heck of a winter so far this year.
Multiple snow storms, continuous below zero temperatures and ice storms to boot have made caring for our chickens a little more work than usual.
We keep some golden Comet sex-links hens for our grand kids to care for in 4H club and for all the great tasting huge brown eggs they supply us with every day.
We have a great coop for our chickens that is totally dry, is wire wrapped for security against predators, has 4 nice nesting boxes and a roost six feet off the floor.
A large fenced pen keeps them at bay most of the time but occasionally they get frisky, vault the wire fence but still don't wander very far.
We simply open the gate and they go back inside in time.
The coop has a double set of doors which in winter keeps any winds from penetrating into the coop area.
A good heavy layer of straw on the floor and in the nesting boxes keeps the floor dry and the chickens warm and snug.
Funny thing is during real bad weather days when we don't let them outside, they play in the straw scratching on the floor and end up piling most of the straw to one side of the coop.
Quite often right up against the entry door.
They do not bury their water or food dish as if they know they need to get to it later.
On most days we feed and water them outside at all temperatures but then have to change the water twice a day as it quickly freezes over.
On snow days we place a flat bottomed metal water dish mounted on a piece of plywood and held in place with a four way bungee cord to prevent the chickens from flipping the bowl and spilling the water.
Wet feet can quickly freeze.
Food is served in a hanging feeder that spins so spilled food is never a problem.
In winter most days the "girls" get a supplement of whatever is leftover in the house.
We blend a mix of Quaker oats, old egg shells, any leftover scrambled eggs, strawberries and their tops (they love them), celery stalks, lettuce and any greens we may have left over including the vegetable cores.
Served in an old metal pie plate, they don't flip it and the food is gone each day.
Their diet seems to agree with them as we get four eggs usually six days a week and three the last day.
We feed them a mix of cracked corn, laying mash and other grains as they are available.
In summer we feed them almost no dry food as they are allowed to free roam in our huge garden and no they do not touch any of the things being grown.
They will burrow under the tomato plants for shade but have never touched a fruit.
But back to winter time.
Their first snow fall really freaked them out.
They would not come down their ramp at all.
Once swept, they ventured outside and slowly made their way around the pen.
As the snow grew deeper over winter we had to remove most of it from the pen area with a snow blower.
Once the snow was only a few inches deep the didn't seem to mind at all.
We scatter some straw on top of the snow, put a water bucket out there and they seem content pecking at the snow all day.
Pathways cut through the snow to the coop make perfect walkways for them to roam and fertilize the lawns at the same time.
We installed a fluorescent sixty watt bulb on a timer to provide a combined daylight and night light combined time of fifteen hours of light per day.
This seems to work fine as their laying cycle has never been interrupted from summer to winter.
No supplemental heat is provided in the coop.
Whomever closes the coop at night and gathers any eggs, gives the chickens a quick look while they are on the roost to assure no combs or wattles are frozen and no feet have ice or snow on them.
So far even at minus ten degrees the "girls" seem to be doing fine.