Keeping Chickens Warm in Extreme Cold Winter Weather

I live on the shores of Lake Superior, where it is often unbearably cold and incredibly windy, so I have had to learn a thing or two about keeping chickens warm in extreme cold weather.  I decided to share my tips because many other chicken keepers who write about overwintering chickens seem to have very mild winters.  If you don’t need to plug in your vehicle, just so it will start, or you can go outside with your jacket unzipped, it’s not a real winter!  If your daffodils and tulips bloom in April, we just aren’t experiencing the same kind of COLD CLIMATE.  I say this in jest, but also with the bitterness of someone who looked out on Easter Monday and saw a fresh blanket of snow on the yard.  After reading so many articles about how to keep chickens warm in winter, and realizing these people lived where winters are mild, I really felt misled about how to keep chickens safe and warm in the cold.  So here are my best tips – including tips for keeping chickens warm in winter without electricity!

What Kind of Cold Are We Talking About?

Just so we’re on the same page: our winters here are very long, very snowy, and bitterly cold with really strong winds and tons of snow.  Our nights often have lows below -30 Celsius (-22 Farenheight).  A record cold for this area is -43.2 Celsius (-45.8 Fahrenheit) in 1996.  I remember that, I remember it being so, so cold – and these temps are without windchill which, living on Lake Superior, can be INTENSE.  Our chickens do NOT enjoy the winters – but they survive, so here are my tips for keeping chickens warm in extreme cold winter weather.

We Chose Cold Hardy Chicken Breeds:

The first step is to pick the right kind of chicken!  When researching which breed(s) you’d like, pay particular attention to your climate.  We chose a pretty cold hardy breed for our first chickens: the Ameraucana.  It has a small pea comb too, so there’s less area susceptible to frostbite.  Combs, waddles, and feet are all areas chickens are more likely to get frostbite.  Pewter, my surprise roo, is not a chicken I would have chosen because his big comb was susceptible to frostbite and, although I tried my best to treat it, he did suffer some disfigurement.  His first winter he was, at times, visibly uncomfortable despite my best efforts.  He is all healed up now, thankfully, and no other frostbite cases occurred within my flock.   But picking cold hardy chickens was the first step!

We Let Chickens Acclimate + We Nurture Them During Molting Season

If you baby your chickens early in the colder months, they won’t toughen up for the winter.  Chickens can actually produce a lot of body heat and their feathers are quite warm – that’s why our down winter coats are so toasty.  Basically your chicken is wearing the OG feather coat.  Chickens molt in the fall though (meaning they shed their old feathers, which have become worn out and broken) so right before winter they can look pretty bedraggled.  They will then grow brand new, quality feathers to keep them warm in the winter.  If you baby them while this is happening, I have read that they won’t regrow a warm enough coat.  During molting season, I like to switch my chickens to grower feed (since they aren’t laying much anyway) and that helps provide the extra protein to grow good quality feathers.  Helping them through the molting process and letting nature work its magic when they regrow their new winter feathers will help a lot.

We Built a Sheltered “Mini Barn” (Basically a Shed) That Houses the Coop:

The sheltered barn that houses the coop and nesting boxes, along with offering storage for chicken stuff, was one of my best ideas because the barn provides a welcome shelter on extremely cold days.  If given the choice, the chickens prefer to be out in the run, but when it is super cold they hang out inside the barn and only go outside for food and water (they will not go into their coop during the day, so if I only had a coop and run, they’d be less sheltered).  The “mini barn” provides them a little extra shelter and, although it was a bit more work to build, I highly recommend a mini barn (even if it’s just a prefab shed) to enclose a coop if you live somewhere really cold.  It is nice shelter for me as well, when I collect the eggs, clean the coop, and just hang out with my flock.

We Insulated the Coop During Construction:

How do you winterize a chicken coop?  When we built the coop, we insulated it: top, sides, and bottom.  It’s also built inside the mini barn, which helps shelter it even more.  When the chickens are inside, they act as little furnaces in coats and generate their own heat.  The insulation helps them keep their own heat, but we also modified the coop a bit more than this after everything was built – but rigid foam insulation was a good first step.  If you can’t go back and insulate your coop, you can pile hay bales around the outside to help add some insulation after the fact.

We Then Hacked the Coop and Cut it in Half:

Once we realized the chickens were getting chilly, we halved the coop (for the winter months) to keep the chickens cozier. We had built it hoping for a larger flock, so when the small flock couldn’t successfully heat the large space with their own body heat, we added a piece of plywood to cut the coop in half.  The plywood doesn’t reach all the way to the automatic door so at night they have a small area in which to snuggle and heat, but there is space for them to access the other side.  If you’re worried about keeping your chickens warm, keep an eye on the coop to chicken ratio – and either get more chickens or make the coop smaller and cozier.

We Added Heat Reflecting Material Inside:

I also found this heat reflecting material, which we stapled up inside the coop.  I measured and kept track with our thermometer, and the heat reflecting material definitely helped raise the temperature by a few degrees when the chickens are inside.  It helps reflect their own heat back to them.  I know lots of people who don’t heat their coops at all and if you’re one of those people, but think your chickens could use a bit of a “boost” to their own heating abilities, try this heat reflective material for a totally safe way to “heat” a coop in winter.

We Got a Heated Waterer:

Frozen water is a big problem, and open water sources in winter can be dangerous.  I’ve heard of chickens stepping in an open water source and losing a foot to frostbite – that can be avoided with a heated waterer like this.  I know it requires electricity, which is not always convenient, but if you can swing a closed and heated waterer, that’s a big step in keeping chickens safe in winter.  We LOVE this heated waterer.  We have never had any problems with it, although the lid will sometimes freeze shut so to fill it up every few days, I need to bring it inside the thaw open the lid.  But the water inside is always drinkable – no matter how cold it is outside – and, most importantly, contained so the chickens stay dry and safe.

We Covered the Run to Protect from Snow & Wind:

We built the sheltered chicken run with a roof, and the roof keeps the rain and snow off.  But the sides were hardware cloth, so the chickens were protected from predators, but got lots of great ventilation and fresh air in the summer.  For winter, we had to make some adjustments to shelter the sides from snow and wind, which really was integral to keeping chickens warm in extreme cold winter weather.  First we bought a few sheets of Lexan and installed those at the corner of the run, facing the lake.

It’s where their roosts are and where they prefer to hang out.  We keep this up permanently to offer some shelter, because the winds here can be intense at any time of the year.  But it was too expensive to buy for the whole chicken run.  For the rest of the run, we bought marine grade vinyl (this is the exact gauge we bought) and installed the marine grade vinyl to the sides of the run with screws and washers.  In the spring, we take it down, hose it off, and roll it up to store for the next winter and re-install it each fall.  Since installing electric fence around the coop and run, we just install the marine grade vinyl to the inside of the run (but that’s the only change we’ve made since taking these photos).

Why Marine Grade Vinyl is Better Than a Tarp for Winter

It’s not the prettiest, but it’s better than a tarp because it lets in light, the chooks can still see out, and it’s SUPER durable.  This vinyl is very thick and almost stiff, so it does not flap or move in the wind.  These sheets of vinyl keep the snow from blowing in and heaping inside, and shelter the chickens from the wind.  But unlike a tarp, this vinyl also creates a bit of a greenhouse effect with the sun, making it a bit warmer in there.  The one issue to watch for is humidity.  There were one or two mild winter days that the run becomes a little too much like a greenhouse, and the heat turns humid.  If it ever gets too muggy in the run, we just unscrew a panel temporarily to add ventilation.  Otherwise, there is only one spot of ventilation above the man door and that has worked out perfectly for winter.  Covering the run is essential to keeping the chickens warm in the winter.

You can see the heaps of snow that piled up outside but didn’t disrupt the chickens inside:

We Added More Roosts:

To keep warm, chickens will roost with their feet under them and their heads under their wings.  In the winter, their little bodies are quite warm so they use it to keep their exposed areas cozy.  To make sure they can do what they need to do naturally to stay warm, we added more roosting spots, at different heights, and protected these roosting areas from the wind with solid sheets of Lexan (which I discussed above).  Adding more roosting spots helps with keeping chickens warm in extreme cold winter weather and is another thing that can be done without electricity.  Even just throwing in an old table I heaved home from the dump provided an additional spot to roost – we give them as many options as possible!

We Lay Down Chopped Straw – But No Deep Litter Method:

I lay down some chopped straw in the run for winter (I am obsessed with this stuff – it lasts a long time) and that enables me to be able to rake up the poop regularly to keep it clean and dry.  Plus I think the chickens prefer to walk on the straw as opposed to the frozen soil.  I also add heaps of this same straw to the barn floor in winter for a little extra insulation too.  Keeping the coop, barn and run clean and dry is essential to making it comfortable in the cold.  I spot clean poop out every couple of days and change it over entirely every couple of weeks to keep it clean and dry in there.  It only two a few seconds each day and it makes such a difference for humidity too (poop = humidity = bad for chickens respiratory systems).  I can’t get the hang of the deep litter method, but I’ve heard that works well.

We Closed Off Some Ventilation:

We had put the “right” amount of ventilation when we built the coop and barn, but maybe it was too low, or too much for our intensely cold and windy climate.  We quickly realized that it let in too much of a draft come winter, so we closed off one side (inside the half of the coop where they slept) and bought a vent with a foam filter for the other side, to allow air, but not as much wind, to travel through.  We bought a thermometer and hygrometer (to measure humidity) so I could check the humidity and temp regularly, because too much humidity is very dangerous to the health of chickens.  Good ventilation is actually key to keeping chickens warm winter (and healthy), so don’t think that sealing off a coop entirely will keep them safe – they NEED that ventilation, but you need to watch them (and monitor exact humidity levels) to determine how much.  Here’s a look at the vent we temporarily closed off  (it was lakeside, with lots of wind); we open it up again in the summer.  Watch your coop ventilation and make adjustments as necessary throughout the winter – what was “perfect” for summer chicken keeping may be different once the temps dip.

We Bought a Radiant Heater Designed for Chicken Coops:

There were some cold days here when all of these measures just weren’t enough to keep chickens warm in winter, so we did break down and buy a radiant heater.  It was just enough for them to endure the coldest nights.  We don’t even use this every year, but I feel better knowing we have the option in a pinch.  I did research and this one has the least risk of fire – although no heat source (other than a chicken!) is a risk of 0%.  This is the exact heater we bought and we just hung in on one wall.  Obviously this method of keeping chickens warm in extreme cold winter weather requires power, while most of my other suggestions don’t require electricity.  As a volunteer firefighter, barn fires – actually any fires – really scare me, so this is definitely a last resort!!!

We Feed Them Warm Meals:

Closer to bedtime, on super cold days, I make them some scrambled eggs and veggie mash (I use a food processor to mash up veggie scraps and herbs and add to scrambled eggs) or some oatmeal with cinnamon, to help warm their tummies.  Or I give them their fave, sunflower seeds, because having something in their bellies before bedtime helps keep chickens warmer in winter.  A warm nighttime snack is a delicious way to keep chickens warm in extreme cold.

We Snuggle Them (Kidding, Sort of):

I go out there on super cold days and try my best to snuggle them a bit.  They willingly hop into my lap for a bit of a break from the cold.  Obviously not an actual solution, because you can’t snuggle them 24/7, lol, but I like to think it helps boost morale!  Do chickens have morale?  They wait for me at the door all winter, excited for treats and snuggles, so I like to think so.  The regular snuggles really just help me make sure they are healthy and well.  I occasionally had to treat Pewter’s comb for frostbite that first winter, so it’s good he was ready for a cuddle because I had to get super close to administer the ointment.  By snuggling, I check them over to look for signs of frostbite or respiratory problems (like raspy breathing/sneezing), which help keep them healthy and also help me keep tabs on my measures to keep my chickens warm in winter.

We Check the Chickens at Night:

On super cold nights, I go out and check the chickens, even though they have an automatic coop door, because occasionally they haven’t made it into the coop on time and are trapped in the barn, more exposed than they are in the insulated coop.  Coal, my Silkie, even went broody one winter and refused to go inside at night, so I’d have to manually put her in there every night.  I don’t check on them on mild nights but whenever it is super cold, I go check just to be sure everyone is tucked in for the night.  On super cold nights, I also peek at the temperature and humidity to monitor our coop winterizing efforts.  Then I encouragingly pet their bums, promise them that spring is coming soon, and leave them alone.  But checking on them regularly through the bitter winter – as much as it sucks for me – is key to keeping them safe and warm.

What We Plan to Do for Next Winter:

To help keep the chickens warmer, we add new chicks every couple of years, because more bodies generate more heat naturally – both in the coop and in the run.  More chickens is always the answer!

We also plan to build way more roosts, swings, platforms – basically a chicken jungle gym (you can buy this kind of thing too), so they have more areas to roost and tuck their feet under them.  We need to figure out some better drainage in the run too.  We’ve thought about digging down and removing some soil and adding sand in the run, which can prevent the mud that happens when we get the heaps of snow melting.  It can get kind of cold and muddy in there come spring.  For me, I’d like to add an awning to the run door because the snow melts off the roof on rare warm days and then freezes the bolt shut, creating a dangerous patch of ice right there too, so I need to stop that from happening.  I also want to install a camera inside the coop instead, so I don’t have to bundle up in the dead of a cold winter night and trudge outside to be sure they’re safely inside the coop.  I’d like to make keeping chickens warm in extreme cold winter weather a little more enjoyable for me too.

I Hope You Found My Guide on How to Keep Chickens Warm in Winter Helpful!

It has definitely been a learning experience figuring out how to keep our chickens warm in really cold winter weather, because many sources I read about “keeping chickens warm in winter” don’t have the intensely cold and brutal winters we have, so I was shocked when my chickens were cold.  The first winter Pewter sustained some frost bite damage to his comb, but that was the worst of it.  My flock survived the winter.  Years later, they still hate it (like me!) but we weather through and all look forward to spring together!

What is the Best Way to Keep My Chickens Warm in the Winter?

1. Choose cold hardy chicken breeds!
2. Insulate the chicken coop, by building it inside a shed, adding rigid foam insulation, and/or installing heat reflective material on the interuir walls.
3. Minimize drafts, but do not allow too much humidity to build up.
4. Cover the chicken run with a roof and marine grade vinyl on the sides to shelter chickens from snow and wind.
5. Ensure chickens have many places to roost.
6. Get more chickens – or ensure that the coop is not too large for the number of chickens you have.
7. Invest in a heated watered to make sure chickens stay dry and have access to clean, fresh water.
8. Add chopped straw – or try the deep litter method – for extra insulation in the coop and run.
9. Feed chickens a warm meal at night before bedtime.
10. Check the chickens at night to make sure everyone is safe and warm inside the coop!

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