Coping With The Big Chill

Liz Fairbrother gives some pointers for poultry care in the winter

Most breeds of chickens, ducks and geese are quite hardy given the right management conditions so you don’t have to worry about knitting jackets for them! What they do require is solidly built, dry housing with good ventilation. Ideally before the winter began you will have looked critically at your poultry houses and mended any that are leaking and boarded any holes in the sides. Wire netting should be checked for any gaps and loose fittings such as bolts should have been tightened. Poultry housing needs to be dry and draft-free. What it mustn’t be is stuffy. Obviously you don’t want winter gales roaring through the house but it should be designed in such a way that there is ventilation at the top of the house, above where the birds perch. Birds should not be shut into a totally sealed house. Couple that with wet, dirty bedding and you have a recipe for respiratory diseases – wheezing, runny noses and lung problems. If the house is sited in a sheltered position then rain should not blow into the house. If it is sited in the open you may actually have the house blow over as has happened to me. Winter is the time to have poultry reasonably close to the house as you won’t want to walk across a muddy, windy field and they are also safer closer by.

Fox trouble

The long dark evenings coupled with hungry foxes means that poultry housing itself is under attack. There is plenty of time for them to worry away at the poultry house opening or repeatedly attack weak wire on a run. It’s amazing how a determined fox can break into what looks like a really solid house. They can also scratch through rotten wood to get at poultry. So it’s important to take a long hard look at your poultry housing.

Let there be light