Keeping Chickens in a Harsh Northern Climate

Update: I am overjoyed to hear of some Mainers who actually have used my instructable! 



My name is Dainius and i live in Maine where the climate is murderously cold in the winter. I have lost many a chicken in the earlier days until i have learned how to keep them going through the ice and wind storms.

My chickens are free range, but they have a home base chicken coop. I have taught them how to find food on their own (if their food might be frozen or i cannot make it out to the chicken coup.)

The one problem about letting your chickens learn how to hide in, live in, and love their big yard is that they hide their eggs in huge nests in underbrush that are very hard to find. I would look around my yard and sometimes find massive nests with about 25-35 rotten and still good eggs.

One of the ways you can coax them into laying in their coop, is by putting some of their rotten eggs in their nest. And even better, leave a few good eggs in their nest and cycle through them when they lay more. Sometimes, putting an empty egg of theirs or a wooden egg also works.

Here is a video of my chickens in the fall. You can see my dog there, she actually protects them!(Because shes a German shepherd she likes to herd the chickens as if they were sheep. She just makes sure their all in a group, but shes not always on duty doing that)

Step 1: Raising Chickys From Chick-hood.

1. Mailman asking questions?: I got a peeping box in the mail that was full of 12 chicks. We had to give them a certain medicine(forgot what it was called) and we had to give them water by an eyedropper. They have to stay under a hot light 24/7 until they get big enough to go outside. The little chicks must have plenty of mushy wet food to eat (it is better for them to swallow it that way) and plenty of water.

Whenever you have a spare minute always run down and check on them. They would always be getting into bits of trouble when i would come down.

1.1 Breeds: It is very important that you choose certain chicken breeds that will survive the cold. They might not look as pretty, but they will survive.

Here is a list of the best breeds of chicken for a cold climate:

E = egg amount

E = poor
EE = okay
EEE = good
EEEE = very good
EEEEE = prolific

B= broodiness

   = non setter
B = mostly a non setter
BB = occasional brooder
BBB = can be broody
BBBB = broody
BBBBB = very broody, protective mother

Ameraucana: EEEE, A+, BBB, friendly
Ancona: EEEE, A+, , restless and wants to escape
Appenzell: EEE, A+ (except crest freezing), BBB, restless in confinement
Australorp: EEEE, A+,BBB, calm and easily handled - this looks like the best one
Buckeye: EEE, A+,BB, calm and friendly
Jersey giant: EEE, A+,BB, calm and adaptable
Orpington: EEE, A+,BBBBB, docile and can be bullied
Plymouth Rock: EEE, A+,B, calm and adaptable
Sussex: EEEE, A+, BBBB, adaptable and easy
Wyandotte: EEE, A+, B, calm and adaptable

2. Pet chickens: Teach them to not fear humans. Hold them in your hands and gently stroke them, but not too long (this may be disputed but it worked for me, they run up to me and climb on my lap whenever i am near. they can turn practically into cats!) Let them eat from your hand and let them see that it is not bad. Do not try to grab and squeeze them because it traumatizes them.

3. Masters of aviation: When they learn how to fly, you must be extra careful and make sure the walls of their pens are tall. They can end up in such places.

4. Flew the coop!!: The choice between flying, and not flying chickens: I like my chickens flying because they can escape from raccoons, stray dogs, and all sorts of bad things. but they do escape from my yard sometimes and i have to round them up.

Not flying is better in a safer environment where they can be safe from other creatures. They will easily stay in any pen and you musn't worry.

Step 2: Weathering Your Birds

1.Freerange fowl: Leave the doors to the chicken coup open so they can roam out and learn the wilderness. You must let them go to the edges of your yard, but if they start getting out, you must heard them in in the fashion of an animal. Don't let them see you do it, Do not look like yourself because then they will get scared of you. Walk on all fours or just move somehow different.

2.Lean mean flying machines: Give them plenty of slop of your kitchen table. Don't give them bread because it puffs up in their stomach. My chickens are lean and strong, not fat and fluffy. They eat all their veggies, and sometimes even meat.

3.Nothing but a nice warm bed: Put plenty of local grasses in their chicken coup so they will be comfy and warm at night. We once a year buy a bale of hay from the farm in town and put it in their chicken coup so they will be warm all over. Soft hay means a happy chicken! and remember if its soft for you, its soft for them.

4.Lose a chicken? Get it back!!: If a chicken is gone, FIND IT! Almost every night I check how many birds i have and make sure they are all accounted for. If a chicken is alone, go through any measures to find it. if a few chickens are gone, it is not so bad, they are probably looking for worms and got lost, but still find them.

Old abandoned houses near yours are perfect hiding places for chickens. I once scaled my fence and plopped into the yard of what kids on my street knew as "the haunted house", and found my little chicken huddled in a corner, lonely and scared.

Senior neighbors of mine have reported chickens nuzzling down in their flower boxes and shivering out the night, so listen to them and find the chickens.

Step 3: Getting Through the Winter

1.A house without walls?: If your chicken coup has an open front, nail some clear strong plastic to it to block the wind. It can get cold in there.

2. Body heat is better than no heat: When you have a little coup packed with 10 chickens it can get to a sturdy temperature for them. This can work well if you are in a less arctic climate, although in the deep of winter i usually put a hot lamp on an extension cord in their pens so they can stay nice n' toasty.

3.Take to the trees!!: Lately my chickens have taken to living in lilac tree near their coup. They sit in the center so the wind doesn't get to them but it can get cold so it is better for them to be in the coup.

4. Ice for breakfast?:Their food and water can freeze in the cold, so i usually give them boiling water and they can drink it in the stage while its warm before it freezes. So their food doesn't freeze, i usually pack it in under hay and then let them skrat for it(i think the other instructable tells about that). Snow can also prove good at hidrating them in the cold months.

5. Snow up to the windows!!:When the chickens are snowed in, it is good to pack them down a little area in their chicken coup yard so they can go around in it. If you throw food onto the ground near some chickens who see it, they will flock around and probably eat it all before it freezes.

Step 4: Chicken Socalization

1. Top of the pecking order: Chickens have sofistocated pecking orders that not even I don't understand. All i see is that some chickens don't get as much food as the others when they are all running around in a crowd for the cracked corn i throw down to them. You can also see when their heads start getting red and bloody from bullying. When you see this happening you have to make that chicken feel happy and at home. You must feed it better than others and strengthen it up so it can put up a stand against the bullies.

2. Survival of the fittest: When you throw the hens their food, some get shoved out of the big groups or just can't get in. You must make sure that everyone gets enough. In my order peppy, jeseppi, midnight, and rocky are pretty high on the pecking order. I have to feed all the rest separately.

Please place comments if you have further questions!!! I will happily answer any and all chicken questions. There is a lot more there is to say but it would be way too long to write!

p.s. Please oh please rate and comment!