Winter Backyard Chicken Care (and how to avoid overlooked dangers)

Winter care for our backyard chickens, especially small pet flocks, can be extremely stressful, and there is a ton of conflicting advice, making hard to choose what's best. Chickens are incredibly resilient, it’s true, but they are susceptible to the cold, and they absolutely can succumb to the elements. There are hidden dangers to our chickens from severe winter storms too. Below is a list of all the dangers that chickens can face during a winter storm, including some that are often overlooked.

How Do Chickens Keep Warm?

Let’s start by reviewing how chickens stay warm in winter, and how they don’t. Chickens depend primarily on their body heat and feathers to keep warm. Unlike mammals like bears or seals, they don’t have body fat or blubber to insulate themselves. Dry, fluffy feathers that keep out the elements and trap warm air by their bodies is the only protection they have. Chickens also have very high body temperatures, due to their fast metabolisms. In the evenings, especially in winter, chickens will fill up their crops with food, which they’ll digest overnight to keep their bodies warm. 

Chickens are also truly domesticated animals - completely separate species from their wild ancestors - that rely on humans for predator protection and protection from the elements. While some breeds can survive just fine on their own in climates close to their original jungle habitat, chickens are not able to withstand harsh winters without adequate shelter.

Fundamentals of Winter Chicken Care

Caring for chickens in winter - mainly noting and avoiding the dangers listed below - means keeping a closer eye on them throughout the week, more so than during milder weather. Broken heated waterers or frozen automatic coop doors can be fatal if not caught quickly. Trudging outside in a snowstorm is no fun, but following your daily-weekly-monthly-seasonal coop schedule, no matter the weather, will help catch common issues before they arise.

Want a month-by-month checklist so you never miss a seasonal chicken care task? Grab my free guide here → Free Printable Coop Care Guide

Dehydration

Dehydration is an often-overlooked risk of winter chicken care. Winter, however, carries a high risk of dehydration because their water will freeze, and drinking water is often not as much of a priority as it should be. Chickens need access to fresh, drinkable water in the winter just as much as they do in summer though. Water is essential for maintaining body heat and digesting food, without which chickens will struggle to keep themselves warm.

Frostbite

Chickens are far more susceptible to frostbite than northern wild birds. A part of this is biology: chicken combs and waddles are a carryover from their junglefowl ancestors, which used them to help cool off in oppressive heat. Modern chickens are far more cold hardy than junglefowl, but their combs, waddles, toes and feet can get frost bitten quite easily.

Frostbite is not just a problem itself; it is also a symptom of a winterization issue. If your flock sees multiple cases especially, it’s a sign that the coop or run needs some adjusting for winter weather. Inadequate ventilation is one of the most common culprits. If warm, moist air is not able to escape, especially if the coop is extra warm compared to outside, that moist air will condense on your birds’ faces, causing frostbite once they emerge outdoors. Many coops do not have enough ventilation to prevent frostbite, and adding heat will only make it worse. 

Other risk factors for frost bite include windchill outside, such as during free ranging or in an unprotected run, and breeds with large combs and waddles. 

If your chicken gets frostbite:

• Bring indoors immediately - don’t worry about “temperature shock” from going outside to inside; this is not as much of a risk to them as leaving them outside.
• Don’t touch the affected area with anything - it will cause more harm than good, and will only hurt them.
• If the case is very severe, especially if their feet are affected, they should be brought to a vet for treatment, if possible.
• If vet care is not an option, or if the case is mild, keep the bird indoors with plenty of food and water to help them recover and monitor the tissue. 
• Baby aspirin can be used temporarily as an over the counter pain medication, but be aware it is not well tested in fowl, and can hurt their liver if used too much. Vet prescribed pain meds are a better option, if you can get them. 

Hypothermia

There is more to hypothermia risk than just ambient cold temperatures. Windchill, drafts, humidity, and water/snow exposure play a huge role too. Even if the coop itself is properly dry, draft-free and insulated, tragedy can still strike. Below are some situations that may result in losing chickens to the cold:

• Young chickens that are off heat but not yet strong enough to withstand extreme temperature drops.
• Elderly, underweight or sick chickens.
• Chickens without access to water or food.
• Chickens going through a heavy molt.
• Chickens that get lost or stuck outside the coop overnight.
• Chickens that get wet from falling snow, freezing rain, or a misstep into a puddle or water dish.
• A flock of 3 or fewer that cannot huddle up enough to get warm. 
• Windchill outside or a drafty coop - the cold air hitting their bodies disrupts their feathers’ insulating properties.
• Cold-succeptible breeds that don’t get adequate heat, including frizzles, naked necks, leghorns, tropical breeds (like sumatras and game fowl), silkies, and some bantam breeds (like seramas and modern game bantams).

Signs of hypothermia include listlessness, laying on the ground, “sitting puffed” with drooped tail and closed eyes.

How to Treat Hypothermia

• First, do not panic, and do not give up on them right away! Chickens are very resilient, and they may look worse off than they actually are.
• Bring indoors where the ambient temperature is nice and warm - like 68-75 degrees. 
• Do not immerse them in warm water, place them under a heat lamp, heat them with a blow dryer, or cover them with a heated blanket. This will shock their system.
• Don’t force feed or water them - let them perk up on their own and seek out food when they are ready. 
• Keep them calm with minimal noise and stress, and darken the room a bit if you can. 

Collapsed Coops & Runs

Heavy snow and ice can put major strain on a coop and especially the run, which in turn puts our flocks in serious danger. Here are some tips to avoid structural damage and tragedy:

• If your run is damaged, or you expect it to be, consider keeping your birds safely inside their coop, or inside an alternate structure, if possible
• Use a slanted roof with corrugated roof panels over tarps or blankets to help snow slide off.
• Be extra wary of prefabricated runs, such as ones purchased from Amazon or Walmart - these tend to collapse easily when it snows. 

Coop Fires

It can be tempting to run a heater from your home out to the coop, but be aware of the risks, especially of fire. Running any electricity to an outdoor coop comes with some electrical fire risk, but that doesn’t mean the risk can’t be mitigated, or that heating is not an option. 

Heat lamps and indoor space heaters are strongly discouraged due to lack of safety features. They also make a coop far too warm and humid. In fact, 98% of coop fires are caused by traditional heat lamps. Heating panels and radiant heaters are far safer, especially ones that come with safety shut-off features and that have thermostat controls. Just be sure to check electrical outlets and cords regularly. A common non-heat-lamp cause of coop fires is electrical cords damaged by mice. 

Illness

Extended exposure to cold temperatures impacts a chickens’ immune system. The longer and harsher the cold exposure, the more trouble they will have warding off illnesses like Mycoplasma and other respiratory illnesses. Coccidiosis also tends to flare up when chickens get stressed. Some good, general tips to follow to help keep your flock healthy:

• Keep Corid (or similar coccidiosis treatment) on hand during winter and molting.
• Give your birds an immune boost with healthy herbs like oregano and rosemary.
• Isolate sick birds immediately.
• Follow biosecurity rules: don’t integrate new birds before quarantining first, and make sure you wash your hands and change your shoes after visiting other backyard flocks or wild waterfowl. 

Boredom & Bullying

When temperatures dip really low, chickens tend to hunker down to conserve energy; however, long days of nothing to do can make them get a little stir crazy. Without access to foraging or free ranging, issues like bullying and pecking can start to show up, and if your flock is confined to a run due to snow, victims of bullying will have less space to get away. In some cases, birds at the bottom of the pecking order may be prevented from getting into the coop or up on the roosts to stay warm.

Here are some tips to help your flock stay busy during winter, and to hopefully keep fighting to a minimum:

• Make sure your flock has enough roosting space in the coop.
• Have more than one feeder in the run, so that bullies can’t resource guard.
• Place roosting bars outside in the run, so that chickens can get some exercise and enjoy a bit of extra space from each other.
• Try to provide a bit of enrichment every day or at least every week: 
• Straw or hay bales with mealworms scattered inside
• Live crickets set loose in the run
• A premade foraging blend
• Hanging treats, like suet or fresh veggies hung in a net

Psst: if you are a subscriber to our Flock Box, you will receive a new coop toy and a DIY activity for your flock every month to help stave off boredom!

Tips for Winter Backyard Chicken Care

DO:

• Keep breeds that are suited to your climate.
• Invest in a ventilated, insulated, sturdy, draft-free coop, and inspect often for drafts and damage.
• Have a backup plan to bring your birds inside, if needed.
• Use safe heating practices, if needed.
• Manually check your flock every morning and evening during serious weather, even if you have automatic coop doors and water heaters.
• Use a safe water heater.
• Ensure your flock always has food and water, no matter the weather. 
• Place a thermometer in the coop and run.

DON’T:

• Take winter care advice as gospel from keepers in a different climate or who have a different setup than you. A sturdy straw-filled barn of 70+ chickens in Vermont is a very different situation than a small coop of 3 silkies in a Texas ice storm. 
• Use a heat lamp.
• Ignore hypothermia symptoms.
• Accept frostbite as normal.
• Assume your chickens can eat snow to stay hydrated.

Remember, no one loves your chickens more than you do, and you know your flock and your situation best. Trust your gut, stick to the fundamentals of chicken care, and don’t hesitate to do what’s best for them - even if that means using a panel heater in the coop to take the edge off or bringing them indoors.

As a final note on winter chicken care, I’ll offer this excerpt from my book “The Backyard Chicken Keeper’s Bible:”

When it comes to heating a coop in winter, safety should always be paramount. And no amount of heating will compensate for a coop that is not properly built to withstand winter weather.