When wintertime’s approaching you should start getting to work on preparing your chicken coop.  Some are fine the way they are especially if you prepared it the year before but it’s still a good idea to check things and over and make sure that everything’s in proper working order.  This means preparing the coop for winter and there will be a few steps involved.  Of course if you live in a location with a milder climate there’s not anything too special but if you get snow you want to safeguard the health of your flock for one by providing additional lighting.

This will help keep more heat in the coop but also help with egg production.  During the summer there’s enough daylight but over winter the daylight hours are shorter and as a result there can be problems with egg production and it will fall off.  Installing a light on a timer is the best idea, so you can have it go on at a certain time each night automatically instead of having to turn it on and off on your own.  Using insulation in the ceiling and walls is also ideal and will actually work in more ways than one.

Insulation works well in the winter for heat but also during the summer to trap in the cool air and keep the chickens from overheating.  Just as it works to trap in heat it will do the same with cold air over the hot summer months.  Especially during the winter months when the air’s so dry and brittle, you don’t want to have the chickens breathing in stale air.  There should be at least a single window in the coop to keep up proper ventilation.

To ensure proper ventilation the simplest thing you can do is add a fan into the coop.  Just make sure, and especially if you’re working on building your own coop, that the windows aren’t too low to the ground because then if you open them there’s a chance the chickens will escape.  Chickens are quite resilient animals and can withstand cooler temperatures but if you want to keep the egg production up and keep them happy and healthy, it’s important to prepare the winter chicken coop accordingly.   This will make them happy and also help with egg production which is beneficial for you.

It’s very easy to prepare a winter chicken coop.  These are the basic steps that should be taken to ensure the chickens are happy and keeping up with egg production over the winter months.  You can even print off a plan and build your coop entirely on your own.  Building your own coop would ideal if you needed it to be a specific size or wanted certain features included that you couldn’t find elsewhere.