Keeping Hens Happy Through the Winter Months

Why Winter Is Hard on Laying Hens

A hen's egg production is driven largely by daylight. When the days shorten to fewer than roughly fourteen hours of light, a hen's pituitary gland slows the release of the hormones that trigger ovulation, and laying tapers off or stops altogether. This is not illness or poor management — it is a natural seasonal rhythm that would, in the wild, prevent chicks hatching into the teeth of a hard frost. On a smallholding, though, most of us keep hens for a steady supply of eggs through the kitchen year, and there is nothing wrong with nudging them gently along.

Cold alone rarely troubles a healthy, well-feathered hen. What does trouble them is damp, draughts at body level, muddy runs, frozen drinkers and long, dark, boring days. Get those five things right and your birds will come through to spring in fine fettle, with a respectable trickle of eggs into the bargain.

Shelter: Dry and Draught-Free, Not Airtight

The single most important winter job is keeping the coop dry. A hen sitting on damp bedding loses body heat fast, and damp litter breeds respiratory trouble and scaly leg mite. Aim for a house that is weatherproof but still ventilated high up, so warm moist air can escape above the birds' heads without a cold draught whistling across their backs.

• Check the roof and felt for leaks before the first hard frost, and re-felt any slipped sections.
• Block low-level gaps — around doors, pop holes and floor joints — with timber battens or a curtain of heavy rubber or plastic strips the birds can push through.
• Leave high vents, ridge gaps or a small louvred panel open. Sealing a coop completely traps ammonia and moisture, which is far worse than a little fresh air.
• Raise the house on bricks or sleepers if the ground beneath it holds water, and clear gutters and downpipes so rain runs away from the run.

If your coop is small and uninsulated, a layer of roofing felt, bubble insulation or even a few straw bales stacked against the outside walls makes a surprising difference. Do not insulate the inside where hens can peck and shred it.

Bedding: Deep Litter Keeps Them Warm

Hens generate a great deal of heat from their own bodies, and deep litter helps capture it. Build up a good depth of softwood shavings, chopped straw or hemp bedding — around ten to fifteen centimetres is generous but worthwhile — and turn it weekly with a fork. The litter composts gently underneath, releasing a little warmth and keeping the floor from feeling like a slab of ice.

Add extra handfuls of bedding in the nesting boxes, and check them daily for damp or broken eggs, which quickly sour the straw. Never use hay as the main bedding: it is dusty, mats down when damp and goes mouldy faster than shavings. A handful of straw in the nest box is fine for shape and comfort.

On the coldest nights, some keepers hang a securely fixed heat lamp or a flat-panel chicken heater well above head height. If you use any electrical heating, use an outdoor-rated cable, a residual current device, and fix fittings so birds cannot reach the cable. For most UK winters, a dry, well-bedded, well-ventilated coop is enough without any powered heat at all.

A Little Light, Used Sensibly

Artificial light will keep hens laying through the darkest weeks, but use it with restraint. The goal is to extend the day to around fourteen hours of light in total, not to keep them under a floodlight. A single low-energy bulb or a small LED lamp in the coop, run on a timer, does the job.

• Bring the birds on gradually. Add twenty to thirty minutes of extra light per week from late October rather than switching suddenly from ten hours to fourteen.
• Give the extra light in the morning if you can. A morning extension means the flock goes to roost naturally with the dusk, which reduces the risk of birds being caught off the perch and confused when the light snaps off.
• Use a timer set to come on around 5am and off at dawn, then on again at dusk if needed.
• Dim, warm-toned light is gentler than a harsh bright bulb and less likely to trigger pecking or restlessness.

If you would rather let your hens rest completely, that is a perfectly sound choice. They will moult, recover condition and reward you with strong, well-shelled eggs from February onwards.

Water, Feed and the Frozen Drinkers

Water is the job that catches people out. A hen will drink far less from a frozen drinker, and a bird that is short of water stops eating and laying almost immediately. Check drinkers at least twice a day in a hard frost, morning and late afternoon, and crack any ice out of the trough with the handle of a rake rather than pouring boiling water in, which can crack plastic.

• Swap a large open drinker for two smaller ones so that if one freezes solid the other is still usable.
• Stand drinkers on a wooden block or a slab of polystyrene to lift them off frozen ground.
• Add a clean table tennis ball to an open drinker — the movement helps delay a solid freeze and the hens soon ignore it.
• Never add salt, sugar or antifreeze to drinking water. Insulated drinker covers and thermostatically controlled heated bases are the safe options.

Feed slightly more in winter. A hen burns energy simply staying warm, so a good quality layers' pellet alongside a handful of mixed corn in the late afternoon gives them slow-release fuel for the cold hours. Scatter the corn in the litter so they scratch for it — that keeps them busy and active on days when they will not venture out.

Keeping Them Entertained and Healthy

Long nights and muddy runs make for bored hens, and bored hens peck each other. Hang a cabbage or a swede from a string at head height so they have to work at it. Toss a few handfuls of mixed corn or sunflower seeds into a deep layer of dry straw in the run and let them scratch. A dust bath filled with dry sand, wood ash and a little diatomaceous earth keeps feathers in condition even when the ground outside is a bog.

Keep an eye on feet. Muddy ground and freezing temperatures can lead to mud balls packed around the toes and, in bad cases, frostbite on combs and wattles of large-combed breeds. Smear a little petroleum jelly on combs during a hard spell, keep the run topped up with bark chips or gravel to lift them out of the mud, and check legs weekly for scaly mite, which thrives in damp winter conditions. A warm, dry, well-fed flock in a clean coop will keep you in eggs — fewer, perhaps, but all the more welcome on a January morning.