With Christmas and New Years right around the corner, I figured I would share with you some of the helpful management tips that I use to care for my flock over the winter holiday season. These 8 winter holiday management tips for chickens include fun activities and helpful ideas for keeping your flock happy and healthy. Busy schedules, inclement weather, and holiday traveling can often get tricky for backyard chicken keepers. Hopefully these tips will help you care for your chickens properly and still allow you to enjoy the holiday festivities!
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I have divided the 8 tips into two categories, helpful tips and fun ideas. The helpful tips will give you ways that you can prepare for caring for your chickens during the holidays. They should hopefully help you manage your time and plan ahead so that caring for your flock doesn’t get stressful!
Emergency plans are always helpful, but having one during the holiday season is essential. If you have raised chickens for any length of time, you know that random issues can suddenly pop up. Busy schedules and holiday festivities can often make time precious, so the last thing you need is for one of your flock members to become suddenly ill and you are unprepared!
When the cold weather sets in, many issues can arise or be caused by the change in weather. Sudden changes in weather patterns or big dips in the temperature can cause stress on your flock which also weakens their immune system. This is a prime time for when parasites and other pathogens can take over and cause health issues.
Preparing for a chicken emergency can be simpler than you think. First you will need to determine a safe spot where you can isolate a sick or injured bird. With the cold temperatures this can be tricky. Bringing them inside is an option, but if you prefer not to have a chicken in your house (especially during the holidays) you may want to prepare a spot in your garage, barn, shed, or other outside structure.
Keeping them warm could be a problem though, so you may need to invest in a small animal heating pad. A small animal heating pad is much safer and healthier than a heat lamp. A small heater set on low would also work. After you have chosen a spot, get a quarantine pen ready, just in case you need one.
You should be able to set up a quarantine pen fairly quickly, probably in about a half an hour. Setting up this pen shouldn’t take too much time out of your busy holiday schedule and it will pay off in case you need to use it. Plan ahead for emergencies and you hopefully shouldn’t encounter any!
Caring for chickens quickly and efficiently can be helpful during the holiday season when you have lots of other things that need to be done. When I say ‘quick care’ I am in no way indicating that your flock should not still receive the best, proper care that they need.
They will still need their nightly droppings cleaned up, they still need to be fed, they still need fresh, unfrozen water, and they still need a little extra care during the cold weather (boredom busters, frostbite prevention, etc..). However, there are some ways that you can make caring for your flock quick and efficient.
Traveling during the holidays can get tricky when you have chickens (and the weather is cold). If your coop is set up properly, you may be able to leave for one overnight and your chickens should be fine.
This would mean that your feeders can hold enough food for two days, your waters will not get frozen and can hold enough water to last two days, and you either have an automatic chicken door or you have someone who is willing to open and close the door for the one night and morning. Make sure you check the weather as well, you would not want to leave your flock without supervision during very cold spells (teens or negatives).
Leaving your flock for longer periods of time would be trickier. I highly recommend you check out my post on Finding Chicken Sitters to help you find someone who is willing to look after your flock. Here are just a few points to keep in mind.
One of the last practical holiday management tips that I want to share with you has to do with your flock’s diet. The winter holiday season is often a time of baking, cooking, and big meals! Often times we like to share our leftovers or scraps with our chickens.
Chickens can make great ‘composters’ and help save you from having to throw away food. However, chickens need to watch what they eat too. The wrong foods or even too much of the right foods can cause problems.
In general, cooked or raw fruits and vegetables are safe to give to your flock fairly frequently. They can also be offered in larger amounts than other scraps. Make sure you check out my list of good and bad table scraps for chickens before serving up leftovers to your flock!
You can also give your chickens meat scraps. Chicken, turkey, ham, beef, fish, venison, and lamb are all safe to give to your chickens. However, meat scraps should not be given as frequently. Also be mindful of their fat content. Certain baked goods, like whole grains products can be fed in moderation. Do not give your flock baked goods that contain sugar, chocolate, lots of salt, or contain a lot of dairy.
These last 4 tips are ones to help you have fun and enjoy your flock this holiday season! Sometimes I get so worried about properly caring for my flock that I forget to just relax and enjoy spending time with my chickens. I use these final 4 tips as a way to de-stress and just enjoy my flock!
One activity that I always like to do with a few special chickens is take them for a sled ride. Obviously taking a chicken for sled ride would require some snow, so this activity would be weather dependent. You may not think that chickens would like sled riding, however, I have found that certain birds take to it quite well.
In order for it to be ‘fun’ though, you must keep the health and well being of the chicken in mind at all times. The chicken form of sledding does not entail being pushed down a hill, instead, they prefer to be pulled in the sled on relatively flat, level ground.
When choosing a chicken to take for a sled ride, take their personalities into consideration. I have found that docile breeds are easier to take for sled rides. Also, the older a bird is, the more likely it will be to snuggle down and enjoy the ride. It may take some training, but pretty soon you will have at least one sled riding expert in your flock.
Another fun holiday tradition that we do for our chickens is we make them each their own stocking! We usually get chicks every spring, whether for our 4-H projects or through breeding and hatching. Some of the chickens get sold in the 4-H auction or are sold off privately. However, come fall, we always evaluate to see how many new birds we need to make stockings for.
Over the years, our collection of chicken stockings has grown dramatically. Of course, some stockings are retired as flock members pass away. We have a rule, however, that the retired stockings can not be reused. They are kind of like a memoir for those chickens who have passed away.
We usually hang up the stockings out at the coop so the chickens can see their own stockings. Now there is a spot out at the coop where the current stockings get hung up, and another spot where memorial stockings get hung up. Each stocking has a piece of paper attached to it designating who’s stocking it is. We hand sew all of our stockings using fabric that we think matches the chicken’s personality. However, there are many other ways to make stockings for your flock.
I love holiday decorating, and making the chicken coop look festive is always something I love to do. Decorating the chicken coop can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. There are always a few decorations that I like to put up around the coop, and every year I am usually adding something else to the chicken coop decorating stash.
Some decorations that I like to put up around the coop include: the stockings (both in the coop and in the enclosure), fake pine bough garland on the enclosure, big red bows (tied onto the garland), real pine boughs in two flower pots around the coop, pine boughs and pinecones in the window box, and a small reindeer and sleigh in the window sill. When decorating the chicken coop, there are a few safety considerations you will want to keep in mind.
This final fun winter holiday management tip is basically just giving you some ideas on how to incorporate your flock of chickens into the special holiday season! Chickens can actually help you enjoy this holiday season even more and they can bring joy into the holidays!
Typically Christmas is thought of as a time of giving, and giving gifts can often make you feel happy and grateful. I love giving gifts at Christmas time, and I make sure to never forget my chickens! Making something for your flock as a Christmas gift can be quite simple and easy. Every year I always pop a batch of popcorn as a ‘gift’ for my flock. One year I sewed nesting box curtains for the nesting boxes and gave it to my flock as a ‘gift’. Really, any improvements to the coop/enclosure or special treat can count as a gift, chickens aren’t too picky!
Chickens can also help lift your spirits and make you more joyful. Sometimes it can be hard to be joyful during the holiday season despite all the festivities. Life struggles, lose of a loved one, or other factors can be a little sobering at this time of year. Animals have been proven to have a positive impact on making people feel better. Spend some time with your chickens and you’ll notice the joy and laughter they bring to you!
Even better, share your flock with a loved one or friend who is struggling this holiday season! I have even brought one of my hens into a nursing home before to share the joy of chickens with the elderly community. Petting, holding, talking to, and being around chickens can lift the spirits of both young and old this holiday season!
I hope you have found these 8 winter holiday management tips for chickens to be both helpful and fun! The holidays should be enjoyable and as stress free as possible, and if that means using simple ways to care for your flock, then let’s do it! You can now properly care for your flock throughout the holiday season and still enjoy the festivities. Whether it’s making an emergency plan, finding an overnight chicken sitter, taking your favorite hen for a sled ride, or filling your flock’s stockings, I hope you enjoy this time of year with your flock!
Happy Holidays from The Pioneer Chicks and our flock!
by Alexa
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