New Chicks on the Farm

A few of our hens have recently been sitting on their eggs. We have watched and candled them to see if they are close to hatching.

This mother hen's eggs have started hatching and we have new chicks on the farm.

How to Care for Chickens in the Winter

Winter is here and like preparing everything else for the winter months, it is also important to plan ahead when caring for animals in the winter. In this post, I will discuss a few simple checkpoints on how to care for your chickens in the winter.

We have had our own backyard chickens for about 3 years now. This fall we built our chickens a new chicken house for them to have more room. When it comes to our chickens, I love saying the expression "If you take care of them, they will take care of you," as we usually get several dozen eggs each week from our chickens. We definitely enjoy using fresh farm eggs for our meals, cooking, and baking. Chickens are pretty easy to care for, but you also might be interested in knowing some extra tips for how to care for them in the winter months. They are pretty hearty birds and can handle cooler temperatures if provided adequate necessities in those cooler winter months.

Provide a strong wind barrier. By providing a chicken coop or chicken house for the chickens will help the chickens stay warm and out of the wind. Each fall we check over the chicken house, winterize it, and make sure its not drafty for the chickens.

Fresh water. Chickens need a good amount of water to produce eggs. Since it is likely that the water will freeze in the winter time, you might invest in a heated water pan or also be sure to provide fresh water to the chickens a few times a day. Chickens can often make a mess out of their water pan, so I would suggest not leaving it in the area of the chicken house where it would wet the bedding. Maybe keep water pan outside or in an area with less traffic. Keep extra waterers on hand incase you need to switch out ones that have frozen over.

Provide protein rich feed. Added nutrients will be valuable for the chickens during the cooler winter months. This will give them extra energy and help them stay warm as well.

Good ventilation. During the cooler temperatures, chickens like to crowd together to stay warm. Moisture should not be able to accumulate and freeze. Good ventilation will help keep the chicken house dry and also prevent sickness in the chickens.

Provide good bedding.  Use straw or shavings to keep the chicken coop floor dry and comfortable for the chickens to live in. Changing the bedding frequently will also help keep the chicken coop dry maintaining a healthy chicken coop.

Use a heat lamp. Adding a supplemental heat source will help prolong egg laying. Once the chickens are all nestled together they provide their own heat source with their bodies that is adequate for the cooler temperatures. A heat lamp isn't necessary, but they are often used. Use with caution.

Check chicken nests often.  If your chickens are laying well, you will still want to check their nests often to be sure you gather eggs often. This will prevent the egg from freezing.


A few simple steps during the winter months will help your chickens remain healthy and stay happy chickens.

What does "free range" eggs mean?

Among many of the labels we see on products these days, the term "free range" is one of them you are probably familiar with seeing. Free range chicken, free range eggs, free range beef, etc. but what does free range mean?

Growing up, I remember my grandma giving me the chore to go collect the eggs for the day and feed the chickens. I'd take the pail out and gather all the eggs for the day, bring them in and wash them off. There was a lot of egg gathering memories from my childhood. My husband has the same memories as his grandpa raised chickens as well. We find ourselves doing the same thing with our kids, having them go out and collect the eggs for the day.

Along with growing produce for our CSAs and local farmers market, we also raise chickens for meat and eggs. Our Rhode Island Red hens enjoy a nice size chicken run where they can go outside from the chicken house. Speaking of chicken house, we just built a new, larger one this fall. It gives our hens more room inside for when they come in at night. We then also have a large size chicken run pen for them. We have a 3 area rotation outside the barn that the chickens still can enter the pen from the barn and vise versa. We rotate the pens every so many weeks for the chickens to enjoy new pasture. This is how our chickens are free range and we have free range eggs.

To many consumers the labels, free range, organic, local, cage free, etc can be confusing. In this post, I'm going to address free range. What does free range mean to a farmer.

A free range chicken is allowed constant 

access to the outside, with plenty of fresh 

air and room for exercise. 

The chickens are not contained in cages. 

The USDA says free range chickens are allowed access to the outside.

We feed our chickens a combination feed, but not so much that they don't forage graze.  They have constant access to the outside with plenty of room for exercise. They also have a nice size chicken house to protect from temperatures, wind, and to roost in at night. Our pastures pens get rotated for fresh pasture for them to graze and roam on. Our meat birds and our egg layers are raised the same. Inside our chicken house, we have our nesting boxes available for the hens. They have access to the nests from the inside of the pin, and we gather the eggs from the outside.

This allows us to have free range chicken and free range eggs to sell to our consumers.