By Flint Stephens, ksl.com contributor

SALT LAKE CITY — Winter can present some challenges for Utah homeowners who are new to keeping backyard chickens. While most chickens are hardy and require little attention in spring, summer and fall, extra care is required to make them comfortable and keep them healthy in cold winter weather.

Providing adequate shelter is important for the health and security of chickens in cold winter weather. (Photo: Flint Stephens)

Chickens can actually suffer frostbite — particularly those breeds with large single combs on their heads like leghorns or barred rocks. These breeds are popular with commercial growers because of their excellent egg production.

Chickens that forage for much of their food during warmer months need additional supplemental food during the winter.

When chickens are housed indoors in large commercial barns, the type of comb is not an issue. It is an important consideration for free-range home flocks, however, because the points on the combs can freeze, turn black and fall off.

Chickens can’t sweat, so combs are the cooling system for chickens. While a damaged comb does not usually impair the overall health of the bird, it can sometimes lead to infection or make them more susceptible to overheating during hot weather.

Breeds with rose combs like wyandottes, or pea combs like ameraucanas or brahmas are less likely to experience frostbite. Some sources say that coating combs with petroleum jelly during cold weather can help protect against frostbite.

The most important consideration in keeping chickens warm and healthy in cold weather is adequate shelter. The shelter need not be heated or insulated, but it should be dry and have adequate circulation. An airtight shelter can become too humid, which can lead to frostbite. Dry bedding like straw, hay or wood shavings can help insulate chickens from the cold, but it must be replaced regularly with clean bedding.

A proper shelter helps protect chickens from predation, which becomes more common in winter months. Even in Utah’s most urban areas there are raccoons, foxes, skunks, dogs and feral cats that will all prey on chickens. During winter, there are fewer food sources available, so animals that might have ignored backyard chickens in the summer now find them irresistible.

Water is also a critical consideration. Chickens need fresh water daily, and in the middle of winter, buckets and water dishes can freeze solid in a few hours. The easiest solution is to provide electricity at the shelter. A wide variety of heated water dishes and heated buckets are available at feed and livestock supply stores.

Chickens that forage for much of their food during warmer months need additional supplemental food during the winter. The birds burn more calories to stay warm so they should be allowed free access to high quality feed. Leafy green vegetables and fresh fruits can be added as a winter treat.

An option is to save stale salad, vegetable peelings, left-over cooked rice, pasta and stale bread and feed it to chickens. Chickens also need extra calcium during winter. The easiest option is to offer ground oyster shell, available at farm and feed stores.

When it comes to egg laying, experts agree that chickens are most productive when they receive 14 to 16 hours of daylight. With shorter days, egg production can decline significantly. Right now, northern Utah gets about 10 hours of daylight. Providing additional light can keep chickens laying more eggs through the winter. Using a fluorescent light with an automatic timer can boost wintertime egg production.

During extreme cold spells, eggs can freeze in just a couple of hours if unprotected. They remain edible, but the yolks of eggs that have frozen won’t hold together when the eggs are broken. If eggs freeze solid enough that the shell cracks, they should be eaten immediately or discarded.

Flint Stephens has kept a flock of backyard chickens in his Utah Valley neighborhood for 10 years. He currently maintains about two dozen chickens and some geese. His personal website is www.mormonparentingsecrets.com.

The temperature has been pretty mild so far — it doesn’t feel like winter has really arrived yet.  We decided to invest in a heated waterer so that we’re not busting ice out when winter finally does come, but we’re not going to start using it until we really need to.  The other winter preparation I need to make is to tack up the burlap curtain over the chicken door again.  Since we have 6 new hens, this means a week of training them that it’s okay to go “through” this thing that looks like it’s blocking the doorway.  I think a video of this process would be pretty amusing – I’m glad no one was filming it last year because I felt ridiculous.   But it does seem to help keep the coop a little warmer, and that’s what’s important.

Well, just palpate the other birds, you can tell if they are “over-conditioned” by their bellies, they will be firm and poochy ( like beer bellies would be on a bird), that is the fat buildup inside.  If they are flat and soft then they may indeed be ok.  Dominant females can definitely eat the majority of the feed and get fat, so that may be the case with that bird.  She was really beautiful though! too bad.. so if the others are not really fat, then you might be fine with what you are doing  and it very well may have been a single bird issue.  The others will eat a lot more now, so watch them for signs of egg binding and yolk peritonitis (lethargic and squatting like they are going to lay an egg for a long time and nothing happens).  I will get you a final report tomorrow after I review the slides to be sure nothing else was going on.

The cause of death in this bird is fatty liver-hemorrhagic syndrome.  In other words she died of internal hemorrhage from the liver which fractured ( can happen with normal activity in birds with this condition) due to  fatty liver disease.  This bird was severely overconditioned and this metabolic state leads to build up of fat in the liver cells, making them weak often leading to  hemorrhage.   SO, if all your other birds are this heavy, you need to talk to your vet about altering the diet so they will be lighter, such as mix high production or high fat diet with more grass diet and induce more exercise depending on availability of space .  That is the baseline management of this condition.  There are no other treatments per say that I am aware of, but I would consult with an avian veterinarian on that.   Often we see this in layers that are kept in cages or small spaces and they are fed high production diets, so those are two things that are usually easily  altered.  Otherwise she was in good shape.  I will have slides Friday to be sure there are no other issues, but this is a fairly common condition which will require some management changes for the others.  Now, if the other birds are lighter and not heavy like this one was , this could be an isolated animal issue ( dominant bird that ate more or one that is confined more due to behavior, etc) and altering the management of the whole flock would not be necessary.  It is usually a group condition however.  I will have a final report emailed you Friday. Let  me know if I can answer any more questions.

Yes, necropsy is the best option for determining cause of death for the chicken. We are here 8-5 Monday –Friday. You can drop it off anytime. If you have a loss at night, refrigeration is better and get it to us the next day.  If it will be more than 3 days, the freezing would be better.

 I asked about whether it would be useful even though we didn’t refrigerate or freeze her, and this is how she responded.

Well, it may not be ideal , but we can still see certain disease processes that would be of concern for a group.  So, we probably wont be able to culture for bacterial processes, but we will be able to tell you you HAVE a bacterial process.  So, I would say it is worth a look.

I have emailed the lab to find out the recommended procedure for handling the chicken, and will provide an update when they respond.

I can hardly believe it.  Jan went out to round up the girls and some of the new hens wouldn’t go past one of the shrubs.   That’s when she noticed Rosie laying belly up against the back of the coop, dead.  It’s just like one of the other hens we lost – she was behaving fine, and then boom.  Dead as a doornail.  That makes 3 from our original 6 that we have lost – two with no signs of unusual behavior or visible symptoms.  With Ethel and Roo now living on our friend’s farm, Lucy is our last original hen.  She’s such a sweetheart.  I hope she lives a lot longer than the others have.

Has anyone had anything like this happen to their chickens?  No obvious signs of predators?  No odd behavior.

I guess this just happens when you have chickens, but I sure wish I knew what was causing it.

So, we made the hand-off last week.  We couldn’t get rid of Rosie, the mother hen, and Lucy’s little crooked beak has grown on me over the years, so we decided to send the virtual twins, Ethel and Roo, with our friend.  The funny thing was, when I went in the coop to track them down, Ethel and Roo were each on a nesting box laying their last eggs for us.  One of them ended up laying the strangest egg we’ve seen up to this point.  It wasn’t really soft, it was like all of the egg-white was on the outside.  I haven’t been able to tell them apart since they were much younger, so I’m not sure which one laid the strange orb.

I hope the progress report I hear this week or next week on our girls is good.  It seems like being integrated into a new flock would be much easier with more territory to roam than a smaller, more confined situation like we have here at our office.  I have to say, we have been quite surprised by how easy the transition has gone.  I don’t know if it depends on breeds, on individual birds, or if this was just pure luck.

Oh, and since we made more room in the hen house, two of the new hens have already started laying.  We weren’t expecting this for a few more weeks, but have been surprised with several bantam-sized brown eggs appearing regularly in the nesting boxes.  I will post a photo soon – they’re so cute.

Since then, the new ladies seem to stay clustered together, and as far away as they can from the mature hens.  At least everyone is still alive at this point, with no visible wounds.  Several people told us it was impossible to introduce new chickens.  Others told us it certainly was possible.  Well, so far so good.

I checked on them at one point today – Rosie was in the nesting box laying an egg, several of the mature hens were on the roost chattering at me, and the pullets were huddled in a small feathery clump under the nesting boxes.  I’m assuming they will all get used to each other as time goes on, and they will interact more.

The funny thing is, Lucy, one of the mature hens, used to isolate herself in the coop away from the other hens, being the low bird on the totem pole.  Now, she is out with the other mature hens.  Maybe she’s more afraid of the pullets than of getting pecked by Rosie.  We’ll see how things play out with time.  As the young ones gain more size, I’m sure there are bound to be changes.

I’ve been observing some interesting posturing going on as well.  I saw one stretch its neck up high, puffing its wings out a little as it towered over another chicken, face to face.  I’m not sure, but it sure seems different from our other hens.

Has anyone ever had golden sex-links before?  I’m wondering if they’re more aggressive by nature, if they’re just ready to be in bigger surroundings, or if we might have some roosters in the hen house.  I can’t remember how old roosters are when they usually start to crow.  I noticed one yesterday that was making a bit of a funny noise.  But maybe it was just my imagination.