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Is Your Hobby Farm Ready For A Winter Storm?
Winter is just around the corner! If you’re a hobby farmer, preparing your hobby farm for winter is crucial to ensure your chickens, horses and rabbits remain healthy throughout the cold season. While it’s best to get everything ready before a winter storm arrives, sometimes last-minute preparations are necessary. In this blog post, I’ll discuss essential steps to ensure your hobby farm is ready for winter, focusing on key aspects like feeding, shelter, and water for your chickens, horses, and rabbits. Let’s dive into the details.
Preventing Mice and Rats from Eating Animal Feed
Mice and rats can cause a lot of damage in a barn, especially in the winter. You have to try and keep everything as clean as possible. We keep all of our animal feed in garbage cans or containers. Rats can chew through plastic garbage cans so we have begun to convert all our containers to metal garbage cans as the plastic containers break.
If you have an issue with rats, you could always get a barn cat or even a Jack Russell Terrier. Jack Russell’s are terrific at controlling the rat and mice population. Plus, it gives them a job on the farm.
Visuals are always helpful when learning new things. Check out the full YouTube video to see exactly what I have done to prepare our farm for a winter storm.
Winter Care For Chickens
Chickens require extra attention during the winter months. Discover tips on maintaining their health, warmth, and access to water during the cold season.
Have you heard of the ‘Deep Litter Method’?
From January to April each year, we only remove large pieces of chicken manure from our chicken coop. We then put a fresh layer of shavings on top of the existing frozen manure and shavings. Layering your coop with clean shavings is called the ‘deep litter method’. The theory behind this method is the manure in the coop helps to produce additional heat in the coop and keeps the chickens warm.
Providing Fresh Water For Chickens
In our coop we have a heated base for the chickens water bucket. I placed a patio stone on the floor of the coop and then placed the heat base on top of the patio stone. We have secured the wires to the wall and ceiling in the coop. This heat base stays in the coop all year round. I just unplug it once the temperatures rise in the spring.
Ideally, before it gets too cold each fall, plug the heat base in and check to be certain it’s heating up and working properly before the cold weather arrives. I do this when I’m cleaning the coop so I can keep an eye on it for a little while.
The girls (chickens) also like to sit on this heat pad. It’s warm on their feet on those chilly winter evenings. Here is the link to the Universal Water Deicer we use for our girls water bucket.
Providing Wind Protection For Chicken Runs
Often people put plastic or some sort of covering around their chicken runs. This helps to block the wind and snow from getting into the run. If you live in an area that gets lots of snow, I would not put plastic on the top of the run unless you are planning to clean it off regularly. It will get way too heavy and cave in on your chickens.
Last winter our girls decided it was too cold outside. They preferred to stay inside. The girls would just stick their heads out the door on those really cold days and didn’t even bother to venture out.
Adjusting Chicken Diet For Winter
During the winter months when the temperatures drop, it’s important to re-evaluate feed requirements for your animals.
Chickens require additional energy to sustain their body temperature during the winter months. The temperatures in Ontario get extremely cold so you need to make adjustments to their diet during the winter.
Chickens will require more protein as they utilize more energy to stay warm. We feed our girls sunflower seeds, meal worms and even warm oatmeal in addition to their layer crumb and scratch during the winter months.
Winter Care For Horses
Next on the list is our horses. Winter can be challenging in Ontario because we don’t only deal with snow but freezing rain too. Freezing rain was a huge problem for us last winter. If the horses get wet and cold when the temperature drops, you may start to see them shiver.
Choosing the Right Feed for Horses
By ensuring horses have access to adequate hay, this helps them to stay warm. Without getting too technical, when a horse eats hay or high fibre feeds, the food is digested in the hindgut. The digestion process then helps to keep the horse warm. As the hindgut works it increases the horse’s internal body temperature and that helps them to stay warm.
Some horses do have additional feed requirements in the winter months and may require supplements. It depends on the individual horse. The breed of the horse and age of the horse play a factor as well. If you are uncertain, consult with your local feed store or veterinarian. Never be afraid to ask questions.
Providing Fresh Water For Horses
Horses need access to fresh water all winter. They also sometimes need encouragement to drink. Ideally, lukewarm water is preferred but not always practical.
We have a trough with a heating element in the bottom. This saves a lot of work. The trough has a hole in the bottom where the heating element goes into the trough. It’s fairly easy to install. Here is the link to the Rubbermaid Stock Tank I use on our farm.
For our trough I have placed the electrical cord in a location the horses can’t grab. If you have younger horses or horses that tend to be curious make sure you put cords out of their reach. Horses are like small children. You have to ‘safety proof’ any area they are in.
I have a patio stone on the ground and place the connector of the trough and extension cord on the patio stone. Any sort of an electrical cord is a fire hazard so I prefer to keep this on a stone rather than directly on the grass.
We always give this trough a deep clean in the fall with a pressure washer. During the winter months I only clean the trough with a hose and toilet bowl brush. Don’t worry, the toilet bowl brush is just used for cleaning the trough. Not toilets! It works like a charm.
To Blanket or Not to Blanket: Winter Attire for Horses
Like people, each horse is unique. Mocha (our mare) wears a blanket during the winter but Peanut (our gelding) doesn’t. Peanut’s coat is much thicker compared to Mocha’s. Peanut looks like a fluffy polar bear during the winter.
I used to put a blanket on Peanut but he hated every minute of it. When he saw me coming with a blanket he would run to the other end of the paddock. If I clipped Peanut or if Peanut had health issues, I would have to blanket him.
I always make sure I have 2 blankets per horse. That way when one gets wet I always have a dry one. Once you blanket a horse you can’t stop during the winter. So make sure you always have a dry blanket.
If you are considering buying a horse of your own, make sure you read my blog post ‘The Truth About Buying A Horse‘ first. The horse world is full of people trying to take advantage of soon to be horse owners or inexperienced equestrians.
Winter Care For Rabbits
Discover how rabbits can handle winter weather and what you can do to provide them with the right shelter and protection.
Preparing Rabbit Shelter for Winter
Often people are concerned about rabbits staying outside during the winter weather. Rabbits manage far better in the winter months compared to the hot summer months. Like our horses, a rabbits coat changes to prepare for winter. Their coats become thick and fluffy to keep them warm as the temperature drops.
Rabbits need shelter from the snow, rain and wind if they are remaining outside. Our rabbits are in a covered area plus they have individual houses for additional protection. It’s ideal if they have access to natural sunlight during the day. They enjoy sitting in the sun on those cold winter days.
Ensuring Rabbits Have Access to Water
Rabbits require access to fresh water all winter long. Rabbits won’t eat unless they are able to drink as well. Food is important for rabbits during the cold as they require more energy to stay warm.
Something that has been very helpful for us is to use metal dishes for water. These dishes were very inexpensive. I bought them at the Dollar Store. When the water freezes, the ice can typically be pushed out of the dishes easily. If not, we just exchange them for a fresh dish. We bring the frozen dishes inside to defrost as required.
Adjusting Rabbit Diets for Winter
During the winter we increase the fat percentage in our rabbit feed. During the winter months we feed 3% fat rabbit feed. During the spring, summer and fall we feed 2% fat rabbit feed. You can speak to your local feed store to see what options are available in your local area.
It’s still important that rabbits have unlimited access to hay, lettuce/greens and the odd treat that are safe for rabbits. Proper nutrition will help your rabbits maintain their body temperature as they require additional calories in the winter.
Comment below
As a responsible hobby farmer, taking care of your animals during the winter is crucial. With these tips and insights, you can ensure your chickens, horses, and rabbits remain healthy and comfortable throughout the cold season. Whether it’s protecting your feed from rodents or providing the right nutrition and shelter, these winter preparations will help your hobby farm thrive.
What is something that you always like to have on hand during the winter? I always make sure I have extra tail straps for horse blankets. That way I always have an extra one when one breaks because they always do.
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