Winter was a crazy season here at The Way Homestead! I took a writing break over the holidays, intending to get back at it after Christmas… but everything got so busy here, I haven’t had the chance. With temperatures below zero, house chickens living in my basement, a case of bumblefoot in one of my hens, and two new chickens joining the flock… it was just one thing after another!

Trauma and Drama

It started the day after Christmas, when the temperature here at The Way Homestead was -7 degrees. Yes, you read that right, the actual temperature was NEGATIVE 7°. The windchill got down to -24° that night! We came home late from a day spent with family, only to find that the power to our chicken coop had gone out. My girls have a heated water bowl, but with the power outage their water was frozen solid, and probably had been all day. I felt just awful.

To add to the water being frozen, two of the hens were showing signs of possible illness and distress. My Easter Egger had diarrhea, and my Barred Rock had black spots on her comb – an indication of frostbite. And the night before, my Wyandotte had accidentally been locked out of the coop for half an hour when her automatic door closed.

House Chickens

At this point, the chickens and I were all traumatized and exhausted! They were visibly shivering (all three were molting – chickens are known for their great timing), and we were all a wreck. My husband suggested I just bring them in for the night, and in tears, I did.

I carried the chickens down to the basement one at a time. They slept in their old brooder box and were quite happy there. It was hilarious to see 3 full grown chickens stuffing themselves through the tiny chick door to enter the “playroom” area! I snuggled them up a bit, put a healing salve on Pepper’s comb to treat the frostbite, and we all went to bed.

A Blessing In Disguise

Having the girls inside turned out to be a blessing. Bijou, the tiny Easter Egger, had been aggressive with me and her sisters since Pepper started molting a month earlier. Pepper, my Barred Rock, has been the Head Hen since we had to give away our rooster, Joey. Pepper went broody (stopped laying eggs in a desire to hatch chicks) way back in October. It took about a month to break her of it, and then she immediately went into a molt and lost many feathers.

With the molt came a personality change, and Pepper became much more submissive. Bijou suddenly stepped up and put herself at the top of the pecking order. This was very surprising, considering her small size and sweet demeanor. She began to pick on Pepper and Gypsy, and would even bite me when I tried to pet or feed her! After bringing them inside though, Pepper started to grow her feathers back. She became the leader of the flock again, and Bijou went back to being her sweet self.

The weather forecast was set to be below zero for another week, so I decided to keep them inside. It was at this time that I noticed another problem – Gypsy’s foot was swollen. I had seen enough posts in online chicken groups to realize that she probably had an infection called Bumblefoot. She’s very skittish and rarely lets me hold or pet her, but being inside put us in close proximity. Had they been out in the coop, I likely wouldn’t have seen it.

Expanding Our Flock

During this same time, a coworker of my husband’s had been talking with him about adopting their two young chickens. Her daughter had bought them as chicks last summer and had been keeping them in the house. Now that they were nearly full grown, they needed more space and time outside. We knew we wanted more chickens this year anyway, and more chickens in winter would equal more body heat in the coop.

There’s a lot to consider when adding chickens to an existing flock, including the need to quarantine new birds. After several days of deliberation we decided to go for it. Our chickens were already inside, so keeping the two flocks separated would be easier than in the coop. We went to a local furniture store and got two HUGE boxes in preparation. One, a refrigerator box, was eight feet long!

The coworker and her daughter brought the chickens to us a few days after Christmas, and it just about broke my heart. The hens were clearly very loved, and they were such sweet girls. Though they were obviously frightened, neither one tried to escape or peck any of us. They said their goodbyes and we took them down to their temporary home, the smaller of the two furniture boxes. I set up their food and water and settled everyone in for the night. Now we had five house chickens!

Chaos in the Basement

Having house chickens is not all it’s cracked up to be (imagine that!). When I brought three freezing chickens in that first night, I could never have guessed the chaos that was awaiting me. Chickens are NOT made to be indoor pets! Though they had plenty of space inside their boxes during the day, the hardest part was keeping them in at night.

Chickens have a built-in predator protection system; their God-given instinct is to sleep as high up as possible to stay safe. That’s not a great thing when you want them to sleep in a box in the basement! They had roosting bars, but wanted to sleep higher, on the top edges of the boxes. I put chicken wire and 2×4’s over the top of both boxes, but they persisted. It was a nightly occurrence for us to hear a loud crash, followed by a flutter of feathers and lots of squawking! I eventually gave up trying to keep them in and just let them roost on the box. But of course, with roosting comes lots of pooping. (Isn’t that a Spider-Man quote? “With great height comes great poopability”?) I cut open garbage bags and placed them around the box, which saved our floor and sanity!

Getting to Know Each Other

We knew the time that the chickens could stay in the basement would be limited. All five chickens would be forced to cohabitate soon, so they needed to get to know each other. The following week was spent slowly introducing the two new chickens to our original three. I have to admit it didn’t go very smoothly at first! We began by holding the new pullets (young hens who aren’t laying yet) near our older hens. After a couple days I began putting the new chickens directly in the box with the older ones for increasing amounts of time. We started with five minutes and slowly worked our way up to half an hour.

Bijou was the bottom of the pecking order in our original flock, and with the Molting Mutiny she was trying to find her place again. She was like a displaced toddler with a newborn sibling, and I had to watch her carefully when the two flocks were together. I felt like a bouncer at a chicken club. I was always breaking up fights and threatening anyone who started to get a little puffed up! Eventually they all got used to each other and tolerated one another, if begrudgingly.

Heat Lamps: Risk vs. Benefit

This winter was one of the coldest we’ve had in a long time, and we ended up with house chickens for a full two weeks. I follow several online chicken groups, and the posts were frightening. Literally hundreds of chickens died from the cold, or got severe cases of frostbite. I wanted to keep my birds safe, as they are more pets than livestock to me. But even the most dedicated chicken mama has her limits! The natives were restless and so was I. Star and Fern’s old owners said we could have their heat lamp, and while I was leery of it, we were ready for them to go back to the coop.

Heat lamps are necessary for young chicks, but can be dangerous in a coop or barn. Every year dozens of fires are started by heat lamps, usually when they fall and light bedding on fire. To help prevent this I used not only the strong clamp attached to the lamp, but also a back up hanging system. I screwed an eye-hook into the coop ceiling and used zipties to doubly secure it. We then plugged the heat lamp in to a smart plug that we could control from our phones. We only turned it on when the temperature outside dropped below 10 degrees, usually at night.

Back Where They Belong

The chickens were so happy to be outside again, and I was glad that they were all warm and safe! (And out of my basement!) It took a while, but eventually I was convinced that the benefits of safely using a heat lamp outweighed the potential risks. The first thing my original flock did when they got back outside was to pile into a nice dust bath.

The “new girls”, as I came to call them, were enthralled with the outdoors and their first pumpkin treat. They took to the coop immediately, although for the first few nights they slept in the nest box instead of on the roost bars. They stick together always, walking shoulder to shoulder around the yard. If separated, they will cry for each other. They may be different breeds, but they are sisters through and through!

While they were all happy back in the coop, I must admit it took several days for the chickens to stop lining up at the door to come inside! I guess they must have enjoyed their short time as house chickens.