Raising Chickens in the Winter - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

While most farm animals can take quite a bit of cold--like cows and horses--some feathered birds aren't so tough.

Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin takes you to a farm near Driscoll to show you the extra care chickens require when the temperature drops.

Cold on the outside.

Warm on the inside.

(Stephanie LeDoux / Chicken Farmer) "This is our first real winter. Last year was an open winter so it was completely different."

While many chickens are butchered long before winter hits, Stephanie LeDoux is weathering her chickens through the storms.

(Stephanie LeDoux / Chicken Farmer) "Maintaining the chicken coop. It's a big task. We have to put fresh hay or straw in here at least twice a day. One is to make sure their feet stay warm, that's a huge thing. We can't have them getting wet they get bronchitis and stuff like that. So the fresh straw once or twice a day depending how it is, constantly keeping water and making sure we have electricity in here. We did have a breaker pop once and we had frozen water. And so that is not good."

(Sarah Gustin / sgustin@kxnet.com) "LeDoux depends on a heat lamp and a whole lot of body heat to keep all of these girls warm on a cold winter day."

(Stephanie LeDoux / Chicken Farmer) "We also decided to keep the chickens in a smaller coop for the body heat. We really feel the body heat is very necessary in a North Dakota winter."

LeDoux is staying busy this winter raising these organic chickens near Driscoll.

Nearly 130 chickens are inside this coop--plenty of beaks to eat up a lot of feed.

Ledoux says extra feed costs are the most expensive piece of wintering chickens.

(Stephanie LeDoux / Chicken Farmer) "Triple in feed, triple because they aren't out there picking all the other good insects and seeds from the plants. We feed three times a day. Morning, noon and night." 

Ledoux says the cold temperatures has had the greatest impact on egg production.

(Stephanie LeDoux / Chicken Farmer) "Yes, they are a lot tougher. I give them props. They are good girls. The only thing is the cold weather has affected egg production. for 129 girls, maybe we are getting 12 eggs a day on a lucky day." 

LeDoux says she loves her chickens.

She's getting 300 more chicks in about 2 weeks and is planning for an additional 1000 butcher chickens this summer.