The winter season is kinda lame. To be honest, I call it the “Season of Waiting” because that’s largely what we do: we wait. Wait for the plants to come alive again, wait for animals to wake up and be active… and if you’re a chicken tender, you’re probably also waiting for eggs! Here’s my winter checklist for backyard chickens (and chicken chores) so that you can be ahead of the game when the weather warms up again.

If you’d like to see the video version of this winter checklist, scroll down to the end of this article!

And I may have affiliate links from Amazon in this article. No extra charge to you but I earn a small percent. Yay!

A Winter Checklist for Backyard Chickens - Real Simple Mama

Deep Clean Your Chicken Coop!

Sounds super fun doesn’t it? But this is the number one thing I recommend you do in this off season, so it’s at the top of a winter checklist of chicken chores.

Deep cleaning your coop is more than just scooping out the poop. It’s a total replacement of all materials, dusting, applying a dust like diatomaceous earth or poultry dust if you so choose, and doing any other repairs needed. This will have you ready for spring!

You can check out my deep coop cleaning video, but a basic list of deep cleaning chores is:

  • Remove all old materials, from sand to pine bedding to PDZ
  • Blow out the corners, nooks, and crannies (we use a leaf blower, no joke!)
  • Add new material, mixing in D.E. or poultry dust if you wish
  • Seal any exterior wood with an outdoor sealant
  • Smooth down any rough spots where the chickens walk, like a splintery roost bar
  • Make any repairs to the structure

Make a Medication Plan

The next thing on the list is to see if you’d like to do any preventative medicating of your flock. This is totally optional and up to personal opinion – you can see my video below but do your own research too! 

We’re talking about doing a semi-annual worming of your flock, or potentially adding over-the-counter things to help with pests like diatomaceous earth, poultry dust, etc.

I wouldn’t do any worming (I use Ivermax which is a form of Ivermectin) more than twice a year as a preventative, but winter is an ideal time to dose the entire flock because your hens will lessen their egg laying anyway (or maybe even completely stop).

For ivermectin, I personally still collect and eat the eggs because that same medication can be given to humans for things like Staph infection. But if you want to do an egg withdrawal period, you can cook the eggs and feed them back to the flock! Here’s my full video on how to set up a full medical kit for your chickens.

Be sure you follow the manufacturer’s indications on all medications for your backyard chickens, including how much to dose per bird’s weight, and if you need to do a repeat dose in a few weeks.

A Winter Checklist for Backyard Chickens - Real Simple Mama

Create Additional Shelters

One of the most important things I can do to help my flock is to give them additional shelters or “safe places” where they can get out of the elements when they so choose.

My chickens do have the freedom to come out every day irregardless of the weather. (You do have the option to keep your chickens locked up if it gets too cold or too wet, but we don’t have a big enough to keep them locked up together!) But like I said, since they won’t all hang out together in the same shelter of the coop, I need to make additional spaces where they’re protected from the wind and rain.

You are fighting two battles: the cold wind, and the rain. Both of those factors together mean that your backyard flock is at risk to get wet and then stay cold, which can be dangerous. So think about how you can create additional shelters for them to escape puddles, falling rain, freezing wind, and cold temperatures. No heater necessary, but you need to have additional structures to block the wind and rain.

I choose to upcycle materials like our feed bags, lawn chairs, plastic tarp, and metal signs to create solid walls that will shelter my flock.

Keep an eye on the forecast so that you know when the worst of the winter weather is coming, and plan your winter checklist accordingly.

And did you see the insanity of the 2021 Texas Winter Storm?! Catch my quick videos giving you an idea of the brutal freeze we had.

Be Prepared for Your Backyard Flock to Molt

Chickens normally go through a molt, or a shedding of (a lot of) their full grown feathers, once every year around the time they were hatched, aka their birthday. However in 2020 my hens started molting in winter instead! And usually their molt cycles will align so that they all molt at the same time.

This means a few things for you, dear chicken tender:

  • Try not to handle or pick up your chickens any more than you have to.
  • Give extra protein snacks, from meal worms to sunflower seeds to Fly Grubs or Grub Terra black soldier fly larvae. (See my affiliate links below.)
  • Be patient as hens will go through an “eggless period” as their body tries to recuperate as quickly as possible. You may get very little, or no eggs, for this time period. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t last more than a few weeks.
  • One the molt is complete and wing feathers are completely replenished, consider clipping wings for your chickens. It keeps them from being able to fly the coop! (Make sure the feathers are fully dried and expanded so you don’t make your chicken bleed.)
A Winter Checklist for Backyard Chickens - Real Simple Mama

Stock Up on Supplies!

Winter is that season of waiting but companies like Tractor Supply still need to make money. So look around at your friendly neighborhood chicken supply store and stock up on supplies like

Ensure that any food you buy in bulk is stored safely where it can’t be accessed by mice or other pests. No free food here!

Wanna Sell Eggs Next Spring?

And if you’re looking to start selling fresh chicken eggs in the spring, this season of waiting would also be great for you to start advertising, pricing, and even designing a logo to stamp your eggs and cartons with! To add to your winter checklist, look on Etsy for someone to make you a logo and an egg stamper!

Make sure you check with local authorities to see if you need to declare certain things about your eggs, limit the cost, or only sell in certain places.

Don’t Order Chicks

I add this because it’s recently happened a lot in my local chicken group. Please don’t try to mail order baby chicks in the winter! Some companies refuse to mail chicks in winter because it’s dangerous and stressful for those little ones (and sadly a lot of them end up dead on arrival due to weather, power loss, shutdowns, etc.) but some companies will still take your money.

Please please please hold off on ordering those adorable little fluff balls until the travel through the USPS will be safe for them.

I hope that this helps you prepare your backyard flock for an easy winter and a productive spring! Let me know in the comments if you have other ideas, or questions!