# Official Poll: How do you care for your herds during winter?



## Support

It's the time of the year again that many herders hate the most, Winter Time!

The winter season poses some great threat to our herds, especially if we have not prepared for it. For newbies, preparation and herding tips during winter are all they need to survive the cold weather.

So, here's the question, How do you care for your herds during winter?

If your answer isn't listed, you can vote for "Others" and reply to this thread with your answers.


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## Southern by choice

Our set up the same year round... in winter we do put down poorer quality hay as opposed to straw as bedding.
A few reasons for this....
The poorer quality hay is far less expensive than a bale of straw.
Our goats will nibble on what we put down- I'd rather them nibble hay than straw.
Straw tends to have more mite issues.
We rake up everything every few days because we don't do deep litter so we go through alot of bedding. 1 square bale is $5-6 where I can get a 800# round for $30-40.

We do give warm water to those we are milking but the rest get regular water.

No Heat lamps- way too many barn fires.

Goats stay dry because they are wimps and won't go in the rain... At least the dairy goats. The meat goats don't care- rain or snow- no matter to them.

Ours eat a great deal of hay in the winter... we generally give plenty extra when it gets real cold. Here in NC we don't have a "long" winter but we do have horribly wet ones.


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## Baymule

This is my first winter with a "herd." The pigs have their Hawg Hut which they like very much. I give them hay or leaves to snuggle in. The sheep have their little shelter and they stay in it when it's raining. Their pasture has lots of trees and some really big cedars that have thick branches.  We are working on a big barn, it is a work in progress and we'll be glad to just get a roof up to start with.


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## GLENMAR

Feed lots and lots of hay.   They are going through a lot this winter, and it has not even been cold yet.


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## promiseacres

Feed lots of hay, keep water unfrozen and available. Keep bedding dry.


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## Baymule

We are so blessed that our hay is delivered, one round bale at a time. Our hay guy lives around the corner from us, about a mile and he delivers. Our horses get free choice hay and a 14% pellet from Martindale Feeds. We buy square bales from the feed store and I put a bale on a wagon for the sheep. Their shelter is temporary until we can put up a better shelter for them, so the wagon keeps the hay off the ground.

There are very few days that the water freezes. What a pain! I don't think I would like fighting frozen ice all winter!


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## Poka_Doodle

We have an issue with the water but empty it each night and it works. My chickens that will be going to Stock Show get the heat lamp, today they were asking for the sun, not realizing it was crazy cold


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## norseofcourse

Mine already have shelters they are free to go in and out as they please.  It's rare I would close them in due to weather.  For winter here:

Switch to a heated water tub for the ponies.  There's no heated water bucket for the sheep yet - no electric at the barn, and I dump and refill the sheep's buckets much more often, which would take longer with an electric bucket.

Make sure I have enough hay (in this area, by September or October), so I can feed extra hay when it gets extra cold.

Make sure a broom or snow shovel is handy, so when it snows I can keep the snow shoveled away from gates, so they can still swing freely.

In the winter, I tend to give the ponies more of the fancy flavored salt licks, like apple and peppermint, to help encourage water intake.  Started this after one of them had a (thankfully) mild impaction colic one winter.

Bring anything that might freeze from the barn into the house (hydrogen peroxide, iodine, etc... from the first aid kit; horse fly spray, grooming products, etc...).

Make sure hammer and sieve (with handle) is at the barn for the sheep's water.  Hammer to break up the ice, sieve to fish out the chunks of ice (I froze my fingers for years till I read this tip in a horse magazine).  Some people switch to the black rubber water buckets that can take a real beating and never break.


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## Mini Horses

Most have heated tubs but, a few don't and they get hot water added AM & PM...if it's freezing temps.   I also keep crushed beet pulp available and have sometimes needed if wind kept hay use down for eating & often use mixed with grains or pellets to keep guts used to it.  
Tricky to moisten if it's freezing cold but, I find they eat it before that happens.    Use warm water and don't put excessive amounts out.   Beet pulp helps keep fluid levels good if there is any question as to amounts drunk...it carries it into the gut.  PLUS easy for older ones to eat -- and I have a LOT of old mini horses.

Most animals take colder weather well if they have a wind block and are not in heavy cold rain.


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## samssimonsays

This is my first year with goats in the winter but I have had rabbits for 3.

I serve warm water to them and keep it available all day. With 3 goats it is pretty easy. With the rabbits, they get it 2 times a day.

I keep them off the freezing ground. The rabbits all get baskets of hay to stay off the cold and drafty wire and the goats get moved into the rabbit barn with individual stalls to keep them dry and warmer than their 3.5 walled, uninsulated hut. Two of the goats are sissies and flat out refuse to get wet or snowed on while one just doesn't give a care. I have been feeding a little extra grain to them and the rabbits along with tons of hay. I do not use straw as it has no nutritional value and if they nibble on that, they will fill up and not eat the healthy stuff. We also do not use heat lamps or heaters of any kind due to fire hazards. Not to mention, rabbit hair (French Lops especially) gets on everything and just clings to it. 

Next year we will be doing something totally different as the rabbits will be gone.


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## butteryscotch

It's the hight of summer here atm, but I guess it's still relevant. 

Wind is probably one of the larger issues here (I'm in the coldest part of the county, not including Tasmania. But it still never gets as dangerously cold as it can in northern north America), so having good housing is a priority. Snow is an annual deal, but in all except very extreme cases, they're fine without any extra help. If it did get serious, I'd probably keep coverings and straw to keep the temp up.


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## lavslady

My goats have open access to their straw covered stable in the shed. They like to sleep on a wooden pallet, so 


 my grandson built them a corner "shelf" to let them sleep up off the ground if they want to, or cozy up together underneath. They forage all around their 1/2 acre year-round. They don't like the rain, and mostly stay in the shed when it's raining hard.  They LOVE Christmas trees! My kids bring their used trees up here for my goats to "recycle."


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## TIPPY THE HIPPY

We use headed buckets and stock tank heaters for the water. The rabbits get dish pans that are filled twice a day until I can get our heated autowater system put up and running. We use empty feed bags stapled to the walls for draft protection. I also practice deep bedding for all my animals in the winter. I feed them a higher protein feed as well.


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## cjc

We don't keep any other animals during the winter if we don't have to. We do cows and chickens in the winter. For the chickens we do use heat lamps, we are in Canada but in BC so it's cold but never goes below -5....-5 would be freezing for us.

Our cows manage fine on their own. For us our main concern is water as it rains a ton in BC. We are always looking for ways to keep them dry and we try our best to always ensure their shelter has dry bedding. But they are funny buggers, sometimes they will all be curled up in the field sleeping in the pouring rain.

We don't breed our girls so they have young calves in the winter but if we did have a late calf we would blanket the calf.

We have heat in our automatic water in the fields to ensure their water doesn't freeze but it sometimes still does. We just take a good old ax to the water in the morning and problem solved.

We do have to feed round bales to them during the winter months. They still do graze as its not cold enough for our grass to die out here but they rely heavily on the hay. This year there was a major hay shortage so it made for a tough find. And also because of the rain...we have to have the hay in their shelter or they will be eating nothing but mold.


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## ladyh

I don't do anything. I believe they do well without human intervention. I have had no problems during winter, letting them find they own way and do their own thing. The more a human interferes with human issues, that's when problems arise. They have a coat to keep warm and get water in the am. Mine are healthy and I have never had issues health wise.


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## goatgurl

goats and sheep can run in and out of the barn as they wish.  i use deep litter bedding in the barn and like that it warms from the floor up.  I've used this method for years and no i have never had a fire from spontaneous combustion.  they have hay 24/7 with round bales outside and square bales in the barn if it is raining.  the chickens and ducks free range all year long and get cracked corn daily and lay pellets in the house daily.  the rabbits have free choice hay all day and pellets daily.  the only thing i change for them is from plastic water bottles to small rubber tubs when it freezes.  just twist them and the frozen water pops out and add more from the warm jug i carry from the house


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## fluffycreatures

Many same as others.  Heated pails hot water and lots of hay. They pull out waste  hay over the ground and it doesn't get moved till spring.  Windbreaks and shelters but mine are fiber animals with good coats .  Storms and wind are the biggest issues.  Otherwise they are outside all the time.   I heat my rabbitry to above freezing with an oil filled heater so no fire hazard. I love it.  No heat lamps as a fire hazard .  Dianne


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## n8ivetxn

We don't normally have sub freezing temps for long periods. Mostly it's just rain and 35 at night, 45 during the day. So, I try to keep bedding dry - I like the cheap hay too, as opposed to straw. If there are new lambs and it's cold, I'll put a heat lamp out for them (firmly secured).

Other than that, everybody has plenty of good quality hay, clean fresh water and mineral with baking soda.

It really helps too if the animals go into winter in good body condition, not too thin...


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## Sheepshape

I keep sheep and chickens. I choose hardy breeds.

So,silage for the sheep in the winter when the grass isn't growing and sheep pellets 4 weeks before pregnant sheep due to lamb. Multiple pregnancies bought in overnight, singletons only if it is either very wet or very cold. Straw bedding in the barn. Rams get ram food and silage plus stay outside. 

Chickens, no change in management. They have warm porridge throughout the year.


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## SpringCrkFarmTN

We have sheep & they stay nice & cozy in the barn with straw lined stalls. We make sure they always have plenty of hay that is free from the weather because it is in another part of the barn-their own personal feed room or kitchen! They also have fresh water from a small creek on the farm near the barn that they stay in when it's freezing. When they venture out of the barn, they have fresh hay bales in hay feeders & free choice mineral in the mineral feeders.


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## amykinsmarie

We've been snowblowing paths for our goats so that they can still get out of their barn and run around. They love it!


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## 1crazybird

I do a few other things not listed... I put a flap on the front of the goat house, make sure my critters have extra food, i have a watering pond that i will put a heater in to keep it warm and let them out of their pens to search for extra treats among the woods near by.


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## 1crazybird

Samantha drawz said:


> This is my first year with goats in the winter but I have had rabbits for 3.
> 
> I serve warm water to them and keep it available all day. With 3 goats it is pretty easy. With the rabbits, they get it 2 times a day.
> 
> I keep them off the freezing ground. The rabbits all get baskets of hay to stay off the cold and drafty wire and the goats get moved into the rabbit barn with individual stalls to keep them dry and warmer than their 3.5 walled, uninsulated hut. Two of the goats are sissies and flat out refuse to get wet or snowed on while one just doesn't give a care. I have been feeding a little extra grain to them and the rabbits along with tons of hay. I do not use straw as it has no nutritional value and if they nibble on that, they will fill up and not eat the healthy stuff. We also do not use heat lamps or heaters of any kind due to fire hazards. Not to mention, rabbit hair (French Lops especially) gets on everything and just clings to it.
> 
> Next year we will be doing something totally different as the rabbits will be gone.


Goats like to snuggle, so just as a suggestion don't separate your critters. Good luck!!!


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## samssimonsays

1crazybird said:


> Goats like to snuggle, so just as a suggestion don't separate your critters. Good luck!!!


Thanks! We kept the does together stalled in two stalls we made one big one and the weather is too ramy with the littlest goat so he got his own stall.


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## Goatchaser

norseofcourse said:


> Mine already have shelters they are free to go in and out as they please.  It's rare I would close them in due to weather.  For winter here:
> 
> Switch to a heated water tub for the ponies.  There's no heated water bucket for the sheep yet - no electric at the barn, and I dump and refill the sheep's buckets much more often, which would take longer with an electric bucket.
> 
> Make sure I have enough hay (in this area, by September or October), so I can feed extra hay when it gets extra cold.
> 
> Make sure a broom or snow shovel is handy, so when it snows I can keep the snow shoveled away from gates, so they can still swing freely.
> 
> In the winter, I tend to give the ponies more of the fancy flavored salt licks, like apple and peppermint, to help encourage water intake.  Started this after one of them had a (thankfully) mild impaction colic one winter.
> 
> Bring anything that might freeze from the barn into the house (hydrogen peroxide, iodine, etc... from the first aid kit; horse fly spray, grooming products, etc...).
> 
> Make sure hammer and sieve (with handle) is at the barn for the sheep's water.  Hammer to break up the ice, sieve to fish out the chunks of ice (I froze my fingers for years till I read this tip in a horse magazine).  Some people switch to the black rubber water buckets that can take a real beating and never break.


Thank you norseofcourse, I live in south western N.Y. state and usually get the same weather as you folks, only about 3 or 4 hours later. I'm new to herd animals, this spring we get 3 goats. 2 nigerian doelings and an alpine/nigerian buckling. The buckling. I banded the buckling at the appropriate time and he healed up healthy!
I am trying to learn all I can for herd safety for our cold winter season in advance. Because we all know how quickly it'll seek up!!
Great posts by every one
Mike


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## Goatchaser

samssimonsays said:


> Thanks! We kept the does together stalled in two stalls we made one big one and the weather is too ramy with the littlest goat so he got his own stall.


They sure do like to snuggle! And not just in the winter time!!!!


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