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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[GLENMAR]

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

 

[promiseacres]

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

 

[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!

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.