Preparing for Winter Homesteading: Homestead Tips for Outdoor Prep
Living in New England, I never enjoy being cooped up inside in the winter.
We’ve been farming and homesteading in the winter for quite a few years now. My husband’s family has been farming our land since the 1600s and we’ve added more animals since I came around (farm animal math is real, y’all), which increases the overall number of chores we have to do around the farm in the winter.
These tips for accomplishing your winter chores on a homestead have served us well. We’ve never lost an animal to cold and know a few tricks to keep water lines unfrozen and make our winter farm chores less complicated.
I am sharing these tips from the point of view of someone living in New England, so we get deep frosts, the ground freezes to about 12 inches each year, and we have many below zero days, ice storms, and snowstorms. If you live in a warmer climate than me, you can still take advantage of these tips, but you will have some more flexibility.
No blog post can beat real experience, but you should get enough information here to set yourself up for a successful winter on the homestead if you’ve never homesteaded before, you’re in your first few years, or you recently moved to a new, colder climate.
How We Prepare for Winter Chores on our Homestead:
Preparing for winter on your homestead doesn’t have to be complicated. It requires some extra work in the fall, but if you follow these suggestions, you will thank yourself later.
Fall Chores Homestead Checklist
- Check your fencing. Make any repairs or changes before the ground freezes and switch out to stronger electric net fencing if that’s what you use.
- Get extra buckets for waterers or buy heated buckets (we like the ones from Premier1).
- Calculate how much hay you need and how much you have; buy it early if you can.
- Clean out your barns, especially if you’re planning on doing deep litter during the winter.
Fall Chores to Prepare for Winter
What you do at the end of fall can set you up for a make-or-break situation in the winter. The number one thing to keep in mind for the winter is that the ground freezes – HARD – so what’s in the ground when it freezes will stay there until the ground thaws in the spring. Any attempts to do otherwise will result in whatever you’re trying to get breaking.
We switch to a stronger electric net in the winter for our chickens and move them close to our house. The stronger netting is heavier so we don’t use it in the summer, but it can withstand snow loads more effectively and won’t sag under its weight.
The poles will get frozen into the ground, so make sure you set it up and you like its layout when the ground is still workable. Also check your electrical connections and grounding pole if you use electric fencing in the winter.
If you have any fencing projects you want to do or repairs you want to make, it’s important to make them in the fall or in very early winter.
Purchase heated waterers or extra buckets
Keeping waters unfrozen is key to helping your livestock thrive during the winter. You want to get these items before the winter so that you have them on-hand when you need them. I like these buckets from Premier1 that have auto-shut-offs.
When there’s a snowstorm and a first freeze, you don’t want to have to drive to the feed store or rely on shipping to get you what you need.
Should I put my garden to bed in the fall?
One of the chores so many people do in the fall that’s not necessary is putting the garden to bed. By disrupting the plants in the fall, you’re destroying the soil structure that has been built over the course of the growing season.
When you pull out the roots, you destroy the mycorrhizal fungi that are key to strong and healthy soil – right when the growing days end. This means you’re leaving the ground unprotected for the winter because it can’t recover and reform that structure until the spring.
Save your garden cleanup until spring, and you’ll experience higher fertility and more resilient soil.
Get Your Livestock Ready For the Cold Winter
Getting your livestock ready for the winter is mostly more about getting yourself ready for the winter to make it easier on your daily chores when the weather is below freezing.
Get any hoof trims scheduled and done before winter to give yourself a break at the beginning. You will probably need to trim hooves at least once more during the winter.
If you can, pre-purchase as much feed as you can safely store out of the weather and away from critters so that you don’t run into winter inflated prices or wake up to do chores only to find out that you ran out of feed.
Inspect all livestock shelters and fencing, and repair/replace any necessary items to keep them warm during winter. Trust me, these jobs are easier done in the fall than when you have winter gloves on!
I don’t recommend any type of artificial heating for animals. That can cause more problems as the animals aren’t able to fully acclimate to the cold weather and grow their winter coats. The most important thing to keep in mind for keeping livestock during the winter is a draft-free environment where they can escape from the wind and any snow/rain, etc.
The temperature is not something to worry about unless you’re having kids or lambs in the winter. Usually newborn calves aren’t a concern unless it’s close to 0 degrees Fahrenheit or they are abandoned by their mom before being fully dried off.
Feeding Livestock in the Winter on Your Homestead
Your basic day-to-day chores won’t change much just because there are fewer daylight hours and colder temperatures. But everything will end up taking longer.
You will need to dedicate some extra time to breaking open frozen water troughs (unless you invest in heated waterers) and collecting eggs several times per day so they don’t freeze.
You can install a remote, wireless thermometer in a barn, pen or coop can make it a little easier to monitor the temperature in the barn from inside your house, or hang up an old-fashioned one in the barn and check it when you go out.
Making sure the animals have adequate (unfrozen) water is going to be your biggest obstacle during the winter. Every night the waters will freeze and will need thawed in the mornings. I like to keep a couple of extra buckets on hand in case any buckets break (temperature stress is real!), or if a full bucket froze so I can just fill an empty one and set the frozen one aside.
Feed in the winter needs to be higher in fat and energy than in the summer. Cracked corn is a great addition for chickens and waterfowl to help boost their calorie intake, and your goats and cows may need some extra scoops of grain to make up for the energy they lose by maintaining their body temps.
Treat any animals that may have worms prior to winter so they can gain weight before the cold sets in and complicates things further.
What hay should you purchase? Planning for Winter Feed Costs
If you graze your animals in the growing season, you will need to calculate how much hay your animals will need for the winter.
It’s important to buy hay early because the cost of bales goes up significantly the further winter comes on as more people need hay to get them through to spring.
If you have the storage, it’s best to buy the hay directly off of the field in round bales so you can get the best deal by transporting it yourself. Square bales are always more expensive than round bales if you have the storage and ability to move them around.
Alfalfa/timothy hay is great for goats, especially if they’re pregnant or nursing little ones. Horses need premium quality hay, and cows can eat lesser quality hay as long as it’s mixed in a total ration so they aren’t able to pick through it.
Using the Deep Litter or Bedded Pack Method
The deep litter method is a low-maintenance way to keep your coop or barn bedded during the winter with minimal upkeep but in sanitary conditions.
This is my favorite way to set up a bedded pack for the winter for our animals.
First, layer shavings or sawdust all over the coop or barn floor. This will help preserve the bottom of the barn/coop and protect it from excess urine.
After the layer of sawdust, add a layer of straw. If you have goats, you can put a bale in the barn with the strings off but the bale intact, and they’ll happily make a mess of it for you. They will also add hay to the mix to sleep on because it’s so soft and they love taking their dinner to bed with them.
During the winter, as the pack starts to get wet, if you have a lot of rains, or you start to smell any type of ammonia from urine, add more straw and sawdust. One way to tell if your pack is too wet is by kneeling in it. If the knees of your pants are wet when you get up, it’s time to add bedding.
Continue to add straw to make a barnyard lasagna throughout the winter. The pack will build up over time (sometimes up to two feet or more in wet periods!) so make sure your fences are tall enough so no animals can jump out.
The bedding will start to compost and put out mild heat during the winter, which the animals will love.
In the spring when the weather starts to warm up, you can clean out the bedded pack and start from scratch again. This bedding can be piled up to compost down into great soil for your gardens.
How to Manage Frozen Waterers in the Winter
My favorite tips for managing frozen waterers in the winter are to (1) use heated water buckets where appropriate and (2) have extra buckets.
Heated water buckets that have auto shut-offs when the bucket is empty and keep the temperature of the water just below freezing are my preferred method because it’s less of a rush to fill waters in the morning.
If you’re not using heated waterers, get extra water buckets. The best method is to dump the buckets at night when the animals are asleep and then fill them fresh in the morning.
That doesn’t always happen though so if a bucket freezes overnight, I like to fill an empty bucket with water for the livestock and bring the frozen bucket into our house to thaw throughout the day. This lessens the stress on the plastic than manually dethawing with a shovel or ice pick.
Sometimes you just need to break a thin layer of ice with your boot or shovel to get to the fresh water.
Anticipate multiple buckets breaking in the winter due to the stress on the plastic of thawing and freezing with the water expanding, plus the extra wear and tear from trying to break the ice.
Making sure all of the animals have shelter from the cold.
Make sure your animals have adequate shelter from drafts and direct elements like snow and hail. You need airflow without drafts. Having no airflow or lots of uncontrolled drafts will spell pneumonia.
A pallet shelter usually works just fine for goats, sheep, and other large animals that are three-sided. We like to use metal siding on our shelters, but in a pinch tarps or thick plastic can help be a wind block. They are more fragile though, so you may need to do repairs or replacements during the winter if they come loose in high winds or get holes.
For our chickens, we make sure they have a place to escape without wind, and try to make some outdoor areas with wind-breaks as well so that they aren’t tempted to stay inside their coop all day. Stacked straw bales is a great option for this and will provide warmth and a wind-block for the winter and can be spread on your gardens in the spring.
Do a thorough outside cleanup in the fall.
- Put away summer toys and gardening supplies
- Move tools to storage or the shop
- Clean any outdoor furniture and put them in the shed or cover them with a tarp
- Mow the lawn for the last time
Note I did NOT say to clean out the garden or to rake leaves. Your garden and your lawn will thank you!
Best Winter Chore Clothes for Homesteaders
Layers are your friend when it comes to staying warm while you’re doing barn chores. Flannel-lined jeans, wool leggings under jeans or skirts, and wool undershirts will make a huge difference.
While you can get uninsulated coveralls, I recommend investing in the insulated versions, since they are much, much warmer.
Getting a good winter farm coat that will keep you warm in -10 degree Fahrenheit weather but can also get manure on it is key. Save up for and buy a good quality coat – this is not an area where you want to skimp and be frugal. Secondhand is fine if you can find it, but you need the good coat.
Leather gloves with an insulated liner are a homesteader must-have. Our favorites are Kinco’s.
Insulated farm boots are necessary for homesteaders in colder climates. Check your boots and see what temperature they are rated to. Layering with wool socks will really help to keep your feet warm while you’re outside. We use Muck Boots or Dry Shod boots.
Get some boot dryers to dry out your boots and prevent them from freezing overnight. Trust me on this one.
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How your winter goes on the farm depends a lot on what you do in the fall. The proper preparation is key to making sure you stay warm, your animals stay warm and healthy, and you’re not hating every second of winter chores on a homestead.
Grab your FREE PDF copy of my fall chores homestead checklist here!
