Keep chickens laying through winter by housing them in a warm greenhouse with deep wood chip bedding, offering continuous grain, and using a heated 20-gallon water tub with nipple waterers. Replace hens older than two years with spring chicks to maintain productivity.
I just harvested a bunch of eggs in January. If you've raised chickens, you know that's hard. One way I've done that is to, well, give them a greenhouse. It's warm in here, it's dry in here. I've given them deep bedding. We have wood chips capturing their manure. It's like a diaper for them, uh, keeps it sanitary. Eventually that turns into compost— manure and wood chips. All they can eat buffet of grains. And we keep our water in a little 20-gallon tub like this, water heater in the bottom so the water doesn't freeze, keeps the nipples unfrozen, and they have fresh water on tap all winter long anytime they want it. And lastly, that most importantly, none of these chickens are over 2 years old. The older ones will be 2 and a half this fall, and we would have replaced them with chicks we bought in the spring as soon as those chicks start laying eggs in the fall.
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
