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At 14 degrees it shouldn't be humid, so the only other concern would be drafts- are the subject to drafts while sleeping at night? Also, how secure is the run? Night predators will go right through the open coop door if they can get in the run.

Same here. 10 below is one thing, they don't have a problem with that, but 20 below is getting severe. My little flock of 4 has a nice temporary basement home.

Mine have AC in the summer, DC in the winter. At night they're Back in Black, in the daytime they're Thunderstruck. I guess I'm a Problem Child, but if so it's because some of the responses I receive Shook Me All Night Long.

I've talked about the cold here, since that is the topic of the thread, but yes, heat bothers my chickens much more than cold. I do add a fan, set in locations that are very safe; outside a fence blowing in, they like to stand in front of it on the hot summer days. They also like a pan of water...

I agree completely. For example, my situation with 5 birds and a coop that gives them 15 to 20 cubic feet per bird is very different from that of someone with 25 birds and 8 or 10 cu. ft. per bird. In the later case, the body warmth of all their chickens will warm the coop; in my case much less...

hanging cord with a plug in the wall isn't the safest thing. at a minimum put hooks in the ceiling and attach the cord so it doesn't dangle, and put a hardware cloth screen around the lamp so if it breaks less glass falls and the birds can't fly up against it.

Just make sure your heat lamps are wired and installed safely. Are they bulb type or the ceramic heater type? These are safer than the glass bulbs, and they last longer.

How many do you have? How large is their coop? 20 chickens in a 5x8 coop will be plenty warm, 3 chickens in a 10 x 12' coop may be cold. Also, what breed are they? In general I go with the theory that chickens have survived in the wild without heat lamps for thousands of years. However, I'm...

Something I've brought up before, I wish people on both sides of the heat/no heat discussion would add a little bit of very relevant info- how many birds to you have? If you have 25 chickens in an insulated, ventilated coop with no supplemental heat, the 25 bodies will produce a lot of heat...

I take it you don't have any predators in your neighborhood? Raccoons love open doors at night.

Easiest place to find them is in the reptile section of a pet store, they should have them ranging from 50 to 250 watt, also ceramic heat lamps (cost more, but last much longer, and they're safer). Other places (farm stores, hardware, should be less expensive than a pet store, but will require...

Not disputing this, I just want to understand it better. If they're outdoors in the cold all day, then they have some warmth at night, and one night the electric goes out and they don't have warmth, would that really be "likely" to cause fatalities? I recognize that at night they aren't moving...

Yes, they used coops like that 50 or 100 years ago. But keep in mind, there isn't a single chicken that was alive back then which has survived to today, so that proves that the old system didn't provide sufficient protection.

Great thread, lots of good advice, just remember, one size doesn't fit all. Three hens roosting together don't generate as much shared warmth as do thirty hens. Cold in one place isn't the same as cold in another, as someone pointed out above (comparing Ohio near the lake to dry parts of...