Hey Northerners: What is the absolute coldest air temps your chickens have experienced happily!

[FrankStCloud]

Well its been D* good so far. Only 3 frozen eggs. The chosen roster is showing signs of frost bite, I was unsure of how large his comb would be.
I've had to increse % of feed and give more whole corn and wheat which goes on straw slabs. that makes them work for it, since they won't go outside. We have a bread outlet store here, which sells animal use only bread at a very good price. (They go complety nuts over bread.)
One hen in basement tonight; she stopped eating complety. She is a must keep hen cuz she lays a large egg, and has the right comb, leg color and blue genes. one other is being hand fed,doing fine. With the higher fed I'm getting great egg production.
Chicks that hatched out in Aug. are doing much better this year than last. Have learned No Chicks after first week of Aug. Two of them in hen pen and must be moved out. they sleep in nest over night. (that means poop in nest)
One thing I've found to be heplful is using the coffee grounds to melt snow, as long as the sun is shining it melts and better once temps rise

 

[Bert2368]

It was -4 F with almost no wind when I took this picture. I have an outdoor roost on the South side of the coop and I shoveled most of the snow away, put some flattened cardboard boxes down for them to walk on and get some scratch they wouldn't lose in the snow.

They hung out on the sunny side of the coop from about 2:00 until the sun went down- There are 3 more around the corner, siting on the base for the water tank and enjoying the sun. They had to walk through foot deep snow to get there.

They are all silver grey dorkings-

 

[Dobitus]

I live in Colorado. Last week the low was 7 below zero. Our Jersey Giants were perfectly happy to scratch around in their coop/run. All I have for heat is a 60 watt lightbulb, and the water is heated. But we open the door if we leave for work and they sometimes come out in the snow. Sometimes they don't... they shuffle around the light bulb. They have an insulated roosting area, and all seem perfectly happy to roost at night. The eggs... that's another matter. Sometimes they are frozen. But it helps to have their nesting boxes on the side of the coop exposed to the sun. And I have black roofing material on top of the nest boxes. Still, the snow took a week to melt off.

 

[skunknchatter]

-32F several nights in a row with the days never reaching 0. Happily maybe not but alive and well yes. No added heat. Just made sure the coop door was shut and coop was well ventilated. One roo got a tiny bit of frost bite on the tips of his comb.

 

[marlishama]

I'm in Canada and we've just had over a week of -32C, plus wind. I feel for any living thing having to be outside in that kind of weather. I installed a heat lamp slightly above the roosts and two 60W light bulbs as our days are so short and I was worried about reduced egg production. I have five hens and get between 3-5 eggs a day, usually 4. I wouldn't call them "happy" in the severe cold as they spend a lot of time puffed up on their roosts but they seem to be doing okay. When the temperature rises to a "balmy" -20, they chickens will spend short amounts of time pecking around the barn looking for treats but they still prefer to be huddled up in their coop for warmth. Their activity level really dropped off at about -15C.

 

[Kirklandchick]

Here in northern Illinois, the coldest we had inside the coop last year was -1°F (no windchill inside coop). Tonight, we're at -5°F inside the coop. Been an awful cold December so far, hope January is warmer!

 

[Junibutt]

Here in northern Illinois, the coldest we had inside the coop last year was -1°F (no windchill inside coop). Tonight, we're at -5°F inside the coop. Been an awful cold December so far, hope January is warmer!

Chicago here 3 degrees right now and expected to drop to -3 overnight. No heating done, except for a 60W bulb for light I am keeping on all night. I do not have a heated waterer so am giving them warm water twice a day. 2 of the eggs cracked today because they were laid early morning and I did not go inside the coop to pick them till 10:00 PM. Gave them some treats at that time, which they came out happily to eat.

I do have a window in the coop that leads into the garage section of the coop in case they feel cold but only 4 of my 9 chicken go in there, remaining 5 prefer the outside section of the coop where they have access to a little wind and fresh air.

I also noticed that only my Red Stars (one of them is molting but still laying) and Blue laced Wyandotte that is crossed with some bantam have issues with the cold. The rest are perfectly fine and happy. It must be because their feathers are not as fluffly compared to the Australorps, SLW, GLW and RIRs I have.

 

[Kirklandchick]

Chicago here 3 degrees right now and expected to drop to -3 overnight. No heating done, except for a 60W bulb for light I am keeping on all night. I do not have a heated waterer so am giving them warm water twice a day. 2 of the eggs cracked today because they were laid early morning and I did not go inside the coop to pick them till 10:00 PM. Gave them some treats at that time, which they came out happily to eat.

I do have a window in the coop that leads into the garage section of the coop in case they feel cold but only 4 of my 9 chicken go in there, remaining 5 prefer the outside section of the coop where they have access to a little wind and fresh air.

I also noticed that only my Red Stars (one of them is molting but still laying) and Blue laced Wyandotte that is crossed with some bantam have issues with the cold. The rest are perfectly fine and happy. It must be because their feathers are not as fluffly compared to the Australorps, SLW, GLW and RIRs I have.

Ours have been molting off and on for a few months now. Was hoping they'd be done before cold weather set in lol. We run an extension cord to keep a heated dog dish in their run for water, other than that we do not use light at night or use any heat for them. They go in for the night as soon as it starts getting dark and roost til morning. They seem fine with the cold, and are always ready to go outside as soon as day breaks. We have two windows in our coop, but keep them closed during the cold weather. Inside the coop, there are openings at the eave of the roof to allow for ventillation of "odors". The run has removeable plastic panels on all sides except for the door, so they are mostly protected from the windchill all day long. Here is a picture of them last winter enjoying the outdoors. We have 2 RIRs, 2 black australorps, a speckled sussex and a barred rock. All seem to do fine with the cold. We actually live in a subdivision.

 

[DeeTee]

Last night it was -20 Celsius and everyone is fine. Any colder and I put up a red heat lamp.

 

[Forestchick]

We've had a stretch of very cold weather here in central Alberta this December. Our coop is insulated - floor, ceiling, walls - in addition, I've banked up snow on the outside of the building and we had the heat lamp inside. Last week the outside temperature plunged to -38 C. Despite our efforts, the coop temperature dropped to -18 C. The chickens weren't exactly happy, but they survived. Next year we are building new coops with in floor heat!