How cold is too cold?

[Uwish]

Those wouldnt do anything for my chickens except make them to hot. My chickens tolerate the cold and do not mind it. Like said earlier in the thread chickens use to live outside for years in below 19 degrees F conditions. They do a moult so they are ready for winter, as long as there moult is done they are ready. Although its suppose to be - 20 degrees F here so i have straw and i will be adding in a plate heater. Also our coop is positioned between our house and garage with the wind not hitting it. Just my preference not to add heat unless its under -10. I just lock them in the coop with water and food, then go out 3 or 4 times to give them more water.

Well he asked and I gave my opinion. You just said yourself you are getting a heat plate so I’m not sure why you don’t seem to like what I said. As for what chickens use to do is not the same as today IMO. I have read horror stories of those chickens way back in the day most didn’t live etc. also in hard core cold areas most were eaten before winter as most wouldn’t survive.
I can just guarantee that if a heat source is given even at 35-40 deg they will huddle close to it. Had my neighbor get his chickens a heat source as he said they could tolerate it etc his chickens were not happy and were stressed. Introduce the heat source and boom he apologized and said his birds seem much happier. So to me that says they are cold if they move to the farther side then they are to warm. I have yet to see my birds get away from it in cold weather. I’m not not was I looking to argue we all love our birds we all have different opinions and experiences. Just my opinion as I want my birds happy and comfortable.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

My coop is fine for laying and roosting at night but it's far too small to keep my chickens locked inside it for 3 or 4 days until temps return to normal. I'm just going to need to keep a close eye on them and be on the lookout for trouble. I'm just worried that I will catch it too late. I have close to 60 chickens but they have access to 2 coops (8x12), my goat house, as well as several run-ins that block wind & rain/snow. Hopefully they will hunker down in a protected area...

Hopefully.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Well he asked and I gave my opinion. You just said yourself you are getting a heat plate so I’m not sure why you don’t seem to like what I said. As for what chickens use to do is not the same as today IMO. I have read horror stories of those chickens way back in the day most didn’t live etc. also in hard core cold areas most were eaten before winter as most wouldn’t survive.
I can just guarantee that if a heat source is given even at 35-40 deg they will huddle close to it. Had my neighbor get his chickens a heat source as he said they could tolerate it etc his chickens were not happy and were stressed. Introduce the heat source and boom he apologized and said his birds seem much happier. So to me that says they are cold if they move to the farther side then they are to warm. I have yet to see my birds get away from it in cold weather. I’m not not was I looking to argue we all love our birds we all have different opinions and experiences. Just my opinion as I want my birds happy and comfortable.

I wasnt trying to argue guess i came out wrong on here. Heat lamps are a big fire hazard ceramic or not. Also heating pads would just get covered and then become a fire hazard to. My heat plate isnt big enough for them all to lay under only enough to go by during the day. Mine are also raised in the early spring when it is cold out already, so they get use to it. Mine are happy, they inky peck each other when food comes out. Ive also did a test i got chicks the first year and kept them inside for 8 weeks until it warmed up. Had to supplement heat with insulation, straw and the heat plate. This year mine were put in the coop with the heat plate until they had all there feathers and i noticed they have adjusted to the cold much better. IMO

 

[Uwish]

I wasnt trying to argue guess i came out wrong on here. Heat lamps are a big fire hazard ceramic or not. Also heating pads would just get covered and then become a fire hazard to. My heat plate isnt big enough for them all to lay under only enough to go by during the day. Mine are also raised in the early spring when it is cold out already, so they get use to it. Mine are happy, they inky peck each other when food comes out. Ive also did a test i got chicks the first year and kept them inside for 8 weeks until it warmed up. Had to supplement heat with insulation, straw and the heat plate. This year mine were put in the coop with the heat plate until they had all there feathers and i noticed they have adjusted to the cold much better. IMO

Oh damn did I say heat pad? I will have to reread as I meant panel. Yes lamps can absolutely cause fires mine is hung above them to far to catch anything being ceramic makes it a bit just a bit safer that’s why I’m ordering a panel. I’m also looking at dog house heaters have you seen those? They look amazing and safe.
I’m sorry if I took what you said wrong it’s kinda hard to tell what someone is actually saying through texting.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Oh damn did I say heat pad? I will have to reread as I meant panel. Yes lamps can absolutely cause fires mine is hung above them to far to catch anything being ceramic makes it a bit just a bit safer that’s why I’m ordering a panel. I’m also looking at dog house heaters have you seen those? They look amazing and safe.
I’m sorry if I took what you said wrong it’s kinda hard to tell what someone is actually saying through texting.

Panels are definitely safer. Ive never heard or seen a dog house heayer. I know its hard to tell what someone is saying though texting. I try not to sound like im being rude, but it sometimes comes out that way, if we were in person it wouldnt come out that way. I will definitely look into the dog house heater!

 

[OurFineFeatheredFriends]

We are in Canada, and it has been around -28°C (-40°C with the wind chill) for the past week. We have kept our lohmann browns in the coop during this cold snap, and with two heaters it is still -12°. We have a heater in their waterer too, but the nipples are metal so they still freeze up. We defrost them with heat from our hands several times a day. We only have about 8 hours of daylight currently (we’re just about to the shortest day of the year), but we’re still getting almost an egg a day from each of our good little hens. They’re less than a year old, maybe that’s why. Any advice on how to keep them happy and warm in their coop is appreciated. The weather is supposed to warm up over Christmas, but this will happen again, as it is Canada after all!

 

[ThatUserNameAlreadyTaken]

Hey guys! I live in the UK and have been experiencing cold weather the past few days. Last night was -6 Celsius which I havent seen for a long time. Its currently snowing and supposed to be between -6 and -7 tomorrow night. I have 5 ex battery hens and 6 ducks (live separately). I am not worried about the ducks as they seem to be doing okay. However my chickens have not been happy for the past few days, they seems to be very stressed by the cold. They are okay during the day when it warms up but early in the morning, they come out and dont really move. This morning one of the girls became very stressed by the cold and she did concern me but she is okay now. All my hens are very very skinny, and 2 are in moult. My vet believes they are just naturally skinny and small as we have done everything to check illness in some of the hens and nothing has come up. Due to how small and slim they are, I dont think the cold wether is suiting them well. I delivery hot porridge/wheat/corn in the mornings to help perk them up but I am really worried about them. Ive read that I shouldnt bring them in of a night as this can mess up their ability to cope with the cold wether, but where do you draw the line with possible death? They arent as hardy as the ducks and I am scared they will get too cold in the night. They have atleast 10inches of bedding and we have packed it up the sides of the coop walls, we even have blankets over the coop to. We dont have the option of running electric down to them so cant use any type of heaters. Any advice as to wether I should leave them out or bring them in?6q

Negative six, Centigrade/Celsius is around twelve degrees (positive) fahrenheit. My hens have experienced minus twelve fahrenheit (close to minus twent-five centigrade). When it gets really cold, even witht their food and water in the greehouse .... they just don't come out of their coop. The coop is predator proof but not heated and they survive.

 

[mnelle]

Hey guys! I live in the UK and have been experiencing cold weather the past few days. Last night was -6 Celsius which I havent seen for a long time. Its currently snowing and supposed to be between -6 and -7 tomorrow night. I have 5 ex battery hens and 6 ducks (live separately). I am not worried about the ducks as they seem to be doing okay. However my chickens have not been happy for the past few days, they seems to be very stressed by the cold. They are okay during the day when it warms up but early in the morning, they come out and dont really move. This morning one of the girls became very stressed by the cold and she did concern me but she is okay now. All my hens are very very skinny, and 2 are in moult. My vet believes they are just naturally skinny and small as we have done everything to check illness in some of the hens and nothing has come up. Due to how small and slim they are, I dont think the cold wether is suiting them well. I delivery hot porridge/wheat/corn in the mornings to help perk them up but I am really worried about them. Ive read that I shouldnt bring them in of a night as this can mess up their ability to cope with the cold wether, but where do you draw the line with possible death? They arent as hardy as the ducks and I am scared they will get too cold in the night. They have atleast 10inches of bedding and we have packed it up the sides of the coop walls, we even have blankets over the coop to. We dont have the option of running electric down to them so cant use any type of heaters. Any advice as to wether I should leave them out or bring them in?6q

I think it depends on the breed. I was only going to provide a coop heater if the temps went into single digits. One mor I noticed one of the hens shiver. Can’t have my chooks shivering, so now the heaters are going.

 

[Ponypoor]

Hey guys! I live in the UK and have been experiencing cold weather the past few days. Last night was -6 Celsius which I havent seen for a long time. Its currently snowing and supposed to be between -6 and -7 tomorrow night. I have 5 ex battery hens and 6 ducks (live separately). I am not worried about the ducks as they seem to be doing okay. However my chickens have not been happy for the past few days, they seems to be very stressed by the cold. They are okay during the day when it warms up but early in the morning, they come out and dont really move. This morning one of the girls became very stressed by the cold and she did concern me but she is okay now. All my hens are very very skinny, and 2 are in moult. My vet believes they are just naturally skinny and small as we have done everything to check illness in some of the hens and nothing has come up. Due to how small and slim they are, I dont think the cold wether is suiting them well. I delivery hot porridge/wheat/corn in the mornings to help perk them up but I am really worried about them. Ive read that I shouldnt bring them in of a night as this can mess up their ability to cope with the cold wether, but where do you draw the line with possible death? They arent as hardy as the ducks and I am scared they will get too cold in the night. They have atleast 10inches of bedding and we have packed it up the sides of the coop walls, we even have blankets over the coop to. We dont have the option of running electric down to them so cant use any type of heaters. Any advice as to wether I should leave them out or bring them in?6q

This is my second winter with Chickens, my first winter I knew that I would have some trying times with extreme cold here in Ontario, Canada. I built my Hen House inside my barn which I insulated to cut down on drafts, and I purchased one of those radiant panel heaters.

During the day the chickens had the run of the horse barn. The thing I found was that my gals were 'ok' till about -10C, lower than this and they became quite cold stressed and would hunker down and huddle together. A few of the extreme cold days I kept the horses inside to not only get them out of the extreme cold (even horses have a cold tolerance), but having the horses inside helped keep it a bit warmer with their body heat. But a 30x60' open barn is not ever going to be warm by any means in the winter, so the radiant heater was a good purchase. My Silkies just hunkered down for a good 6 weeks by that heater.

Now you didn't say if it was -6F or -6C (one is chilly, the other darn tootin cold!), but I would say that if your girls are not handling the cold well, then by all means supplement with a heat source, why make them miserable and stressed - stressed animals are prone to all sorts of illnesses. I know people say that they will acclimate, they can handle it yada yada yada - but it's like this - chickens are like people - some can handle the cold and some cannot - why stress them out forcing them to be cold and miserable.

There is no shortage of heating sources that you can get, but you might want to check out a Sweeter Heater overhead radiant heat source - I have heard good things about them. They do not heat the air, but the object under it - your chickens.

I am sure there has been a whole plethora of suggestions given to you, but you are the one in the best position to know what your gals need - go with your gut feeling.

 

[Chinachik]

Hello, thank you for your response!

I will definitely looks at bringing them in tonight, last night it stayed at 1 degree which I think is okay for them but do worry with -7 tonight.

I have had my hens for about 5 months but they came to me in a dire state, most without any feathers at all. They were just skin and bones, its taken them months to grow feathers but they arent a good amount of feather, not layers of other feathers I have seen on other chickens. And you are so right about our weather, these minus temperatures came in very fast and sudden, It doesnt look like they are consistent but some night look so cold. I dont think they have had a proper amount of time to adapt to these conditions.

We took a few of them to the vet that needed to go when we got them and the vet commented on how slim they were, a few monthd later I had to take 2 back to the vets and they hadnt gained much weight at all. The vet tested their poo and did and overall health check and took samples and found nothing wrong. Theyve been wormed, anti parasited and everything but they just dont gain any weight at all. Your probably right in the sense that they may not of been in best condition anyway, I lost one a couple of months ago to reproductive cancer.

Thanks again for your response, I definitely agree with everything you say and you have taught me a few things which I didnt know

Have your tried feeding them fish? Tuna is a great way to help with protien. Not a lot at one time maybe a teaspoon per chicken every other day or so. Shrimp tails are great also. Again this is not an all the time thing. Try mixing meat fat with the feed and scratch. If they are rescue chickens the only feed they probably received was layer no treats or anything to aid in feather and weight gain. If they are bantams they would be small and slim by nature. But they still need protien to help with feathers. I see this has been a while hope your girls are still doing well.