Lowest temp a chicken can survive at

[The Wooden Egg]

Its gonna be like -45 here where I live and my chickens have a heat lamp in their coop, so im wondering what the lowest temperature a chicken can survive at, and if my chickens will be o.k.

 

[RedDrgn]

The breed of the chicken makes a difference; some do not do well in the cold (or the heat).

I don't know what the absolute limit of tolerance for a fully-feathers, healthy, winter-hardy breed is, but if you have a coop or other structure where they can get out of the wind/strong drafts and maintains a low humidity level, they can weather some very bitter temperatures. Just poke around the forums and see; there are a lot of cold weather threads active right now with the temperatures rolling through half the U.S.

 

[Chickety Charcoal]

A heat lamp should be enough to get them through if they are cold hardy breeds. Currently, temps where I am are around -20F wind chill but 0F ambient temp. I don't use heat lamps in my coop and they are ok. Not exactly happy, but ok. I make sure they have (non-frozen)water to drink and add some high energy snacks to their normal feed (cracked corn and the like to give them extra calories to burn)

 

[creepygothnursi]

My Easter Eggers got down to -6 last night and didn't seem to give a bawk, so to speak. They haven't come out of the coop much today but aren't acting at all uncomfortable and have no signs of frostbite or anything like that. All they really need is a dry coop and a way to get out of the wind and they can take a lot more than people think.