WaterfowlsPoultry
Songster
Hello, I have quite a sad story to share on this site and I need some help. I had a Brahma chicken named Butterscotch, a Beautiful chicken, She was very talented, adorable, and quite the flightful chicken, She would fly on top of the gate when I came down to feed them and she would always get early access to the food by getting in the house somehow, However, She died to hypothermia a little while back, Back then I had 3 barred rock chickens, one grew up to be a rooster a Rouen Duck and a white call duck. We have a cage inside the pen just in case of emergencies such as one of our neighbor's dogs getting out it is quite big but it does not take up all of the pen, I found her dead inside of the cage (I leave the cage open sometimes) she was very cold and didn't even move, normally the chickens would all be cuddled up and use each other as body warmth but she was in the cage away from them, at the time we did not have a heat lamp, but after her death, we bought a heat lamp for them and everything was fine until it happened again. I had a White Call Duck, her name was Patitas, and she would hang out with our Rouen duck, Margarito at night she stayed underneath the heat lamp with everyone else, but on Thursday last week, at 6:38 PM I found her dead outside, cold, stiff, no scratches, no blood, no bruises, nothing at all. she died of hypothermia during the day. They are all free-ranged as far as my backyard can go, meaning they are free to walk around and do what they please. they come inside by themselves sometimes at 7, but if they don't I will bring them in the pen. So my issue and my problem is, how do I prevent this? The pen seems warm but how do I keep them warm outside during cold days? should I even let them out during cold days?
