pleased with new coop -18 degrees last night

[Mrs. K]

-18 last night, -6 now.

My coop is bright and DRY. no sign of frost on the walls or ceiling. I do have good bedding and deep on the floor. I left the outside door open, when I left to add some sunshine in there, they did not seem too interested in going outside.

They look pretty fluffy, but they are active and alert.

Dry is how you need to keep your chickens, not warm.

Mrs K

 

[sourland]

Dry, draft free, well fed and watered - always worked for me.

 

[bobbi-j]

We'll see how mine do tonight - predicted low of -29 (How about you, Mrs. K, expecting something similar?). I gave both coops a nice, deep layer of fresh straw to dig around in today, shut the windows and pop doors. While I was out today, (-5*) I left the people door of one coop open while I was feeding, watering and putting down bedding. The chickens in that coop all huddled in the sunshine that was let in by the open door. I left it for most of the day so they could enjoy the sunlight. I do have windows on that side of the coop, but they don't let in as much sunlight as the door does.

Only getting 2-3 eggs a day from my 15 pullets, but I don't think I'm going to mess with lights in the coop at this point. I figure by the time I get them up to the required amount of light needed to produce eggs, they'll start laying naturally anyway.

I am hoping to have hoop runs for them next year so I can put plastic over them and the chickens can maybe enjoy some greenhouse effect heat on the super cold days like today. We'll see how that goes.

 

[Mrs. K]

Yes we did not break zero today, getting colder already, as the sun is going down. Should not be quite as cold as last night, and +40 by Tuesday.

Mrs K

 

[mobius]

OMG so glad it is working...and here I thought -12 was bad ( well it might have been lower...not sure accuweather is so accu...). -4 expected tonight, hope all is well with you and chickens...feels so good when it works and the prep/thinking pays off!

 

[Mrs. K]

we did not have a wind, Thank you God! That is nippy!

 

[azygous]

I'm on the southern end of this cold beast, not having nearly the extreme temps as you guys, though -10 is cold enough in my view.

I used to live in the southern desert where summer was nine months long and reached 123F in the shade, and the daily weather report had categories of "hot", "blistering", and "screaming", the last one accompanied by the obvious sound effect.

As with the difference between 100F and 123F (you cannot breathe), there's a huge difference in comfort between -10F and a balmy 20F. People in Florida and So Calif have no idea. My chickens sure know the difference. They're downright surly at anything in the single digits and below.

But then, so am I.

 

[Folly's place]

x2! I'm complaining about the weather, as usual. It's not even officially winter, and (slightly) sub-zero temps in southern Michigan. Today's the last cold day and night, then 20's and low 30's, normal. It will be warm! Mary

 

[aart]

Glad to hear it Mrs. K!

We've had some single digits here, but not many and it's supposed to get in the 40's and rain over the weekend(I hate early thaws).
Grounds not even really frozen here yet what with 18" of snow on the still warmish ground.

My pullets are slacking too @bobbi-j but some of my almost 2yrs olds are back to laying, with no lights, shocked me.
Might be because they were broody hatched in frigid early Feb?
First year without lights......hard to let it go, but will stand fast(I think).