Mine will stay out all winter. In fact, they were only 5 1/2 weeks old when I put them out, and it snowed afterwards - many times. I didn't use heat in the coop, and don't plan to this winter either. The pop door to their run stays open all of the time and they can come and go, like BayBayPeepers' chickens do. Got good ventilation and a plan to cover our run in heavy clear plastic to keep the snow out as much as possible while keeping it open at the very bottom for ventilation. I may need to adjust that as we go, because we're pretty new to this as well. This is my setup:
The coop is 6'x8' and the run is 3 cattle panels bent over and attached to metal fence posts driven deep into the ground. We've covered the panels with chicken wire to deter overhead predators and to keep out wild birds, which might eat the chickens' food and may spread mites, etc. Then we have hardware cloth going up over a foot on the chicken wire and folded out into an apron that goes out about 2 feet all the way around both the run and the coop as protection against diggers. Also the hardware cloth goes up over the bottom of the coop. The lattice is just to make it look prettier because it's visible from the street and we live in town.
You'll change things a gazillion times before you settle on a total plan. I did - heck, I still do! Good luck!
The coop is 6'x8' and the run is 3 cattle panels bent over and attached to metal fence posts driven deep into the ground. We've covered the panels with chicken wire to deter overhead predators and to keep out wild birds, which might eat the chickens' food and may spread mites, etc. Then we have hardware cloth going up over a foot on the chicken wire and folded out into an apron that goes out about 2 feet all the way around both the run and the coop as protection against diggers. Also the hardware cloth goes up over the bottom of the coop. The lattice is just to make it look prettier because it's visible from the street and we live in town.
You'll change things a gazillion times before you settle on a total plan. I did - heck, I still do! Good luck!