This worked great for my chickens until we had a cold streak where the high was about 5 degrees or less. For those days I hauled out boiling water in the morning and then they would stay thawed for most of the day with the tin water heater underneath.
I live in icy cold Vernal Utah. I recently read a post on adding straw or wood shavings to a coop for bedding. All of my hens roost at night. Do my hens still need bedding? If they do, would the large amounts of leaves from my yard do any good at all as bedding if I put them in the coop?