Also, regarding "let them eat snow".... I don't know about where you live, but here we have lots and lots of times when it's definitely cold enough to freeze water, but the ground is bare. Could be like that for weeks at a time. i don't think chickens would survive without heated, or frequently...
If you want to forego heat you'll still have to address the issue of frozen water. I wasn't sure my 11-yr-old would always remember to bring warm water out 3x or more a day, so I looked into options. The commercial poultry-waterer heaters were way too expensive at about $65 around here. I went...