16 Deg. F and 30-40 MPH winds!

[chickendude]

Well tomorrow night the weather channel is predicting 16 deg F and 30-40 MPH winds. This will be the first time the chickens will endure a cold and windy night. they are well feed and well feathered RIR hens. Hope they will be ok. I probably won't sleep much tomorrow night. But I will lock them up tight and pray for the best. Wish them luck!

 

[Wildsky]

I'm sure they'll be ok. We had similar weather last night (15 degrees with windchill of -29. I htink our wind was in the 20mph range)

My girlies were all fine this morning, they were still puffed up on the roost when I opened up for them at around 8:30am - I normally open up at 7:45 and they're normally all milling around.

 

[chickendude]

Quote:
Did you insulate your coop?

 

[fiberart57]

Ditto for us in Colorado, perhaps not such forceful wind but our temperature is expected to be around -10 degrees. I'm sure that if you prevent the cold wind from blowing in on them in the coop they will be fine. I have four vents at the top of my house and covered all but two and one of those two has a windblock about two inches away from the vent so that air can escape and circulate but it won't blow in on them.

Good luck, I hate it when it's this cold.

Mary

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
Did you insulate your coop?

My coop is an old wooden shed, we did insulate the back (north) wall before we got the chickens. other than that there is no other insulation. My waterer froze up and its electric heated

my hubby thinks we blew a fuse or something in there.

We don't heat it at all, we have an outlet in there and a light, we only use the light when its dark out and we're counting heads.

the coop is large 20x6 or 7, and another shed next to it is about 7x7 or so - with a pop door type opening between them.

it has two large windows on the south side, one is broken and boarded up. another window to the horse barn, that window is open - with wire fencing to keep out critters.
it keeps the ventilation good without having a cold draft

 

[Wildsky]

Hubby just went outside to take the dog out, its -11 right now.

 

[chickendude]

I have 4 vents high in the coop, probably about 2 feet above their heads when they are on their perch. I think i might close the ones that are on the wind side. You can see two of the vents in this picture.

Here is shot of the coop from the outside. This was when I was building it and they were still in their brooder.

 

[chickendude]

Quote:
Hope you have an electric blanket to keep you snug at night!

No insulation for mine and no heat source either.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
Hope you have an electric blanket to keep you snug at night!

No insulation for mine and no heat source either.

my hubby is so sweet, last night he snuck upstairs before we went to bed, and put the electric blanket on the bed, made it all up again and turned it on!

I have to crank it up to SUPER HIGH for it to make any difference at all.
I have been using a tiny little warming pad thing, and I put it by my feet in the bed to just warm it up a little - if I don't get the darn feet warm they never seem to warm up on their own!

Your coop looks so nice, mine is seriously a very old (30 years actually) shed which we tried our best to fix up - we didn't want to make vents and make holes all over other than the pop-door. so far we're doing ok, the chickens are not thrilled but the coop is big and they can hang out in there all day if they want - or they run next door to the horse barn to poop in the feeder!

You have a handy little helper there too I see

 

[chookchick]

That looks like a really nice snug little coop--perfect for your three hens! I wouldn't close off any vents as your vents are quite small. I'm sure your chickens will do just fine! We had 8 degrees here last night, the coop has gone as low as 15 degrees and they were fine. Remember, they will not have wind chill inside their cozy little coop. One thing some have done here is fill water bottles (capped) with hot water and stick them in the coop. Could help in a small coop like that.