-6 F Tomorrow... Chickens in the garage?

[azygous]

I've seen a hen of mine get heat-stressed when I brought her inside. Her facial skin became bright red and at one point she was panting. Her poop began to show signs of heat stress, too. You can't subject chickens to such a huge temperature variant. They're much better off staying out in the cold, though out of wind and drafts, than trying to cope with temps that are too warm.

 

[pdirt]

Also here in MA, painfully cold today. 7am went out to let the 8 girls out of their house it was -1, high expected to get to 12. It actually hurt to be outside! I know they are birds, have built in down coats and that I see other wild birds surviving this artic blast but none of them look happy. I also don't heat the coop and keep both food and water outside (coop is inside a 10'x12' chain-link dog kennel with chain-link cover. I know they are safe, no drafts, low humidity, and good ventilation, but when do you have to step in? Never?
I hate to admit that this am I made the 8 girls an oatmeal and cracked corn omelet, watered it down a lot and waited till it cooled enough but was still warm. They loved it, those silly feathery little cannibals

I think for so many of us, it is just getting used to the idea that chickens can survive just fine in the cold. We humans can't, or at least not without being acclimated to it (which most of us are not) and wearing a down coat (like chickens). As for "when to step in", I personally am going to use the -20F number for our flock. That is, -20F inside the coop, not the outside temp. It's always 10-15F warmer in our coop than outside. And I doubt we'll ever get that cold where I live, though we do have our brooder lamp (hanging style, not clamp) that perhaps once every 10 years I might have to think about possibly setting it up in the coop.

I have read of some old-timer flock keepers who have had their flock do fine at -30F and colder, without any heat. They have cold-hardy birds, proper ventilation, protections from drafts, keep them well fed and some of them have insulated coops while others do not.

I've seen a hen of mine get heat-stressed when I brought her inside. Her facial skin became bright red and at one point she was panting. Her poop began to show signs of heat stress, too. You can't subject chickens to such a huge temperature variant. They're much better off staying out in the cold, though out of wind and drafts, than trying to cope with temps that are too warm.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think it is a very good point...just as we humans might GASP at the horrific cold (which is all relative to what you're used to), chickens can have a strong reaction to oppressive heat.