Age Old Question, To Add Some Heat Or Not To Add Heat

[gritsar]

Up to you, but my chickens aren't in their coop this morning to worry about how cold it is in there. They are outside, just like they are every day at this time.

The snow is a novelty to the young ones, but the adult birds have seen it before and pay it no mind.

As for insulating, it's works against the summer heat too.

 

[My6Chicks]

Here in Maine, where is hasn't gotten too cold (only down in the teens), our chicks are fine without any insulation. We have increased the thickness of pine shavings on the floor and diverted ventilation away from the roosts. They are use to the cold and don't seem to mind it. We make sure they have plenty of food if they need some additional body warmth.

Good luck to you...

 

[rondar]

I live in New Mexico and the temps get down in the single digits. I keep two heat lamps in their coop. One I wired up to be adjustable in case they get too warm. It has worked out fine.
RJS

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
I sure hope I'm misunderstanding what you're saying here...that you mean chickens are more cold tolerant than people, and not that chickens don't feel the cold... Just because an animal is more cold tolerant than humans certainly doesn't mean the cold weather doesn't affect them. My dane dog wears a fur coat 24/7, but will certainly start shivering and looking/acting uncomfortable when outdoors in the twenties and lower for an extended time.

 

[cannoteatchickensanymore]

This message answers to teach1rusl,

Well, I meant that chickens are more cold tolerant than us. So what I specifically meant is that we feel cold does not mean that they feel cold. I check my chickens everyday. Their combs, how they move, and etc. I don't think them as a pet, but they have got respect and are living with us. In this weather, they still go outside everyday, and roaming around because they choose.

Maybe I have to mention that my chickens are cold hardy breeds (rocks), and that's how they survived and thrived even when people were struggling to keep their own heat source (no electricity, no central heating, and etc), like long time ago... So chickens from warmer climate might not well adapt in North East. It is my mistake not to mention that last time. I am sorry about that.

Now I am talking about dog since you brought it up. Some are really cold hardy, and others are not. Siberian Huskies would not survive well in tropical environment. It does not mean that they don't need any shelter to live comfortably in harsh winter, but we know they are cold wether adapted dogs, while others would like to be in warmer climate. Other animals, for example, some fishes can live only in really cold water stream like trouts, while tropical fishes cannot live in that environment. And the trouts, which live in that cold water, which we can't imagine how we could survive in that environment, cannot survive in warm water, which we tend to think a better environment than really cold one...

I free range my chickens, so I don't want to create too different environment between an inside and outside of the coop. It seems to create a lot of stress to any organisms if the temperature changes, especially in a drastic way. As long as chickens have fresh dry air and draft free environment, they are usually ok. What they seem to hate is being locked up in the coop, since they are always ready to get out when I come to open the door for them.

Only we can find out what is likely best for animals by learning information and each of us observes and verifies the validity. Thanks for reading a long message.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Excellent point. For those of us who do provide supplemental heat, this is something that is critical to remember. You really do not want to heat up your coop to such a point that there is a drastic and sudden difference in temperature when the chickens do go outside. You want to let your chickens to be able to acclimate to their climate as much as possible.

And that's what is the crux of our weather problem here in North Texas: we get many sudden, extreme shifts in temperature. It can be 80 degrees one day, and in the 30's literally the next day. That's why I run a small, oil filled radiator in our coop occasionally to try to ease my flock of small bantams into the cold weather more gradually.