EmilyPDesormeaux
Hatching
- Jan 6, 2018
- 1
- 0
- 7
We currently have two hens and a rooster that we hatched from eggs last spring and this is our first time raising chickens. The temperature for the past several weeks has been pretty consistently between -20 and -30 so we've made them a temporary "coop" in a corner of our uninsulated woodshed/exterior mudroom so they could have access to a heat lamp. It's a small setup but has all the basics, we're extremely careful with the heat lamp and we let them out to poke around the shed, trying to fight the boredom (they have zero interest in going outside, especially since there's 2+ feet of snow on the ground). Not ideal but we're working with what we've got right now. ANYWAY, the Ameraucana hen has taken to sleeping on the woodpile beside their enclosure rather than under the heat lamp on the roosts with the other two. I know Ameraucanas are cold hardy birds but I'm perplexed that she'd rather be there, alone, in -27 rather than under the lamp with the other two. I put her back in the coop last night, but tonight she's back on her woodpile again. During the summer she used to sleep in the cedar hedge with another rooster (gone now) rather than in the coop. Is it possible she just likes being out of the coop, or should I be worried about dynamics between the chickens etc.? Is -27 too cold for an Ameraucana? Looking for any kind of insight on this conundrum... Thanks!
