Anyone's hen actually ever freeze to death?

[pkeeler]

Does it count if I like my pet chickens more than I do some people?

No

Most chickens are easier to like than most people.

 

[cthrash1]

I am without electric in my coop because it's too far from the house to run electricity to. Would be very expensive. So no heat and they have no problems we even leave the hatch open some nights, but with the way it is angled under the leanto they still don't get much of a draft if any.

 

[catfish/okie]

Quote:
The heat lamp is an issue between the chicken owner and their pocketbook.

Insulation, closing windows, putting plastic tarp over windows, etc. is a different issue. Chickens are not people. Even pet chickens are not people. We can be too nice for their own good. We imagine ourselves in the coop, are sure we would be miserable, and conclude the chickens must be miserable. Setting aside whether a chicken can even have an emotional response to weather conditions, are we harming the chickens? Maybe the chickens are perfectly fine being in the cold, fresh, air. Maybe what is going to harm them is stale, damp, ammonia filled air. The kind of air that you get when you close off the chicken coop because you think they are miserable being in the cold, fresh, air.

Now, if you are keeping chickens for showing and have roosters with huge single combs, then maybe you need a heat lamp. Or if you are breeding fancy game birds for show, with their thinner feathers. But for everyone else, your chickens are best off with fresh air in a dry coop, at any temperature. Than in a climate controlled coop, where humidity and ammonia are elevated.

I think this is a very good post. I was a little concerned because they said we may have record low temps here. I have a 3 sided coop the open end facing south. I think my chooks will be ok. Our record low is said to be -2 for this date.

 

[dichotomymom]

People have different approaches to their animals based on emotion, practicality and reason for having them. Mine aren't pets, they don't live like pets and if I lose one for reasons beyond my control, it's not like the loss of a pet. That said, I chose to purchase them so I have an obligation to them. No heat lamps for my chickens but if I notice that becomes detrimental, I will do something about it.

 

[fiberart57]

I've been boiling water and putting it in a gallon sized container and burying it in the bedding for the past week for my six girls. I think it warms up a coop a few degrees and allows me some peace of mind because it won't start a fire. But this is my first year, it's the fourth coldest winter on record for Colorado and I have a couple of frozen tips on the combs (now liberally Vaselined).

I think that probably they'll be okay without the water, even if the temperature gets below zero, but I feel better putting it in there. In addition, I make sure they have plenty more food - polenta gruel, oatmeal, hamburger, seeds and sometimes I'll make a wet mash out of their Flock Raiser, that will give them some inner fire. It's really important to make sure they have access to plenty of fresh food and water. Dehydration due to frozen water and malnutrition will kill a chicken faster than the cold.

And they need to stay dry, or have a warm place to dry off. I imagine if a chicken got caught in a rainstorm puddle or pool of water and had waterlogged feathers so they couldn't get out, it could very well die if the temperature dropped.

Mary

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Quote:
This is an excellent point. When I was a girl growing up in Illinois, we had much colder and longer winters than they do now. This year we (in the US) are having colder weather than in recent years, but probably similar to what was the norm only a few decades ago...

 

[Mom 2em All]

I want my pet chickens to do more than survive the winter- I want them to thrive. I have hatched out clutches for my brother in law- he is old school farmer, his coop has no heat.(neither does his barn of cows, hogs, etc). His chicken yard is barren dirt, from the chickens scratching and eating every bit of green that grows. They are raised as farm-stock. He has around fifty chickens. Loses some to predators such as hawks- an occasional coon raid. There is no heat in the winter- but they are provided with shelter, food, water. By spring, his chickens LOOK rough- black combs, ragged feathers, etc. Im sure he needs a new coop- but when you lose one two five and you had fifty, it isnt such a great loss to him/livestock farmer. I have chickens from the same clutches as he does. But I have a handful. If I lose one-two-five, the loss is significant. My chickens are raised and kept as my entertainment, as my pets, and my egg source.
No black combs in the spring here. No frostbitten toes. No mud to walk in- I keep shredded aspen down in my chicken yard- aspen in the coop, tarps up to block the chicken yard from wind- a heater in the coop, etc. They are fed warm treats all winter and I built a porch with plexi-glass walls for them to be able to be outside the coop, out of the wind- roost and still see whats going on. I will even go to the pet store and buy them dozens of crickets as a treat in the winter when there are no bugs. They lay eggs year round and are spoiled birds. That pleases me.

My brother in laws way isnt wrong, it works for him and what he uses the birds for. I dont think my way is wrong, either. Sure wild birds survive- many of them do not. I see them huddled around chimneys for warmth and I have seen them huddled around dryer vents also. Many of them migrate to warmer temperatures.

I absolutely hate the cold, and going out in it is awful- and I am certain that my view of the winter is why I keep my girls the way I do. They probably dont mind the cold nearly like I do- but I like to think that they appreciate their life-style.

 

[rcentner]

MY DH laughs at me cause I just HAD to insulate the coops, he kept asking me what temp is too low for a chicken. I have no answer, but he laughs and says.."when I was a kid we never had insulated coops or even layena and they did fine." I did want to put heat lamps in the coops, but he talked me into regular light bulbs and I only use them during the day so they can see better in the coop. It also helps dry it out cause overnight the humidity goes up a bit and after an hour of the light it is nice and dry again. After seeing how they do in this weather I feel more comfortable about not heating the coops. They enjoy the heated water though! Enjoy the winter and all the pretty snow, we will be back to free ranging around the yard in no time.

 

[patandchickens]

You cannot determine whether freezing was the cause of death. (not without a much more complex necropsy than a chickenkeeper would ever have done)

Chickens periodically die from mysterious causes (eggbound, internal laying, cardiac/circulatory accident when laying, infection, etc etc) and if they do so in freezing weather then of course they WILL end up frozen hard like a popsicle. That does not mean that freezing was necessarily the cause of death. It is not uncommon for a sick animal to do more poorly, or die, during a cold snap; while it could have maybe dealt with one thing or the other ok, the combination of illness *plus* cold is sometimes just too much.

So... yes, chickens sometimes die in the cold. Many of those deaths are probably ones that would have happened anyhow, or birds that were already kind of 'marginal' (no matter how they may have looked to you). Presumably sometimes chickens genuinely freeze to death in exceedingly bitter weather, especially if they have radically inappropriate housing; but this is not something the average chickenkeeper should worry about.

The realistic worry with cold weather isn't generally death, it's frostbite. Much of which is pretty much user-inflicted by inappropriate housing or management, IMHO.


Pat

 

[Mom 2em All]

Quote:
My husband laughs at everything I did for my hens also- and told me that his grannies' chickens survived just fine with pieces of old plywood tacked together- and I remind him that people used to have to go outside and away from the house to the outhouse whenever they had to go, and it had no heat, no light, etc...just because it worked then doesn't mean there isn't a better way, now..