Are my chickens gonna die?

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lasallefamily

lasallefamily

Chirping
Nov 6, 2020
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I live in North Texas where we don't usually get snow/ice and "cold weather" means we have to layer and wear a jacket. However, Mother Nature is acting a fool next week. Right now it's 26F and tomorrow night it's supposed to be 8F for the low. It'll go up and down over the next few days just peeking out of the freeze zone but Monday's high is only supposed to be 21F. We are supposed to get ice tonight and snow on Monday. (Did I mention this is north TEXAS.) I have three pet chickens who are kind enough to give us eggs. The setup I have is a small chicken coop with an attached run... inside a 5X5 chainlink dog kennel. I have a tarp on top to keep the rain off them and give them extra shade on sunny days. They are directly next to my storage building on one side... with trees surrounding the kennel/coop. Today I added another tarp on the back and the side that's not next to the storage building to try and cut down on the cold wind (three sides mostly covered). I added extra straw in the coop and in the outer run. We put them in the coop/inner run every night and let them out into the bigger run every morning. Today their water was frozen... so we added hot water to melt the frozen water about four times today. I can't get electricity to the coop... I did look at putting a heat lamp in it... or one of those heat stands... but I have two goats... so if I run an extension cord the goats will chew on it. I will put the chickens in my bathroom if I have to but I'm hoping not to have to... because that will be a mess. I'm not sure what else to do ... or if they'll be okay. This is our first winter with chickens. Any advice or words of encouragement?
 
8F isn't that cold. Do NOT attempt to keep them warm by tarping up their entire set up - they still need ample ventilation to allow moisture to escape. Heat lamps are a fire risk and even moreso if you have goats chewing or yanking on the cord.

Really the only issue is keeping the water liquid, so if the only good option is to keep dumping and refilling, that'll work fine.
 
It's completely open on the front side (where the gate is) and a strip down the back side to let air flow through. I just wanted to give them a corner in the outer run to get out of the wind if they wanted to. And I wanted to keep the ice/rain/whatever falls off the coop itself. I love those chicks!! We haven't been through a winter together yet, so I have been really worried about them.
 
lasallefamily said:
It's completely open on the front side (where the gate is) and a strip down the back side to let air flow through. I just wanted to give them a corner in the outer run to get out of the wind if they wanted to. And I wanted to keep the ice/rain/whatever falls off the coop itself. I love those chicks!! We haven't been through a winter together yet, so I have been really worried about them.
Click to expand...
Ok I actually just build a goat house sounds stupid right cause we’re talking about chickens but what you can do to prevent the goats from chewing on any cords is you can staple gun the cords to the walls and then boom your a ok just don’t have it leaning to much on and wood or the wood could get hot and catch on fire.
 
lasallefamily said:
I live in North Texas where we don't usually get snow/ice and "cold weather" means we have to layer and wear a jacket. However, Mother Nature is acting a fool next week. Right now it's 26F and tomorrow night it's supposed to be 8F for the low. It'll go up and down over the next few days just peeking out of the freeze zone but Monday's high is only supposed to be 21F. We are supposed to get ice tonight and snow on Monday. (Did I mention this is north TEXAS.) I have three pet chickens who are kind enough to give us eggs. The setup I have is a small chicken coop with an attached run... inside a 5X5 chainlink dog kennel. I have a tarp on top to keep the rain off them and give them extra shade on sunny days. They are directly next to my storage building on one side... with trees surrounding the kennel/coop. Today I added another tarp on the back and the side that's not next to the storage building to try and cut down on the cold wind (three sides mostly covered). I added extra straw in the coop and in the outer run. We put them in the coop/inner run every night and let them out into the bigger run every morning. Today their water was frozen... so we added hot water to melt the frozen water about four times today. I can't get electricity to the coop... I did look at putting a heat lamp in it... or one of those heat stands... but I have two goats... so if I run an extension cord the goats will chew on it. I will put the chickens in my bathroom if I have to but I'm hoping not to have to... because that will be a mess. I'm not sure what else to do ... or if they'll be okay. This is our first winter with chickens. Any advice or words of encouragement?
Click to expand...
Mine would kill for your weather. Daytime highs haven't been above 0 since Thursday and won't be until next week. Mine have no heat, but they are sheltered from any drafts.

Here are the current conditions.
 

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