asking for reassurance from the deep freeze

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bobbi-j said:
Quote: I do feel that in some cases, chickens do need heat. Our coop is only about 10-20 degrees above the outdoor temperature, meaning if it is ten below zero, the coop is ten to zero degrees, meaning the eggs will freeze, the water would freeze if not for the heated base, and the chickens with larger combs would be getting frostbite. So I tend to assume coops are like ours. Well-insulated coops, and smaller ones that could get warm with body heat, probably would not need heat, but I know ours does.
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Fortunately we live where below zero temps have never happened, we did get down to 24 so far this winter. However, there are a lot of proponents of no additional heat in their coops. I wonder if they have gone down to minus 40 or 50 degrees. Minus 20 I guess is fine, but there comes a point where the wind chill draws off more heat than can be produced. In that case, I would be supplementing the heat in the coop as it is an unusually low temp. There comes a point where they could not keep up with the heat loss. I pray all the creatures enduring this bitter cold weather do OK, but suspect there will be songbirds that will not survive. I hope I'm wrong about that. Good luck to you all. We were fortunately about 60 today, nice bike riding weather. This Los Angeles native cannot imagine what you are going thru.
 
pegm said:
Fortunately we live where below zero temps have never happened, we did get down to 24 so far this winter. However, there are a lot of proponents of no additional heat in their coops. I wonder if they have gone down to minus 40 or 50 degrees. Minus 20 I guess is fine, but there comes a point where the wind chill draws off more heat than can be produced. In that case, I would be supplementing the heat in the coop as it is an unusually low temp. There comes a point where they could not keep up with the heat loss. I pray all the creatures enduring this bitter cold weather do OK, but suspect there will be songbirds that will not survive. I hope I'm wrong about that. Good luck to you all. We were fortunately about 60 today, nice bike riding weather. This Los Angeles native cannot imagine what you are going thru.
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If the chickens were out in the wind, yes - that would be a problem. But if your chickens are in a wind-proof coop, windchill is not an issue.
 
Living in Upper Michigan I am no stranger to sub zero temps -20F to -30F. I usually don't heat my coops which are well insulated and plenty of ventilation. Tonight we are supposed to get almost -40 so I put a 100w reptile bulb in each coop it will not keep the coop warm but I am hoping it will take the edge off. I would not use a space heater for fear of fire, even in a cage because chickens do kick a lot of shavings around and some could end up next to the heater.
 
early bird, what a wonderful idea, put the guineas in cages in the coop. wish i had read the post earlier. lol i did try to add my other fireplace heater to the guinea coop and as expected the elect. wouldnt carry the load. i have all the the cats tucked away nice and warm. just the guineas have nothing so i guess i will find out for myself the results after this is over. for those that are against heating i would like to explain a little more then i have. the heater is very small about 6x 12in. in a wire cage that is 2x4ft. with a metal road sign under it to keep straw away and i can touch the heat source without burning my hand.it is one of those fake fireplaces. i too was against heating but our temps are going from 35/40 degrees to -40to -50 with the wind chill and ambient temp of -11. that is a drastic change for these birds. some chickens fair better then others in the cold.and never seeing this type of weather before and as much money and time i have put into them not counting the emotional pangs i would have. i do feel like something should be done for my own piece of mind if not for the chickens health. i made the coop myself so i know there are plenty of air drafts there, ie: crack around the door,nest boxes, ect... i know there is a lot of info on here about cold winters but every situation is different . Thank you to EVERYONE that is posting and together we will get this figured out.
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I am in middle northern Michigan and I am nervous too.
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My coop is about a 1/2 acre from the house and running electricity is out to the question. I have a small flock of 3 hens. The coop is pretty small too. I read on another thread to pile up the snow all around the sides, creating an igloo effect. We have gotten already 10 inches of snow today.
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I will add more straw and pile up the snow, maybe add another tarp and pray......

I was hoping to hear from some Canadians and Alaskans on how they deal....


My girls are during good so far and are still laying
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bobbi-j just a question, how do you find these posts? i would not have known what to look for if you hadnt of put the site up for us. i was reading some of it and it has good info in it but to just go looking for answers like this how am i supposed to find it if i dont know the name of the post? i am new to computer. this site and facebook is the only places i have been.
 
granny hatchet said:
bobbi-j just a question, how do you find these posts? i would not have known what to look for if you hadnt of put the site up for us. i was reading some of it and it has good info in it but to just go looking for answers like this how am i supposed to find it if i dont know the name of the post? i am new to computer. this site and facebook is the only places i have been.
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Up at the top of the page, there is a white bar and on the inside of that bar in light blue lettering it says, "Search Discussions, Articles, Reviews & more!" Move your cursor into that bar, click, and type in a subject that you're interested in. Then click on the blue "search" box next to it. I knew about that thread because I've been a BYC member long enough to have seen it when it first started. You don't need to know the name of the thread, though. You can just type in something like, "chickens and cold weather" or "keeping chickens warm" and you'll get a page with several choices of threads to look at.
 

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