Below 20 Degrees - any advice?

[Myrshine]

As long as you have proper ventilation in your coop and no drafts, your birds will be just fine. Keep water and anything that can cause a high amount of moisture out of the coop at night.

 

[Kiki]

Hello friends,

Please don't laugh at me for this, but I live in Central Texas (12 years actually) and have never experienced what is coming to us soon - under 20 degree weather! I also have kept chickens for years but never in cold conditions. For example, I used to live in New Guinea (tropics) and kept hundreds of layers and meat birds - cold was never a problem there.

Is there anything special I should do with my coop for them to sleep better at night? Or even for the run during the day? I probably will boil water and just carry it out in a pot to pour into the water. I do have hay straw in the bottom of my coop. The girls could cozy up at night next to each other. Should I do anything else? My coop has at least three sections of 'open' wire siding but I would say about 80-85% of the coop is sided with wood.

Can you update us please...how did your birds do during the freeze?

I added a little hay to my open air coop but did nothing else and my birds all survived just fine.

 

[Mamatomany123]

Can you update us please...how did your birds do during the freeze?

I added a little hay to my open air coop but did nothing else and my birds all survived just fine.

I'm not the OP but am in Texas also. All of my girls survived. They spent a lot of time in the coop. I gave warm water throughout the day and some warm wet feed. The bigger girls were easy. The week old chicks I had were my main worry. Power kept going out so I had to keep giving them warm water bottles. Kept them in the kitchen in a crate and turned on my gas stove. Thankfully that little stove kept our house at around 70. I also have 6 kids 9 and under so we had to keep them warm also.