below zero temps

shend

Chirping
12 Years
Sep 16, 2010
72
0
92
west michigan
I've had chickens for 8 winters but have never had temps dropping this cold in my area. They are predicting -15 friday nite/sat morning. My girls (12) are in two coops, 2 feet off the ground with plenty of wood chip litter ( and poop!). The ventilation is good and they're dry and draft free.

Should I worry about such frigid temps? I've never added any heat as most posts in here don't suggest it. Does feeding them warm rice or scrambled eggs help them stay warm? Is there anything else I can do?
 
I would give them a bunch of scratch and also wet mash made out of their feed. I certainly do use heat lamps like from a brooder just to take the edge off, not warm them. Make sure they eat well and have access to fresh water .
 
Should I make that a warm mash?
We aren't anywhere near as cold as you, but I've been giving mine a warm mash beginning when it got down to single digits, and recently -7º F The mash freezes pretty quickly. I come out with more every few hours, and if there's any frozen blobs, bring those in and thaw them.
 
Thanks, I'll do that in the morning along with warm scrambled eggs. Hope these temps don't last long. Feel bad for the girls!
 
It has been single digits in the days and way colder at night, which is unheard of for more than a few hours here, let alone 2 weeks. I have a panel heater in the coop roof and 6 heat lamps in the 25x25 run with one in the coop. We still had 3 freeze to death last night. They were the three smallest, 2 olive egger pullets who hatched in September and a banty cochin (who was the best broody I have ever had). Needless to say, the 3 roos from the last hatch are perfectly fine and eating their heads off. My metal heaters for the waterers cant keep up with the freeze at all. I bring out warm water in gallon jugs and fill up the reservoir/lip of all the waterers. I also bring them fruits and veggies. I am going to tack up rag bath towels over the 6' wide doorway in the morning. I have not wanted to impede the air circulation, but they are literally freezing to death. In the fall, when the leaves drop, I put about 10" of leaves in the run to act as insulation, and a source of bugs/worms when they cant range. I worry about my 2 feral barn cats, who live in my garage. They have space heaters around their bed/feeder/waterer area, but I am afraid to come out to a kitty-cicle. They wont let me even touch them. They certainly are not willing to come into the house.
 

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