Cold chickens

[jlund2]

Starting tomorrow here in Minnesota it will be -31 below zero all day and night. I have a heated 250 watt bulb in there and am keeping it on all night. I am also thinking of keeping them in their coop all day tomorrow and not let them out because maybe it will be warmer in the coop tomorrow. Has anyone had chickens with -31 below weather. I am so scared for my chickens and ducks and rooster. I have 1 rooster, 4 chickens, and 2 ducks and I put extra fluff in the coop but that is just sooo cold. I feel so bad for them.
Has anyone dealt with this situation with it being this cold out for so long? It has been around -15 below at least at some point of each day almost for the last month. I am so scared.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I haven't dealt with cold that cold, but I'd be keeping them in too! We only go down to 10 degrees here.

Brr! I hope all goes well for your chickens.

Stay safe yourself!!!

 

[jlund2]

Thanks and yes it's dangerous cold for everyone. This weather has been insane all over. They seem to be okay so far.

 

[crazychick26201]

Yes, I am worried too. We survived one arctic blast down to 4 degrees. Now another worse one is coming with temps to -9 and wind chill to -40. This is my first winter with chickens. We installed a flat panel heater in the coop which keeps the coop temps about 5 degrees warmer than outside air. It has maintained around 10 in the coop. We also have a heated pet bowl we got from Amazon, with hold 1 gal. Water and has been working well for us. We keep it in the run. Yesterday we completely enclosed the run in plastic sheeting and stacked bales of hay and bags do leaves around the outside for extra Insulation.

Our coop is a Garden Coop design which has a completely open roof covered with hardware cloth. So there is plenty of ventilation. We put foam insulation in two walls of the coop and on the roof. But I am still so worried about the cold. My chickens are Buff Orpingtons which are supposed to be cold hardy.

I am thinking of bringing them into the basement for tomorrow night. What do others think.