Cold col, what is too cold

[Horse Chick]

You want some natural ventilation via roof vents or similar so that you get some air movement. Think of your own house--you probably have vents in the eaves for this reason. That ventilation ensures that you don't get lots of moisture build-up, which is not good for the hens. You probably want to err on the side of more ventilation rather than less.

That being said, I don't think there's any reason not to insulate the floor if you have the means and motivation. Our hen house walls are built like a people house, with insulation inside, but we didn't insulate the floor. That was a conscious choice because we do a deep litter bedding method in the winter, which means that there is probably 6-8" of shavings pack under 3" of fresh shavings all winter, which I think keeps the floor nice and insulated by itself, but otherwise no insulation. If I wasn't doing deep litter in the winter, I'd probably want some insulation under there. If your hens don't have any sort of wind break, then yes, I'd put up a tarp or stack some straw bales around the bottom of the run to block the wind.

If water inside your coop doesn't freeze, your hens really don't need a heat source! They're warmer than most. In the winter at our place, a 7 gallon hanging waterer will freeze in about 4 hours unless we hang a red heat light above it, but we still don't put any heat over the perches or nest boxes. I have to make sure to get outside a couple of times to make sure to gather eggs before they freeze, but the hens are fine.

Thank you WalkingOnSunshine. Now I'm think hmmm....more bedding or crawling under that 3'space for insulation. I think I'm gonna add more bedding, stop removing all of it every week, just take out the real gross areas, though I toss it every morning so it's really staying nice and wouldn't the chance of mites be less in the winter? I use pine shavings even in the nesting boxes, was avoiding hay because of mites but I may get a bale just to throw some out for them to play with as they are bored and one bully hen has taken to plucking the Orps this week, nasty little girl. I took the two injured ones out and they were a bloody mess but one already looks like she has little feathers growing in. I also think if we're surrounding that pen area under the coop with a plastic windbreak that should help with the wind not really getting under the floor and cooling it too bad. For venting, should I install some that I can open and close as needed? Here is a pic of the coop, the windows are on the side that faces into the coop. Thanks for the info!

 

[alissa338]

I too live in Northern Wisconsin. I have a pretty substantial coop with only 3 hens and 1 rooster. I have 2 heat lamps that are keeping the coop at a steady 40 degrees. It is insulated as well and I have cross ventilation holes to help with the moisture. They are a pretty happy little flock, except my 1 broody hen. I think the most important thing is keeping the temperature as consistent as possible.

 

[CGinJCMO]

All your chickens will be fine I have 4 birds in an uninsulated 1/2'' thick plywood coop and I live in the great white north (canada) it has already dipped down to around -10 C and their coop was as warm as my Bed. The temperature here will likely drop down to around -20C on the colder nights.

How big is your coop? I have 12 birds, in an 8' x 8' x 6' coop and my thermometer registers inside temperatures to be the same as the outside temperatures (actually sometimes a degree or two colder than radio reports). Most of them snuggle together at night (one young cockerel is force off the roost and into a nest box to sleep) but I've had frozen water in the coop so I know it's cold in there. The only thing I can say about my coop is that it's draft free and insulated (except one wall that's blocked off by bales of pine shaving right now - that will eventually dwindle down as I add shavings to the floor using Deep-Liter-Method). I don't understand how everyone else seems to get warmer temperatures inside their coops even though they aren't adding heat. Is there such a thing as too much ventilation and I possibly have so much and it's allowing all my heat to escape?

CG

 

[Minifunnyfarm]

Hey Cold col,
I live in CO too. I'm in Alamosa....and it gets REALLY cold in the San Luis Valley (-30 was our low last winter). We moved here from Boulder, CO ( zero was our coldest night but most averaged in the 20's) where we occasionally used extra heat for our 7 chickens and now we use it nearly every night. My sister is an Avian vet and I often consult with her on best practices in raising our backyard flock. Because of this, we use a 150w ceramic heat bulb commonly found at pet stores in the reptile section. You can get them on amazon.com for cheaper, but they still run about $20 for the bulb. Then you need to get the proper light fixture with safety cage so you can hang it safely. The bulbs do not admit light so the chickens are still in tune with natural light, yet they stay warm in our consistently sub zero nights.

It's true that chickens can "survive" very cold nights, but do you want your flock just surviving or thriving? The humane thing to do is to protect them from frostbite. I've made the mistake of thinking "they'll be fine" and it was NOT a good situation. It was a cold snap in Boulder where the daytime temp was 45 and night was 2-8 degrees. Two of my hens had frostbite on their combs and waddles the next day. Then the rest of the flock started pecking their wounds and we nearly had a bad infection for a while....

The biggest danger of having an external heat source is fire. The bulbs get very hot and if they were to fall into the bedding (straw/woodchips) a fire would be instantaneous. We have mounted ours with two attachment points, plenty of hanging space (don't burn the chickens!) and a thermometer.

A thermometer in the coop and outside the coops is absolutely necessary. Sticking your hand in and calling it good is just plane silly. Insulating the coop is also important. There is often cheap foam insulation available at places like Resource or recycled building supply warehouses. Be carefull, because the chickens love to peck and eat styrofoam!

One last important point. There is a new red heat lamp available on the market that is TOXIC to all birds! Heated Teflon admits a gas that is poisonous to birds (crazy but true). This is the stuff they put on non-stick frying pans and now they are coating infrared light bulbs with Teflon and selling them as a heat lamp. DO NOT us this in your chicken coop!! There was a recent article in Backyard Poultry Magazine about this. http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/i...t_bulbs_toxic_to_chickens_the_full_story.html

Hope this helped!

Cheers,

-minifunnyfarm
7 hens, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 1 Artist and 1 Physician Assistant

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Thank you WalkingOnSunshine. Now I'm think hmmm....more bedding or crawling under that 3'space for insulation. I think I'm gonna add more bedding, stop removing all of it every week, just take out the real gross areas, though I toss it every morning so it's really staying nice and wouldn't the chance of mites be less in the winter? I use pine shavings even in the nesting boxes, was avoiding hay because of mites but I may get a bale just to throw some out for them to play with as they are bored and one bully hen has taken to plucking the Orps this week, nasty little girl. I took the two injured ones out and they were a bloody mess but one already looks like she has little feathers growing in. I also think if we're surrounding that pen area under the coop with a plastic windbreak that should help with the wind not really getting under the floor and cooling it too bad. For venting, should I install some that I can open and close as needed? Here is a pic of the coop, the windows are on the side that faces into the coop. Thanks for the info!

Because you have no holes up near the roof, you really aren't getting ventilation in this coop. That means that there's no escape for any ammonia or moisture. Were this my coop, I'd drill a several 1" -1.5" holes right through the wood up near the top on the short sides of the coop and at least four up near the gutter in the back. Then I'd cover the holes either with 1/4" hardware cloth or, (easier but more expensive) with ready-made vent covers meant for the eaves of a house to make sure predators can't get in--we have weasels at our place, and they can get in through anything 1" or larger. Or coop is built like a house and MUCH larger, but we have vents under the eaves of the roof and a vent in each roof peak. We have a smaller coop--the "pullet house," and we intentionally left the walls short and filled in the rest with hardware cloth, but the pullet house is only used in the summer so we weren't worried about cold.







We need to put screening over the roof peak vents because we have issues with starlings, but thankfully that peak is 14' high and predators haven't made it through that hole yet.

I don't know if you can do deep-litter in your set up. We built the coop with deep litter in mind, and it has a board that keeps the litter from spilling out into the feed room. If you're considering it, you should search deep litter method here on BYC before you decide. Basically, though, it's only cleaning out the coop once or twice a year. The rest of the time you just take out any really wet spots, stir the litter around with a pitchfork, and put some more shavings on top as needed. If you do that, you'll REALLY want to add some ventilation to make sure you don't get an ammonia spike. You might decide that sticking some Styrofoam up underneath the hen house is easier.

I think I'd add either plastic or a couple of bales of straw around the bottom of the run to block wind this winter. Getting out of the wind is important for critters.

 

[gingerpeach22]

I see no reason to test how much a chicken can take of cold any more than I would do for a dog, child, etc. It's 22 below zero today and they have an Eco Heater on the wall with a thermostat which turns on at 35 and off around 40. Fourteen eggs from Fourteen young hens yesterday. The coop has ventilation, about five inches of opening at the top of two walls because it is humidity which is the problem in a winter coop. I change the straw on the floor almost weekly because it softens (getting moist). I could not live with myself if I thought that they were just surviving an ordeal I created for them. So rant away about how little combs freeze, how tough your birds are, how much electricity you save, but keeping a coop just above freezing is the way I do it - not every hen cuddles with another on the roost, not every hen is away from the vents all the time, not every hen likes to be at full fluff trying to survive.

 

[EnragedCoconut]

I thought I had an account on here before today but apparently I never posted, or its been so long, i've been pruned . Anyhoo, long time lurker, if not poster.

I agree with the last poster. Just because a chicken can survive the cold, doesn't mean we should test their limits. I've got four RSL that I picked up in July. Granted, this is my first winter with chickens so I may be back in the spring complaining about how wrong I was, but i'm heating my little coop with a red heat lamp. I've also got a regular white bulb in there for light during the daytime. My intention it to keep them happy and comfortable. They're pets, primarily. The eggs are just happy benefits.

My girls have just dropped from four eggs a day (one each) to three eggs a day. I'm hoping its just the winter time kicking in and everyone is still happy.

My coop is small but insulated. Half of the run has a roof too, to try and keep the rain off them.

I'm glad someone else out there is heating their coop so I don't feel so alone .

EC

 

[Rooster Rules]

I thought I had an account on here before today but apparently I never posted, or its been so long, i've been pruned . Anyhoo, long time lurker, if not poster.

I agree with the last poster. Just because a chicken can survive the cold, doesn't mean we should test their limits. I've got four RSL that I picked up in July. Granted, this is my first winter with chickens so I may be back in the spring complaining about how wrong I was, but i'm heating my little coop with a red heat lamp. I've also got a regular white bulb in there for light during the daytime. My intention it to keep them happy and comfortable. They're pets, primarily. The eggs are just happy benefits.

My girls have just dropped from four eggs a day (one each) to three eggs a day. I'm hoping its just the winter time kicking in and everyone is still happy.

My coop is small but insulated. Half of the run has a roof too, to try and keep the rain off them.

I'm glad someone else out there is heating their coop so I don't feel so alone .

EC

I see no reason to test how much a chicken can take of cold any more than I would do for a dog, child, etc. It's 22 below zero today and they have an Eco Heater on the wall with a thermostat which turns on at 35 and off around 40. Fourteen eggs from Fourteen young hens yesterday. The coop has ventilation, about five inches of opening at the top of two walls because it is humidity which is the problem in a winter coop. I change the straw on the floor almost weekly because it softens (getting moist). I could not live with myself if I thought that they were just surviving an ordeal I created for them. So rant away about how little combs freeze, how tough your birds are, how much electricity you save, but keeping a coop just above freezing is the way I do it - not every hen cuddles with another on the roost, not every hen is away from the vents all the time, not every hen likes to be at full fluff trying to survive.

Yup, live in Manitoba Canada, home of -40 every winter, for a few nights guaranteed, many nights of -15to-25f. I have a 6ft X 8ft X 6ft high ceiling coop, insulated, heated with a 600 watt oil radiator heater, this unit is caged in by itself. I have 5 bantams, keeping temps around freezing. Today shut heater off, 36f outside, 45-50f in coop, tonight temp to drop to 10f, put heat on low. I also have a brooder light with 175 watt bulb, not using, it is super secured.










I really think some folks have no idea how cold it can be when its -30, with a -45 windchill factor. The pics....

 

[EnragedCoconut]

Winterpeg?

I'm in Keswick, ON

EC

 

[Rooster Rules]

Winterpeg?

I'm in Keswick, ON

EC

Close, but do not live in the city....