Cold here, and something I just observed.

[Mrs. K]

We are Negative 15, and the sun is shining. Down taking care of my girls and out of the wind, in the sun, kind of pleasant, so a pause a bit to watch them.

There is a young pullet, standing on one leg, the other tucked up under her, and she stands like this for quite a while, and it looks like she has a piece of ice on her toe. She has the foot tucked up under her. Then stretches it out, and really it looks like a LOT of ice. So I go back into the run, to see if I can catch her. She stands there, then gives a shake, and the ice is gone and she runs off.

I think she must have stepped in the water, then on the splinters of ice, I had knocked out of the water bowl and one stuck to her foot. But chickens put out a lot of heat, and just as I walking towards her, I saw a drop of water fall. At -20, the ice held close to her body, but not inside the feathers, was melting.

They make a lot of heat.

Mrs K

 

[Sally PB]

Wow! Visual confirmation of the amount of heat they put out. Thanks for posting.

 

[saysfaa]

And what they generate stays with them, under the feathers.

 

[awagnon]

I was surprised by a video I saw on YouTube where a woman had her chickens in their large barn, no heat and in one of the VERY long and cold winter states. The barn wasn't insulated or closed in very much where the chickens would roost. She took a laser thermometer out to where they were roosting and aimed it at a few of the birds and it showed they were indeed very warm and toasty despite it being in the negative temps where she was at the time. If I remember correctly, she pointed it at the wall next to a bird and then at the bird. The hen was around 70ish degrees where the wall was below freezing, maybe even in the negatives. I was glad to have found that video back then, as it was my first winter with my girls and I was debating sewing the up some little fur lined parkas. J/K. I was worried about them during the frigid temps we were experiencing at the time and this video put my fears to rest. As long as they can be kept dry and out of the cold wind, they are troopers in this frigid season.