With spring coming on, you won't get as many responses. Post again come winter time, and you'll get a WIDE range of responses...lol. Partly it comes down to how you view your chickens. I've heard people say "My birds did fine; I only lost two," and "Oh, they lost part of their comb (to frostbite), but they're fine." I'm hoping they consider their chickens farm stock, and personally I still wouldn't be fine with my farm stock dieing or losing body parts. However, my chickens are pets whom I consider fairly equal to my dogs/cats (and a few of them are held in higher esteem than one or two of my dogs/cats...lol). So I do use a heat lamp in my insulated coop to keep it above freezing in there. My dogs and cats enjoy 70 degree weather in the house, so my pet chickens can bask in 35...lol. And some will say "Oh, that's bad for them! (providing a heat source)." However, I've never been provided any factual information to back those claims, and my chickens sure didn't act as if THEY thought it was bad for them...lol.
Most say if the coop is really dry and draft free that chickens can do okay down to 0 degrees. I think a lot of folks (at least here on BYC) provide a lamp if it drops below that...
Most say if the coop is really dry and draft free that chickens can do okay down to 0 degrees. I think a lot of folks (at least here on BYC) provide a lamp if it drops below that...
