Cold winter in PA and I have problems and questions.

[patandchickens]

There is no battery-operated heater you can realistically use. They draw WAY WAY too much current for a battery to be useful.

There are propane (etc) type heaters, but there is a significant chance of burning down the barn, plus they are not cheap to buy, and I really would not suggest using them in your situation.

Be very, very careful with this business of puttting up plastic. If there was significant air movement going on in your coop (draftiness) then you do need to fix that of course, and it may be partly the cause of your frostbite; BUT another very common contributor to frostbite is HUMIDITY. And the more you plastic-wrap a coop, the more the humidity builds up.

How damp is your coop? Is the floor earthen with rising dampness, has snow/rain come in anywhere, are there leaks (waterer spills, roof drips) anywhere, how deep and how old is the bedding? Do you use a droppigns board, and if so, how often is it cleaned?

I would suggest that if you are *forced* to keep them in this coop for now, your best bet would be to vaseline their combs (be very gentle with the frostbit portions), do a total litter change-out to new dry pine shavings, fix/prevent any and all sources of incoming dampness, and install a droppings board under the roost that you sprinkle with shavings and then clean every morning without fail (removing the poo from the coop entirely). This should get your humidity down somewhat and give you more "margin for error" in terms of cold air temperatures.

I sure wouldn't put 7 wk old chicks in an unheated open drafty barn without electricity in weather getting down into the single digits, personally. If you *have* to, I guess give them a little plywood hover to get into, pile shavings over top of it, and maybe put a jug or two of very hot water in there with them that you replace a couple times a day. But it is not a good situation...

Good luck,

Pat

 

[LynneP]

I was thinking that adult birds might appreciate a huddle-house since they are in a barn. One way to make this is to stack straw into a three-sided 'fortress with a cover on top, such as a sheet of old plywood or osb. Build a roost out of old 2x4 anchored between two layers of bales. Your roost will be lower but it appears that your birds are finding it drafty up high. You could also make a bale shelter to keep air from drifting over your waterer, a protctive place to keep it from freezing sooner...

It certainly has been bitter here too in stretches of 10 days to 2 weeks at a time. nd Pat is right, it's too cold there for young birds, beacuse they do not have adult feathercoat and have not had time to adapt.

 

[MareeZoCool]

I wrapped my pen/run with clear plastic. It's amazing how warm that helps keep my birds! Yes, the water still freezes. No biggie we change it out a few times during the day. Figure the birds should be sleeping during the night. I once saw a post reply here where someone suggested using an old crockpot for a water bowl. (The type with the removable pot.) Seems the outer cooker helps to insulate that ceramic bowl. I haven't found one to experiment with yet.

 

[Chic Chick]

I see no one has suggested to you to sell these chicks to someone who has the proper facilities to house them now and then incubate more when the weather warms up....it's a win/win situation - you get them out of the house and get some extra cash. You might be surprised at the responses you get from an ad for 7 week old chicks now.
Another thing to do is build a 8X4 foot brooder out of 3 sheets of plywood , place a tarp and square bales around it for insulation, and have a cover and hang a heat lamp from the 4 foot level. You can do this just out your back door. I did this last year in my unheated garage and covered it all with an extra quilt and younger chicks did fine and the smell and dust was out of the house.
Good luck with whatever you do