Do you keep your birds in the coop when it's cold, or let them decide?

[Poulets De Cajun]

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I get that! Needed a little assurance!

 

[Anny]

I let them decide if they are cold in the run they go back into the coop. They will not allow them self to freeze to death by staying out side, and if they do...well it's Darwin in action, right.

They have instincts to keep themselfs alive.

 

[Reinbeau]

They won't go out in the snow here, so I shovel out their run. The pop door is open for them, if they want to go out it's their choice. We had a blizzard here last week, I kept the coop closed, the wind was blowing too hard, I wanted the temp inside to stay above freezing. They didn't seem to mind.

 

[meathook]

I leave the pop door open all day so they can get into the run if they want. They come out in the morning for a few handfuls of scratch but what I don't get with my birds is they hardly go out all day with the cold temperatures we are having (it was 9 today) and then an hour or so before dark they go out and just stand out there. I go out at dark 5:30ish here and have to herd them all in. Makes no sense.

Anyway. I leave the door open if they want out they can go out if they want to stay in they can do that.

 

[loverOFchickens]

I do but they have lots of warm bodies and heat lights.
I really don't have much choice.

Just water twice a day and feed twice too.

 

[briana1975]

I was just like you a couple weeks ago. Trying to decide to let them out into the cold or not. I kept the chicken door open and let them decide. I have a 125 watt heat light 2 feet over the water and that was even freezing. They came in and out so I thought ok, they know when it is too cold for them. They looked ok, till a couple day later when the temp went up to about 25F. That is when I really started to notice the frostbite on my BO roos wattles. They started to swell. I keep antibotic ointment and now bag balm almost everyday. But his wattles are at least 1/4 in shorter now due to dieing off from the frostbite. Now I have a 250 watt bulb over water when it is super cold and I don't give them a choice on days that the temp will drop below 0 with the wind chill. I just don't want to deal with an infection from frostbite.

 

[Koolduck]

We had to go to the east coast for a death in the family just this past week. My chicks were being looked after by a good suragate chicken Mom. They have been in their coop for 7 days. Against my gut feelings, I opened the pop door for them. They went out.....they came in! 15*F with wind chill made it feel 7*. Poor roo got frostbit at 11* with heat lamp on the night before we got home. My friend is beside her self. The only thing I would have done that she didn't was petroleum jelly. He went after her a couple of times...and she is scared of her own roo so she wasn't about to tackle mine. Hopefully he is too mean, that the chicken God won't want him!

 

[rcentner]

I let mine decide, I open the door and they make the call. Funny thing is my bantams come out everyday, no matter what the temp is, but my standard chickens will sometimes stay in for an hour or two in the mornin. I thought the bigger chickens would be more cold hardy, I guess it doesn't matter. But I do have a nice wind blocked retreat for them outside too, when it's cold like today, they will huddle in there. I like that they get out and get some fresh air anyway, lets the humidity go down in the coop too.

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

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Now that made me laugh! Maybe they're just waiting for you to come along and tuck them in before bedtime. Do they get a story, too?

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

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Oh, no, so you're saying, even though they look okay now, frostbite may manifest later?

Do you use the bag balm to coat the combs to prevent the frostbite?