First night in the teens

[Dirtyhip]

OK, Seriously. No light, eh?

I am leaning towards turning it on.

It will probably be teens at the airport, and not in the coop.

 

[jeepguy982001]

lol it was 30 here the other morning so i sleeped in to let them out later and i swear they cussed me in chicken language for not letting them out at a regular time. Cold doesn't bother mine but if its real windy or bad weather they'll go back inside

 

[Dirtyhip]

Well, I turned it on.

Tonight...cold turkey er.... cold chickens.

They slept on the floor last night, in a little football huddle.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
Are you talking about adult chickens? Or chick? Adult chickens and older chicks don't need heat in that temp range.

 

[GardenState38]

Quote:
I don't blame you one bit. They have already been acclimated to 30 degrees, it sounds. If you aren't comfortable with letting the temperature inside the coop go far below that (and it doesn't sound like your girls are too comfortable with that idea either!), it's possible to supplement with heat to keep temperatures above freezing in there.
Just be sure to use every safety precaution possible with your electrical hook-up and lamp!

I don't know what your set-up is like, but you might consider a thermo cube--an outlet adapter that automatically shuts off when temperatures get above 45 degrees in the coop, and turns back on at 35 degrees. this keeps things from getting too warm and keeps electric bills in control.
Also, ventilation is key--have to make sure that the water vapor/moisture from the birds' breath and any caused by evaporation from the heat, has somewhere to escape, so that the humidity doesn't get too high.

My first winter, too, and I'm going to be using a thermostatically controlled heat pad on the coop floor (made for pets, waterproof with chew-proof cord, max surface temp of 102) and thermo cube this winter in my coop. I may not need to turn it on at all, but I don't plan on subjecting my girls to the sudden, erratic lows/highs we sometimes experience in NJ (Thanks, Global Warming). An earlier poster mentioned her coop temperature being over 20 degrees warmer than outside temperatures--that is not the case in my uninsulated coop and, frankly, I'd be worried about ventilation if my coop retained heat like that...

If I owned a farm and raised a multitude of chickens for my livelihood, I'd have a different outlook. However, my slightly higher electric bill is offset by my savings from living in a small house, working an uninspiring but decent-paying desk job, driving a sensible, fuel efficient car, and not having to gas up an SUV, truck or tractor!

For the same reason that I prefer to have my Labrador inside, in front of the fireplace on a cold night, rather than outside in a doghouse-- even though he's bred to withstand harsh Canadian winters---I'd rather not have my pet chickens expend all of their energies just to retain their core body temperature.