@R2elk I totally agree with you in some respects - used to work at a fancy horse barn and they had not one, not two, but sometimes three blankets hanging on the stall door that us grunts were supposed to put on the poor creatures in winter before turn-out - these were leisure horses that were not clipped or worked hard in winter (which would warrent a blanket when cooling down after a hot work out) - some of the horses were left out in coats on warm winter days (per owners' instructions) and started to sweat! Then the blankets were rubbing them raw at the shoulders and withers and we had to put on horse-underwear - I s%&* you not! - it was pretty ridiculous and obvious that this was making the owners feel better and the horses worse.
I think it is also bad to expose animals to drastically changing conditions, such as a warm coop and a freezing run or free range time - so that is a problem for them to deal with, I think.
On the other hand, if I clip the low temps (usually 20 F around here) and bring them up to 25 or 30 F and it is 30-40 F outside during the day - I don't think I am doing them harm and may help the weaker ones a lot. They still have to adjust to the 25 to 30 F and they can do that and be fine.
Steady temps may be more important than the absolute number. With climate change, we have seem unusual and fast fluctuations here. I do use our heat lamps vigorously to counteract those, when it changes 60 degrees in a few days and then goes back to normal day/night changes.
Slow changes can be accommodated with feather growth etc.
Also, I think, for anyone reading this - we should mention, I think, that freezing wind is an absolute no-no. Do not leave your Guineas out in super cold temps when the wind blows through their feathers or you will have dead birds.
