Hiya.
My girls lay eggs intermittently all winter long. We are in northern British Columbia where we get about 8 or so hours of daylight in the winter. The snow starts in late October and ends late March. Our temps. go as low as -35 C (which is about -20 F) for long stretches, but our average temps. are around -15 C (0 f ). Often the coop temps. are only a few degrees warmer than the air temp. We have a single red heat lamp in the coop that some of them will sit under every now and then, but really they acclimatize very well to the cold. In about 8 years of keeping chickens I have never had any of them get frost bite. They are remarkably hardy. The breeds I've had are a variety of banties, Americanas, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtos and Bard Rock. The girls certainly don't love the snow but they will walk around if there is only a few centimeters of it (we currently have about 2 feet on the ground). I shovel for them around the run and they take to the pathways especially if there are some treats for them.
Often I don't collect the eggs until I get home from work, and usually they are frozen solid. I just pop them into a carton in the fridge. They eventually thaw out and are just fine. No problem with the shells cracking, so I would think putting them in the freezer is just fine.
These birds are fine in the summer too where we can have hot temps. of +30 C (85f). In spite of this crazy fluxuation, they remain healthy and happy. This batch of 9 ladies are currently three years old and still giving about 5 eggs per day. Chickens are truly amazing.
My girls lay eggs intermittently all winter long. We are in northern British Columbia where we get about 8 or so hours of daylight in the winter. The snow starts in late October and ends late March. Our temps. go as low as -35 C (which is about -20 F) for long stretches, but our average temps. are around -15 C (0 f ). Often the coop temps. are only a few degrees warmer than the air temp. We have a single red heat lamp in the coop that some of them will sit under every now and then, but really they acclimatize very well to the cold. In about 8 years of keeping chickens I have never had any of them get frost bite. They are remarkably hardy. The breeds I've had are a variety of banties, Americanas, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtos and Bard Rock. The girls certainly don't love the snow but they will walk around if there is only a few centimeters of it (we currently have about 2 feet on the ground). I shovel for them around the run and they take to the pathways especially if there are some treats for them.
Often I don't collect the eggs until I get home from work, and usually they are frozen solid. I just pop them into a carton in the fridge. They eventually thaw out and are just fine. No problem with the shells cracking, so I would think putting them in the freezer is just fine.
These birds are fine in the summer too where we can have hot temps. of +30 C (85f). In spite of this crazy fluxuation, they remain healthy and happy. This batch of 9 ladies are currently three years old and still giving about 5 eggs per day. Chickens are truly amazing.