frostbite

[Patricia Jane]

I hope I have posted this in the right forum. I live in Northern California 45 miles north of San Francisco. It's suppose to reach freezing tonight and possibly snow by fri which is very very rare in this area. How cold does it have to be in order to cause frostbite on their combs?

 

[the Precious Ladies]

Chickens do okay in cold temps. Mine had been fine during our 2 weeks of being below 30 F, and snowing ( though they hated the snow, wouldn't touch it ) I do have the heat lamp that I used from their brooder in their coop. It's nailed to the top section of the wall and overlooks the roosts. To further prevent frost bite is to rub petroleum jelly, like Vaseline, on their combs and wattles.

 

[taprock]

Last week it was -26 and windy. My coop is pretty drafty and I only have a 75 watt bulb for light. Everyone was fine. I always worry about them though so I understand.

 

[7L Farm]

I live in Texas & we had about 4 straight days of cold weather 19 at night & never got above freezing during the day. I have RIR chickens 10 girls & 1 roo. The roo has big comb & wattles. He was the only one that got some frostbite. If the weather gets that cold again I'm gonna put vaseline on to protect him.

 

[Judy]

Be sure you have enough ventilation. Frostbite will only occur at temps well below freezing if the warm humid air has a place up high to escape. They should not need heat at freezing temps.

Read here, by a member in Canada who doesn't or rarely heats coops:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-winter-coop-temperatures

 

[Fred's Hens]

There's little concern. Temps of 30* isn't going to lower the surface temps of the body temperature of the chicken to frostbite. As stated well above, the frostbite is normally the result of too high humidity that condensates into frost. Think of old refrigerators that you had to manually defrost, back in the day.

We have had months of sub-zero weather. We haven't seen daytime highs above 25*, consistently, for two months. They hens are fine and laying up a storm. No worries and no heat lamps or artificial heat either. Chickens have been raised in the northern Europe, Canada and the US for centuries.

 

[Patricia Jane]

I want to thank everyone for their responses. You have all given me important info and helped me feel more at ease. I've only had my gals for a month and worry about them. Everyone seems to be having an abnormal winter. Makes me wonder when they talk about global warming. Thanks again. Love BYC.