Thank you for that info NNY. It is refreshing to see how much folks around here care about each other, especially these days. I can only speak for myself and will humbly supply some details as clarification if I may. Please excuse the brief hijack...
Typically up here on the frozen wastes of north- central British Columbia, when it gets cold enough for frostbite the humidity is actually quite low. We often have <10% humidity for months and is so cold the very microclimate of vapour near a rather moist animal such as me or my hens etc is enough for frostbite to take hold in seconds. That is why I have ample ventilation up top in the coop and an airtight, insulated environment starting 3 feet above the hens down to the floor. Any respiratory vapour naturally floats up and out and the "warm" area where the hen's are, if you can call -15 to -20 warm, is no more than ~5 to 10% above ambient humidity. Better than ideal imo. It keeps the risk of frostbite near zero.
Our neighbours, who are also newish chicken heads, did not heat last winter and had several hens get frostbite. It was brutal. They had more ventilation than we do. They ended up installing a thing called a reverberay gas fired radiant heater, on the abvice of the commercial egg producer down the road. They heat too and I'm sure they wouldn't if they could get away with it. He says it also increases production, but we are actually trying to give ours a break during winter, but I digress as usual.
As for the heat going off suddenly, or venturing into the cold from the coop and dropping dead as a result, well, I do not heat the place up to 20c. I just keep it from dropping below the frostbite threshold, which varies quite a bit, but typically starts at about -15c. I finesse the heater setting to keep up with the drop in temps so as not to turn things into a sauna. A wireless temperature and humidity sensor is like gold when one cares for chickens so close to the polar ice flows. (Ok I'm lying about that! We get almost 3 days of summer, sometimes)
I also do not force them out during the worst cold of the day. I simply open the pop door at 04:30 and they often poke a beak out and retreat on their own for a bit. They do not appear to have any trouble coming out of the coop, even just a few minutes later, but that I will grant may change as they age... I too am extremely vigilant with my hens, as I am with all the critters in orbit around the two of us. I will keep an eye out for any cold distress, but I'll need the other one for watching the early news at 6 am.
I now have two backup gensets, one that comes on automatically when the power drops out, as it does quite frequently, and another as backup to the backup! My little piranha fish is from Brazil and it is also one of my duties in life to keep her warm and well fed. The chickens are just along for the ride.
I hope that puts a little context to my particular madness. I fully appreciate not all results will be the same. I also grant that what I am doing with my hens may not be entirely needed in the eyes of some, but it makes me feel better knowing they are safe, healthy and happy, which they clearly are, even when it's cold enough to freeze the dangly bits off a jackass. The mule too!
It was just like the 1970s all over again.
