Thank you for your rational and non-snarky replies.
No one is saying chickens are dying at 50F. And yes, some chickens are going to tolerate cooler temps because they are fluffier or stockier breeds. A Leghorn is a sleek, tight feathered bird with huge combs and wattles, whereas a Wyandotte is a stocky bird with a lot more floof and smaller combs and wattles. The Wyandotte was bred to have physical characteristics that are more cold tolerant. However, many many many people will say that because a chicken’s body temp averages 106F, they are little furnaces and don’t need heat, and this is actually backwards. I mean, maintaining a body temp of 106F takes a ton of energy, and when the temps start to get cold, the chicken is going to to have to start using energy it normally would use to do body repair, resist parasites (and all chickens carry some parasite load 100% of the time, even in winter), regulate hormones, produce eggs, etc.. We can supply extra calories, that always helps, but once it starts getting really cold the extra calories can only do so much. By offering heat, we give the chickens the ability to keep warm without having to utilize all that extra energy, and then that energy can be used for maintaining the normal body processes. Yes, chickens can certainly survive in super cold temps, but it takes a big toll on them physiologically, and it is surviving, not thriving. My goal is to allow my girls to thrive through winter, so once spring and warmer temps come back, they are not playing catch-up physiologically.
And the other thing is that giving your chickens heat doesn’t mean you need to heat the entire coop. Chickens should have choices. Some are going to want to be warm, others will be ok with being cooler. Just like us, and other animals. Some like it colder, others want warmer. But it’s allowing them to decide to move closer to the heat or away from it. I watch my birds do it all the time because I don’t heat the entire coop.
We also need to think about it in the sense that because chickens do run an average of 106F, 50F is going to feel colder to them than it would for us.
I understand that chickens have lived without heat for hundreds of years, but they had no choice, we lacked the ability to safely heat their coops and we also lacked the information we have now about what effects cold stress has on them. But we do have that information now, and we do have the ability to safely offer them the choice to warm up.
It’s so awful when people post about how chickens don’t need heat and then those same people are posting a few days later asking for help on how to treat frostbite. How can someone say that their chickens are doing just fine in the cold coop at night when they wake up with frostbitten combs and wattles? If I were waking up with frostbite, I wouldn’t say I was doing just fine in the cold.
And maybe people who have been keeping chickens with no heat have chickens that seem to doing just fine, but again I say chickens are prey animals and absolutely will not show if they aren’t doing just fine, and since we can’t ask them how they are actually doing, we rely on measuring things that we can quantify, which is where the studies come in. And for those who don’t heat, their situation isn’t everyone else’s, and their condescending comments towards those who maybe want to offer heat or do offer heat makes new chicken owners afraid to even discuss it for fear of being told they’re stupid for even thinking it.
I am a vet tech and I have dedicated my life to speak for those who cannot and I will continue to do so.
If people choose to not supply heat, those birds are their birds and it is pointless to argue with someone who is so convinced their experience is the only correct one. I am just going to keep presenting the information showing cold stress is a real thing and what it does physiologically and hope that someone else might benefit from the knowledge.
