claudiabostic
In the Brooder
Steady cold is not bad for chickens as long as they are not in a draft and they have plenty to eat. What a lot of commenters miss is how harmful temperature swings can be, especially if it goes back and forth between needing to heat up and needing to cool down. Depending on where in NC you are, you may have a climate like mine here in the mountains of East TN. I can tell you that the swings from heating to cooling and back can be chicken killers. I lost 5 of my older hens this Spring when temps went from frost to 90+ and I had turned off the heat in the coops already. We had already had 2 weeks of temps in the 80s. If I had kept them warmer during that last frost I might not have lost them. On the other hand, there is a danger of keeping them too warm when its cold and them not being able to keep themselves warm in a power failure.I keep an electric heater going in my coop(cuts off if moved or falls over). It has a thermostat. I live in North Carolina where it may be 40 this morning and 80 by lunch time(I have a ceiling fan and window fan for the heat). I will probably use this all winter long. Am I wrong in doing this.