Hey Northerners: What is the absolute coldest air temps your chickens have experienced happily!

[Bocrates]

We have had our first cold snap here in Colorado the last week and it will continue until Thursday. Lows as bad as -20F and highs in the teens at best. The girls seem fine and are still at normal egg production. Our coop door is automatic and opens during daylight hours. We haven't been heating though we are rigged for it. My wife begged me to turn on the lamp on the coldest night, so we compromised with extra cottage cheese and oatmeal treats at dark. At the beginning of this snap we acquired 18" of snow, which I found to be the real interruption to their routine. I would walk down to the coop and they would poke out their heads but, despite my coaxing, refused to exit. It took me until today to realize that I needed to shovel the run, so I did, and they walked right out into 0F and did chicken things all day. It seems that even though the snow had settled and melted its way down to 6 or7" it was still too daunting.

Now back to my other problem......

 

[SunnySkies]

One of my roosters chose to sleep OUTSIDE in the freezing rain last night.

He is just fine.

 

[KelsiNS]

We hit the high 20s. The kids are not pleased.

 

[pegm]

24 here this am, coldest yet, girls still fine. This is pretty unusual for us, I am getting tired of hauling in their water every night, plus the plants that really can't take that kind of cold. But soon the cold snap will break... I know, I know, what weenies we are, you folks east of us are really getting hit. I would take a little of that global warming right now, for sure.

 

[lalaland]

I agree with bobbi-j about adding heat. I did add heat the first year we had chickens and found that to be more of a problem than a help. Right now I do not use any supplemental heat in our coops. The one uninsulated coop, that was only built as a grow-out coop, is the only one that I will but a heat lamp in for a couple of hours during the nights that we get to -25F+ below air temps. I only want to warm that coop up slightly and the chickens can do the rest. They will go out into their runs, however are refusing right now because of the 2+ feet of snow in them. That snow has been good for some of the coops because I just pile snow along the sides to help insulate. The chickens are fine, but not necessarily happy. I don't think any of us are particularily happy with this cold weather.

I can use a heated dog dish in only a couple of my coops because they are the only ones with access to electricity, but I've stopped using them because they don't seem to last very long. The best for here has been the rubber feed bowls that I can just stomp the ice out of and then add new water. More work, but living here in the winter is just going to be that.

that has been my experience with the heated dog bowls too, I don't seem to get much more than a winter's use out of them, they won't last and it is expensive.
So....I'm wondering if you are able to get them fresh water more than once a day? If I used the rubber bowls (my favorite way to feed them) for water, it would freeze before I would get home so they would only have fresh water in the morning. I'm wondering if that would be enough water for them - figuring with Minnesota's current temps, it might last 3-4 hours.

 

[bobbi-j]

I'm going on my 3rd or 4th winter with the heated dog bowls... The black rubber pans would work, but you know they'll freeze before you get home - especially with these current temps. But if the dog bowls don't work for you, you'll have to figure something out.

 

[lalaland]

We have three black sex links. One regularly lays eggs with really thin shells, so thin that they just crush in your fingers when you try to pick them up. Today one of them laid this hideous looking mutation. There are no roosters so it can't be a fertilized egg. The alien looking thing was in a "pocket" on the outside of the shell. After I removed it from the hole, I poked the shell underneath it. After I poked through, I found the yolk inside. But what is that OTHER thing? Eeeewwwwww

Hey Susan! welcome to byc, I see this is your very first post. Congrats!

there are sometimes some bizarre eggs out there!

If your hen is laying really thin shells, she might need more calicium. Are you feeding oyster shell or some form of calicum? You can keep that out so the hens can help themselves whenever they want. You can also crush up their eggschells and put those out for them to eat.

You can search for other posts about strange eggs, or if you want you can start your own thread and even post pics of the egg. Sometimes if you post a question in a thread that is on some other topic, your question gets ignored.

good luck!

 

[lalaland]

I'm going on my 3rd or 4th winter with the heated dog bowls... The black rubber pans would work, but you know they'll freeze before you get home - especially with these current temps. But if the dog bowls don't work for you, you'll have to figure something out.

Hi bobbi, it is fun to see all these minnesotans on this thread.

But my question really is whether just a few hours of access to water a day is sufficient for the chickens, I am thinking it isn't.....

I get the big huge bright blue plastic dog bowls, they are the ones that only last a year.

 

[bobbi-j]

I have the big blue bowls, too. I wonder what the difference is? I would certainly find a different option if I had to be replacing them every year, too. I agree - your chickens should have access to water all day long in these temps. When it's this cold - if they were to even leave the coop (mine are big babies and won't), they wouldn't get enough moisture from the snow.

 

[Scrambles55]

I have the big blue bowls, too. I wonder what the difference is? I would certainly find a different option if I had to be replacing them every year, too. I agree - your chickens should have access to water all day long in these temps. When it's this cold - if they were to even leave the coop (mine are big babies and won't), they wouldn't get enough moisture from the snow.