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

[Scrambles55]

We are in North Idaho and we have a wind chill of about 15-25 below zero. I normally put a clear plastic tarp on one side of the chicken pen which is about 8×10. The coop has a heat lamp and there is a heat lamp in the corner of the pen. Both lamps are plugged into a Thermo cube. That turns on the lamps at 32 degrees and off when it gets to 45. My girls seem happy and the 2 that are currently laying, have been laying about 5-6 eggs a week. When there is no snow on the ground, I open the door of the pen and let them free range. When it is this cold out (17 right now) they like to hang out under our toy hauler. My girls want nothing to do with walking on snow. Lol... its funny watching them haul *** over the snow to get some treats. Oh.... they can leave the coop whenever they like as the pen is covered to protect them from predators.

 

[MyPetNugget]

coolest my chickens have ever been SO FAR is 20F. I believe it will be a much colder winter this year. They didn't seem to care too much about the temperature in their run. I threw some grapes in there and they didn't come back up for a while.

 

[Chicken Happy]

I am 20 miles north of you, Scramble55, and I am forgoing the heat lamp this year. I have been tempted to plug the lamp in lately, but have made myself deny them the heat. The coop stays in the 20 - 30's and they are still giving me eggs. They did frolic in the snow today (20+ treat addicted monsters) looking for goodies, puffed-up when roosting, but no obvious complaints. I do admit that my pet silkies live in the shop for winter and they do get extra heat - must keep the washer from freezing and that is where the bathroom is (I NEED heat in the bathroom!!!).

 

[Secretlyspotted]

Sweet Mother of God. I would never be able to leave the house. I live in GA and if the temps get below freezing it is SAD times. I think my southern hens would learn how to fly and head south for winter if they had to deal with those temps!!

 

[Pancholoco]

I live in San Joaquin Valley and all this week we are going to have freezing temperatures (NOT usual) until Sunday lowest temps will range from lows 20's to 28 degrees.

 

[roostersandhens]

I am in Central Coast CA aka not north. The coldest temp was actually last night for my flock, but that record should break tonight. There is a hard freeze. Well last night it was a think 29 degrees. Tonight it is supposed to be 28 or lower. My chickens are not used to these temps so it is cold for them. There is a small chance of snow on Saturday. If it snows it will be the 1st time in 7 or 8 years!My chickens are all cuddling in the coop right now. Poor babies.

 

[Chickens R Us]

Last winter my chooks survived -30F. I did have a 100w light bulb in the coop for extra light to extend the day I did turn it off for 8hrs.a day so they had a regular sleep cycle. We are going thru a cold snap right now so I put Vaseline on my roos and leghorns combs and wattles to prevent frost bite. I open the pop door during the day so they can go out into a hoop coop that is covered in plastic or under the coop that I put plastic around to keep out the wind and snow. The hoop coop is kinda like a mini green house. I have to buy a couple more bales of straw to throw on the ground in there so they have a little insulation from the cold ground and it will give them something to do scratching around in it.

 

[pegm]

Well, when I went out this morning at 0630, the thermometers read 18 or 26 which ever one I chose to believe. I do know the poop in the coop was frozen. So it was quite cold here this am.

 

[MaddBaggins]

I need to show this thread to my wife. She's worried for the girls. This is our first winter with them and it's gonna be 32˚ tonight. I keep telling her that our winter isn't the issue for chickens, it's the summer that we need to be concerned about. They did fine this summer, but we did lots of extra things to keep them cool.

For tonight, I closed the windows on the coop. Thats it.

 

[megan80568]

I worry about my poop little girls and guys. I don't use any heat as from the advice I've read on here. Its my first winter with chickens. I do give them a warmed mash of feed, corn, oats, greens and some vegetable baby food on the cold mornings. Which is almost every one in erie haha. My poor girl Orville is in a kennel in the garage alone recovering from bumblefoot. Will she be Okay alone in there? We are expecting 20 degree temps this weekend.