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

[Scrambles55]

That is truly an abnormal egg! You should post it on the abnormal egg thread to see if any of our expert chicken folk can tell us all what happened here. Very strange... :\


I don't know if the photos are uploaded correctly but they show the "alien" that was embedded in the egg on the outside of the shell. It was really creepy looking and dried up quite quickly, never did find out what it was

 

[Chickens R Us]

We are supposed to get -37F tonight I did put a 100w reptile bulb in the coops tonight it won't heat the coop but it might take the edge off. I usually have just a regular 100w bulb on a timer for egg laying but didn't want leave that on all night.

 

[lalaland]

yeah, -37 is totally ridiculous. With two heat lampls, my coop is only at -5 ....and it is going down to mid -30's tonight. stay warm!

 

[Chickens R Us]

My coop is usually 20 degrees warmer than outside with out heat lamps so I'm hoping with the reptile bulbs it stays around 0 at least, or not too much below that.

 

[beverly evans]

Hey, Is anyone out there at this hour? I just discovered that 5 of my baby chicks haven't enough sense to go inside their coop to sleep tonite and it is going to be 22 -23 degrees. They are only 5 and 8 weeks old, not fully feathered. I have covered the outer pen with tarps but the coop has a light in it and peat moss on the floor. Stupid chickens! I prodded them with a pole and because they are sleeping it did not move them to go inside. I know it seems dumb but it is not easy to take the coop-pen apart to get to them and put them into the warmer area. They've only recently been inside in never colder than 50 degrees. Will they be alright or will I awake to 5 dead chickens??? Anybody know?

 

[bobbi-j]

It's hard to say. Are there older chickens in the coop that won't allow them in? Personally, I'd try to find a way to get them and put them in. With this experience, maybe you want to find a way to make the run accessible to you from the outside sometime in the future. That's one thing that I think is important. How would you get a sick, or injured chicken out if you needed to? Or a dead one?

 

[beverly evans]

It's hard to say. Are there older chickens in the coop that won't allow them in? Personally, I'd try to find a way to get them and put them in. With this experience, maybe you want to find a way to make the run accessible to you from the outside sometime in the future. That's one thing that I think is important. How would you get a sick, or injured chicken out if you needed to? Or a dead one?

THX for answering. It's just a jerry rigged affair. The coop is solid but the dog crate that is wired to it as a pen or run is a real job to undo. I access them from the coop and have never needed to get into the crate part before. Sure, I could take it apart but don't want to at this hour aand in the cold. The other chicks all went into the coop to roost where it's warm. This is a coop just for the babies until they can join the big girls. I handle them a lot and they come to me to be picked up.

 

[beverly evans]

Quote:
Except when they'r4e sleeping! Ha!

 

[beverly evans]

Yes, the heat......... think I have more trouble with our Texas summers than my flock does! I had a heat stroke years ago surveying irrigated farms and then living,, working in Colorado and Wyoming for many years - got spoiled. What is your meetup? I rarely go to Austin due to the distance and traffic. Getting ready for another cold front tomorrow with some nights in teens - just adding another light. My flock's laying has really been low for several months now, looks like some are still molting.

Hi again. Google us at "The Austin and Central Texas Backyard Poultry Meetup Group". I wish the name was shorter! We do stuff all over. This Sat we're going to College Station. Check it out. We'd love to have you!

 

[Bert2368]

So it's going to be -32F by dawn on Monday here. And subzero daytime highs, lows in the -20's next 5 days.

Enough! I've put a 250 W infrared lamp in the coop, aimed at the perch from a couple of feet away. Went out and lookedat 1:15 am, it was -23 F outside but +7 F inside. Chickens were lined up right in front of the lamp, faceing towards it... I'd say they like it.

I was away for a couple of days, and it went from + 20's to -20's from Friday to Sunday. I've got an automatic pop door... When the weather is subzero, the battery doesn't have the umph to open the door, apparently. While I was checking the coop Sunday afternoon, I saw a large bird fly onto the outdoor perch. Looking out the door, it was a poor dorking hen who had spent the previous night, and most of the next day outside- With no feeder, and no water except what she might get by eating snow. I opened the pop door and she went inside. Her comb was mostly white from frost bite, but she didn't appear to be too distressed, just very hungry.