How cold is TOO cold for a chicken?

[Michigan Chickman]

This is my first winter with chickens and I'm planning on NOT adding supplimental heat to the coop. I've got 31 RIRs and my coop is about 10x13. It's not insulated but I think I've done a good job eliminating any drafts and ventilating. This morning when I got up it was 28 outside and 40 in the coop and the humidity in the coop seems to stay in-line with that of the outside air. It can easily hit -5 to -10 for a few days in a row here in S.W. Michigan. If chooks can get by in Alaska and Canada I'm hoping they will here as well

 

[unclejoe]

Quote:
I always wonder about this. I think a lot of people are raising chickens that don't have a farm and live in more urban areas and are enjoying them and think more of the pet thing and take extra precautions for their care. Not that farmers don't, but this chicken thing is getting big and all kinds of people are getting them. And then their are the different breeds.....

But I do agree with your statement. We can get a bit carried away...I think they know how to survive, we just have to provide the best care and let them be chickens.

Lunachick, Is that Jersey Shore, Pa ?

 

[SAMnELLA]

Well, I'm glad I read this! Now I feel silly worrying about my chickens, (i'm in Florida). I put a tarp over their cage today cause it's in the 50's for a couple nights. The "winter" (if you can call it that), is just gorgeous here, but doesn't last long. Summer here sucks!!!!!!!!!!

 

[redhen]

Quote:
Hi..i just had to say that i love your user name!...

..very clever!

 

[Brokenegg]

Its not the cold, It's the cold and wind or the cold and rain. If you give them heat you will make them weaker and will have to give them heat always.
Give them a place out of the wind and rain with alittle straw and they know what to do from there.

 

[BaronRenfrew]

I've kept chickens for 20 years and have never heated them. The barn is draft free but cold. We typically have a few weeks of -30 C 0F.

I use old pots and break the ice out each day with a hammer.

I've had birds of all sizes: bantams, standards, quail, ducks, geese etc.

I've lost birds to old age not the cold (4 years old etc.)

It's my experience that the cold is far better than above freezing and damp.

two rules. Feed them well, or late in the day as they'll go to bed with a full belly.

get the eggs daily or they'll freeze. Birds wil continue to lay if they have enough protein and 14 hours of daylight (put a light on a timer)

A big single comb will freeze and birds with frozen combs will not lay. The comb will thaw and heal but it may lose the tips.

Now I don't keep birds without a rose or pea comb.

 

[BaronRenfrew]

I've kept chickens for 20 years and have never heated them. The barn is draft free but cold. We typically have a few weeks of -30 C 0F.

I use old pots and break the ice out each day with a hammer.

I've had birds of all sizes: bantams, standards, quail, ducks, geese etc.

I've lost birds to old age not the cold (4 years old etc.)

It's my experience that the cold is far better than above freezing and damp.

two rules. Feed them well, or late in the day as they'll go to bed with a full belly.

get the eggs daily or they'll freeze. Birds wil continue to lay if they have enough protein and 14 hours of daylight (put a light on a timer)

A big single comb will freeze and birds with frozen combs will not lay. The comb will thaw and heal but it may lose the tips.

Now I don't keep birds without a rose or pea comb.

 

[Lunachick]

Quote:
I always wonder about this. I think a lot of people are raising chickens that don't have a farm and live in more urban areas and are enjoying them and think more of the pet thing and take extra precautions for their care. Not that farmers don't, but this chicken thing is getting big and all kinds of people are getting them. And then their are the different breeds.....

But I do agree with your statement. We can get a bit carried away...I think they know how to survive, we just have to provide the best care and let them be chickens.

Lunachick, Is that Jersey Shore, Pa ?

New Jersey - I'm a Jersey girl.

I didn't know there was a Jersey Shore, PA.

 

[unclejoe]

It's a little town in the N. Central mountains about 15 mi east of Williamsport where I grew up.

 

[phalenbeck]

My wife, as a young-one raised chickens in Ely MN, till the sled dogs ate them. They were in a coop with pigs, and free-range. ------I worked with a woman that raise chickens in a barn in Cook, MN. Both are close to Internattional Falls, and Embarass, mn that are often cold spot of the nation.