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Not really...actually, we go back and forth. It's -2.2°F and 82% humidity right now. But we've also been as low as 20% humidity, too. Right now the snow is baby powder, but the 4" we got last week was sloppy. The kind that accumulates and freezes up on your windshield wipers while you're trying to drive...
With about 40 birds in the coop, it's 21°F inside right now with only a heat lamp trained on the waterer to keep it from freezing. But half of the birds are already outside playing in the snow, scratching for leftovers from yesterday. Won't be light for 3 more hours (it's 6:30am now).
I guess what I keep hearing is "Oh, I worry about my chickens, and the extra expense to keep them warm is worth it for my babies." The point I'm trying to get across in each of these threads is A) unless you're getting down to -40F for weeks on end (and we do, and then the birds will willingly stay in the coop!
) they don't need the extra heat as long as you're feeding them well, and B) it really
is doing them a disservice to "spoil" them with heat, because they won't be able to handle the cold if the power goes out for any reason. And I am speaking in the general "you" here, but you can literally spoil them to death by giving them too much extra heat. It would be like taking someone from Florida and dropping them off in Anchorage in shorts and a t-shirt in the winter (heck, even in the summer!
) ... they're going to be stressed and cold. Yes, they can get frostbite, so you have to keep an eye on their combs if you have single combed chickens... the rose combed and pea combed breeds do MUCH better in that regard.
All you need is a dry, draft free coop that they can go into to get out of the elements and warm up. Truly, that's it. They know when they're too cold.
And as a side note, we culled some birds this weekend, and there was a dramatic increase in the amount of down on these birds as opposed to the ones we culled this summer. I can't repeat this enough... if you let them acclimate to your winters as the seasons change, you don't have to give them extra heat. Period. Why waste the $$?
They really don't need it.