How cold is TOO cold for a chicken?

[CuzChickens]

Man, those are some hardy chickens! Puts my mind at rest though, because it doesn't get too much below 8 here.

 

[Koitoy]

That's not bad at all. What kind of chickens do you have?

 

[CuzChickens]

Well, the ones in the breeding pen that I'm worried about are Black Australorps, Buff Orpington, and White Leghorn.

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, the ones in the breeding pen that I'm worried about are Black Australorps, Buff Orpington, and White Leghorn.

Those are some cold hardy chickens. As long as they are out of the elements, they don't need a heat lamp. Got down to -25 here a week ago. No heat lamp in my coop - chickens are just fine. My rooster with the big comb and wattles got some frostbite, but everyone was off the roosts scratching and pecking the next morning like it was just an ordinary day.

 

[CuzChickens]

Those are some cold hardy chickens. As long as they are out of the elements, they don't need a heat lamp. Got down to -25 here a week ago. No heat lamp in my coop - chickens are just fine. My rooster with the big comb and wattles got some frostbite, but everyone was off the roosts scratching and pecking the next morning like it was just an ordinary day. 

That's the part I'm worried about, they aren't out of the elements....... They are in a chicken tractor that is half covered, so I put the heat lamp in there for extra insurance. The upside is the production is great!

 

[ShelleyHar]

I always come back to this thread when I start worrying about 0 temps in Utah like tonight. I feel better now!

I did lose one last weekend, pretty sure it was the cold ultimately, she wasn't up roosting with the others when I checked on her in the AM. She was following me around 2 days before that.

It's always my favorites that die!

 

[Marrrum]

Friends,

Thanks for posting!

Now this is a very serious question. I tend to think like @Alpha Roo does. If i'm freezing, how could my girls not be? But Everyone swears up and down that they will be fine. Cold, but fine without a light. However, I am in a Suburb of SLC UT and it is now currently -10 C or 14 F and i am starting to worry like crazy. I just did a water run and i always pour near boiling water in the water feeder because i know it will cool down within the hour at most. Then who knows how long it lasts after that before it freezes. I think i am going to break down and use a light. All my birds already molted this year and i doubt it will trigger any sort of " surprise molt " Also, My coop has plenty of room to hang the light without putting it in directly in their coop. I could just shine it in there, as if to keep it warm, not super hot. Unless anyone can talk me out of it, im just going to do it. I cant imagine living in the absurd cold with no heat at night and barley 33 in the day.

One of my farmer friends keeps his birds in a shed all summer and winter. He heats his with some sort of lamp or heater as well. His birds have all been fine. As a matter of fact, he does a lot of things people tend to stay away from. He has had his flock for at least 5 years with absolutely minimal deaths and non reported sick.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Faulty logic. If you have been wearing a down and feather coat all your life and have been slowly conditioning to live outdoors and then conditioning for cold weather all fall/winter, then you could possibly say the chickens would be feeling like you are feeling. But you have not and are not wearing winter feathering, nor have you been living outdoors conditioning for this kind of life, nor do you have the same circulation that a chicken has, which is specialized and designed for outdoor living.

So, you add heat to the mix because YOU want to feel warmer, but the poor bird now has two climates with which to contend....an outside temp, to which it has slowly acclimatized and is well suited for and now a heated interior that it has to move in and out of if it wants to be a chicken, living a chicken's kind of life. As it moves indoors to the heat it will start to throw off humidity due to the temp changes, then move outdoors where that humidity will chill and cause it to be even colder because now those warm feathers are a little moist.

Imagine wearing down from head to your knees and having to come in by a wood fire and sit for awhile....pretty soon you'd be sweating, then go outdoors in the cold and see how that sweat renders your down a less efficient due to the sweat layer on your skin.

14* is hardly too cold for a chicken...there are chickens on this forum that are living in -35* temps right now that are thriving, as they do every year, even in open air coops like the Wood's design.

To each his own, as they say, but not a lot of logical thinking going into the process and sure makes it tough on the birds when humans start putting the birds in a human's place.

 

[bobbi-j]

Friends,

Thanks for posting!

Now this is a very serious question. I tend to think like @Alpha Roo does. If i'm freezing, how could my girls not be? But Everyone swears up and down that they will be fine. Cold, but fine without a light. However, I am in a Suburb of SLC UT and it is now currently -10 C or 14 F and i am starting to worry like crazy. I just did a water run and i always pour near boiling water in the water feeder because i know it will cool down within the hour at most. Then who knows how long it lasts after that before it freezes. I think i am going to break down and use a light. All my birds already molted this year and i doubt it will trigger any sort of " surprise molt " Also, My coop has plenty of room to hang the light without putting it in directly in their coop. I could just shine it in there, as if to keep it warm, not super hot. Unless anyone can talk me out of it, im just going to do it. I cant imagine living in the absurd cold with no heat at night and barley 33 in the day.

One of my farmer friends keeps his birds in a shed all summer and winter. He heats his with some sort of lamp or heater as well. His birds have all been fine. As a matter of fact, he does a lot of things people tend to stay away from. He has had his flock for at least 5 years with absolutely minimal deaths and non reported sick.

I have had a flock for over 30 years, haven't heated a coop in many, many of those years (I did when I first started out, not knowing any better) and have had minimal deaths and no sick chickens in the winter. I think part of the reason I don't have winter deaths is, we process our older birds in the fall, leaving the younger stronger ones who can make it through the cold temps without any problems.

 

[Beekissed]

I have had a flock for over 30 years, haven't heated a coop in many, many of those years (I did when I first started out, not knowing any better) and have had minimal deaths and no sick chickens in the winter. I think part of the reason I don't have winter deaths is, we process our older birds in the fall, leaving the younger stronger ones who can make it through the cold temps without any problems.

Same here, except for 40 yrs, no heat and no illness in the flocks, even if I had older birds kept through the winter....5-7 yrs of age. Regularly gets teens below zero here during our winters and no birds falling off the roost dead from the cold. And most of my coops have been VERY open air coops, as is my current one.

If birds are dying from extreme temps, they already had compromised health in some manner, as they are pretty much designed to live in most areas of the world.