How Cold Is Too Cold?

[Mrs. K]

I am not following what you mean Centrachid.

 

[Mrs. K]

EggWalrus - I work on keeping a flock, birds come into it, and go out of it. The flock I keep. That is how I deal with the short lives of a individual birds. And as my granddaughter says, "Well, we now can get new chicks."

 

[Cyprus]

EggWalrus - I work on keeping a flock, birds come into it, and go out of it. The flock I keep. That is how I deal with the short lives of a individual birds. And as my granddaughter says, "Well, we now can get new chicks."

Same here.
I lost over 30 birds this year. Nextyear, we are considering getting young pullets

 

[centrarchid]

Early mortality can associated with a feeding regimen that is too intense like used when targeting year round egg production.


Care needed to distinguish between outdoor conditions and what birds experience when close together indoors.

To elaborate;

Burning hot, but short lives like realized with intensive egg production. Producing eggs is physiologically demanding. It gets real tough when doing it on a sustained basis. To keep up the production rate they have to eat a lot of hot (nutrient dense) feed. Simply processing the feed wears out your metabolic machinery accelerating the aging process. Then you get into issues where the science of nutritionally balanced feed formulations is optimized for thermally neutral conditions not realized out doors for sure and at higher latitudes. You are more likely to see weight issues. My chickens, which I think are typical, vary their feed intake with weather. Increasing thermal stress where they have to invest more physiologically in keeping warm results in increased feed intake to keep the furnace running fast enough. My birds can double if not triple feed intake when it gets really cold. Some the extra intake may not be desirable, especially with nutrients that are not particularly helpful with energy production. Extras so some nutrients can cause issues that look like gout cause problems with liver and kidney function as body voids them. To my knowledge, chicken feed formulations are not yet geared to supporting production under a range of environmental conditions, not are they designed to deal with changes associated with advancing age. Take a look at higher end dog feeds where they have formulations for different age groups and activity levels. I see not reason for chickens being different.


Over the last few years it should be evident that I go outside and measure things that sane people would think nothing about. One of the measures involves temperatures. Outside temperatures during winter are almost always colder than inside. When you have a lot of wind the difference is magnified. The chickens change behavior to accommodate. Indoors, the birds are protected, especially from the wind. It does not take much wind to pull heat away from location birds are roosting in. Roosting together allows for a warmer micro-environment with greatly reduced airflow. Air flow needed for ventilation (CO2 and water removal), but level like with a draft can be problematic.

 

[Shadrach]

We will have cold snaps for a couple of weeks, where the high can be -10. Several winters ago at 11:00 at night, we reach -35. That was cold, and mine did fine. I have had a broody hen raise 4 chicks when at a week old, the temperature dived to -20. I almost pulled them, but she raised them all.

However, I have never in 12 years of a continuous flock never got a bird over the age of 4, and most of mine are gone well before that. I do have predators, but still. I have read of people with 9 year old birds...and I wonder, do they live in warmer climates. My 4+ year old, was a great broody that raised me several clutches... she had the forever home, but that last year, I could tell she was old, she moved stiff and sore, not quite crippled.

Mrs K

The average lifespan of a 'dual purpose' free range chicken is 10 years.
The average life of a free range bantam breed is 12 years.

Ref, Victoria Roberts BVSc. MRCVS
Ref, Catrin Rutland Phd.

Personal experience is eldest bantam at least 10 years old.
Eldest French Maran 9 years old.
My sister had a mixed breed die at 16 years old and another at 14 years old.

I would suggest that if peoples chickens are dying at 5 and 6 years old or less as I often read there is something wrong.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The average lifespan of a 'dual purpose' free range chicken is 10 years.
The average life of a free range bantam breed is 12 years.

Ref, Victoria Roberts BVSc. MRCVS
Ref, Catrin Rutland Phd.

Personal experience is eldest bantam at least 10 years old.
Eldest French Maran 9 years old.
My sister had a mixed breed die at 16 years old and another at 14 years old.

I would suggest that if peoples chickens are dying at 5 and 6 years old or less as I often read there is something wrong.

I have no clue where that average life expectancy comes from. I always read it, but to me it means that there are lots of birds living very long lives and in my experiences there isn't. I do get about a quarter to a third that live to 8-10. Most die between 4-8 years from various things. In my opinion that should be the average. What they are, and you are saying, is an average number, sounds more like what's the oldest that a chicken can live number. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Cyprus]

Well my girls are outside enjoying the 35°F weather with 8mph winds

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Well my girls are outside enjoying the 35°F weather with 8mph winds
View attachment 1587194 View attachment 1587195

That's a nice warm day.

 

[Shadrach]

I have no clue where that average life expectancy comes from. I always read it, but to me it means that there are lots of birds living very long lives and in my experiences there isn't. I do get about a quarter to a third that live to 8-10. Most die between 4-8 years from various things. In my opinion that should be the average. What they are, and you are saying, is an average number, sounds more like what's the oldest that a chicken can live number. Just my 2 cents.

The average ages are taken from papers written by two poultry specialists. They are not my figures. You can look them up if you’re interested.

The bit that says ‘personal experience’ is, well, personal experience.

Opinion doesn’t have anything to do with averages.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The average ages are taken from papers written by two poultry specialists. They are not my figures. You can look them up if you’re interested.

The bit that says ‘personal experience’ is, well, personal experience.

Opinion doesn’t have anything to do with averages.

I have looked them up. They don't make sense to me. Average is a figure taken from all figures. It means there are 20 year old chickens running about. I'm just saying I don't believe the numbers, and they aren't accurate in my opinion. And yes, this is all my opinion, as well as my experiences keeping chickens for decades. I believe the figures are meant to be read as the average maximum a chicken can possibly live, not just an average.