How cold is too cold?

[CKfarm22]

How cold is too cold until hens need a heater? Here in jersey the nights this week are supposed to drop down to the low 50s. And I am trying to integrate my new chicks in with my other girls, but the chicks still need a heat lamp. Right now the chicks are in a plastic tub in our garage, but we plan on moving them to the brooder. The brooder is going to go into the coop so it’s a see, no touch. We have a heating mat that we are planning on using during the winter for the coop. Can i put the chicks in the coop at night with the heat pad at 50° or do y’all think it would get too hot in there for the older hens?

 

[nuthatched]

I'd say below freezing, maybe below zero. As long as your coop is draft free but well ventilated, they don't need heat. maybe make a mama heating pad cave for the chicks.

 

[CKfarm22]

I'd say below freezing, maybe below zero. As long as your coop is draft free but well ventilated, they don't need heat. maybe make a mama heating pad cave for the chicks.

Oo good idea i didn’t think of that! I was going to put the heater under the integrating box but i wasn’t sure if that would make the coop too hot

 

[rosemarythyme]

How old are the chicks? Are they weaned off heat in the brooder or not yet?

I'd have no issue having 4 week old chicks off heat at 50F, but my brooding set up is different than most (chicks raised outdoors in run).

 

[JacinLarkwell]

When given a place that's dry and not drafty (preferably with other birds for cumulative heat -my birds do actually huddle or at least sit besides each other closer), I've had birds survive to almost -30. I have lost some that the breed wasn't meant to be that cold (a Cornish bantam cockerel, a NN cockerel and possibly an ayam cemani cockerel, but usually they do fine once they're done growing

 

[CKfarm22]

How old are the chicks? Are they weaned off heat in the brooder or not yet?

I'd have no issue having 4 week old chicks off heat at 50F, but my brooding set up is different than most (chicks raised outdoors in run).

They are two weeks old today that’s why i mentioned having a heater in the coop!

 

[rosemarythyme]

They are two weeks old today that’s why i mentioned having a heater in the coop!

Gotcha.

And as far as the how cold can adult chickens tolerate, this is an extreme example: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-cold-is-too-cold-check-this-out.1345546/

 

[bobbi-j]

They are two weeks old today that’s why i mentioned having a heater in the coop!

If you have electricity to the coop, I would look into a mama heating pad, or rig up your heat mat so they can get under it to warm up when they need to. It has to be low enough that it touches their backs I have used a MHP for my last 3 batches of chicks and won’t go back to a heat lamp. My chicks start out in the coop from Day 1, and have been healthier, happier, feathered out sooner and were off heat earlier with this method. I live in MN, and get my chicks in late April or early May. It has gotten below freezing at night, but they’ve been just fine with the MHP.