How cold is too cold?

[Iluveggers]

So I am just tossing a bunch of random ideas around in my head. If a chicken is dry and drafts stay above their head, how cold is too cold as long as there is a roof and wind is blocked from blowing on them? I think part of the reason people don’t want to put ventilation in is they think it will keep their birds warmer. So with no heater and no insulation with just solid wood walls, how cold? (For cold-hardy breeds of course).
Thanks!

 

[Alaskan]

So I am just tossing a bunch of random ideas around in my head. If a chicken is dry and drafts stay above their head, how cold is too cold as long as there is a roof and wind is blocked from blowing on them? I think part of the reason people don’t want to put ventilation in is they think it will keep their birds warmer. So with no heater and no insulation with just solid wood walls, how cold? (For cold-hardy breeds of course).
Thanks!

Sustained temperatures (do not include windchill or brief dips) where the warmest it gets is -30F. Then, I would add heat of some kind.... I go into depth in my cold weather coop article (link in my signature line, if on a phone turn it sideways).

 

[Iluveggers]

Sustained temperatures (do not include windchill or brief dips) where the warmest it gets is -30F. Then, I would add heat of some kind.... I go into depth in my cold weather coop article (link in my signature line, if on a phone turn it sideways).

Wow! So no need to close the coop windows if they are not in the same line as the roost bar, correct?

 

[Alaskan]

Wow! So no need to close the coop windows if they are not in the same line as the roost bar, correct?

Correct. As long as their feathers are not ruffled when perching.

 

[BleuSaphir]

I live in California but most areas have mild winters. But Mojave desert is a bipolar place! Summer is brutally hot. But winter comes is like the Arctic!

I kept my chicken in a open air coop style. Night time were 20 degrees at night while daytime were 40-50 degrees. Sometime daytime can be in the 30’s too.

 

[Ryguy3684]

I find my Buff Orpingtons handle the cold much better than the heat. We get single digits, on occasion, and they're comfortable. I have an exhaust fan, up high, that never gets turned off. In fact, my chickens don't even huddle, on the roost, until it's in the teens. My coop is a shed style, with no insulation, and a descent amount of ventilation.

If it's consistently below freezing, the nest room gets a cozy coop heater, but that's only to keep the eggs from freezing.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you're talking the most extreme case, -58F https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-cold-is-too-cold-check-this-out.1345546/

 

[Iluveggers]

That’s amazing! I don’t think I’d ever test it out but WOW.

 

[jreardon1918]

We are in SE Mass. Close to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. For us we occasionally get below zero F. A more normal temperature is teens for a low. Here is one of the colder days we have noticed since we got the chickens. This has not been too cold for them

You list your location as NYS. Can you narrow that down just a bit?

 

[Iluveggers]

We are in SE Mass. Close to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. For us we occasionally get below zero F. A more normal temperature is teens for a low. Here is one of the colder days we have noticed since we got the chickens. This has not been too cold for them

You list your location as NYS. Can you narrow that down just a bit?

I’m upstate, between Albany & Rochester.