How cold is too cold?

[Ilovemychicks08]

Its negative 2 degrees Farenheit here right now. My chickens are just fine. 19 degrees Farenheit is perfectly normal at this time of year where i live. Its suppose to drop to negative 20 to negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit with 14.2 inches of snow, i have a heated waterer, straw and a well ventilated coop. If you do add straw DO NOT add a heat lamp! Its a fire hazard. Mine will all stay together on the roost if they are locked in the coop. Make sure to give them lots of food, mine eat a lot when they are in the coop, also take the eggs out. I have been feeding extra protein and some calcium to help them. Hope this helps!

 

[Solanacae]

I can hardly imagine your winter temperatures (now that I've found out more about the climate in your NYS and in NC) . Manage the winter must take some planning.
I'm in awe of the people on this forum who manage to grow veg and keep livestock healthy in harsh weather.

Livestock is all about shelter from the wind and adequate ventilation. And making sure you get breeds that are adapted to dealing with cold.

Growing plants requires an understanding of your microclimate - I moved this summer from a zone 5 (borderline zone 4) to a zone 6, but I didn’t try any wonder veggies this year. At my old house, I got a fair amount of snow, and the garden was on the south side of the house. The house was made from brick, so it stored heat during the day and kept the garden area from getting too cold. I didn’t have much success with collards or kale because the snow melted too much to keep it insulated when it would drop to negative temperatures (-18 and lower for you) and the heat from the house wasn’t sufficient to offset the cold. Those nights when it’s perfectly clear with nary a cloud to be seen are breathtakingly beautiful (quite literally on the breathtaking part unless you’ve got a scarf to warm the air a bit when you breathe) but brutally cold for anything out in it. I did manage to overwinter some leeks that were right against the house. The outermost layers froze solid but they grew come spring, which was a pleasant surprise.

Point being, zone 5 in a semi arid area is a little different than zone 5 in an area that gets more winter snowfall. I’m going to experiment in the future with cold frames here and see if that gives things enough protection. I get less snow and more wind, so even though I’m less likely to get as cold, my garden is in a less favorable microclimate. I’ve overwintered carrots and beets under bags of leaves, but it’s just a poor man’s root cellar, not really growing, just storing.

I’m glad you took your birds’ condition into consideration with your decision. Perhaps next year they will be in better condition to handle the cold temperatures without intervention on your part. It takes time to regrow feathers, and so putting on weight may be delayed while the body focuses on feather growing. Good for you making sure they’re getting care from a vet - ex Batts, I’ve learned, have so many problems and challenges because of how they’re treated before they’re rescued.

 

[Jenni Hen]

We've just gone from -8C in the morning to about +8C with wet and wind! I'm sorry you're getting the reverse, and so suddenly.
I don't know if my grandson's idea would help at all.
He's has come to stay from Bulgaria where he's lived most of his life and their winter temperatures often go to -10C ish. Their hens don't have coops and aren't shut up, but go in the barn and burrow into the straw that's stored in there.

Mine wouldn't leave the coop at -8C. (They hate cold, rain and wind.)
He filled up the coop with hay until there didn't seem to be any room for chickens but they burrowed in for the night and next morning they seemed much happier.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I am in zone 3a. It was - 15 F ambient temp and my dual purpose looked unhappy, especially my light brahma who chose a bad time for her first molt (butt, head, neck-looks utterly ridiculous). I found an oil filled radiant heat yesterday and put it in a safe place in the coop. The temp this AM was up to 5 F this morning. much more tolerable.

 

[chocolate chips]

I have chickens and it is going to be around high 10s to low 20s and there coop inside is mostly brick and they have a heat lamp like one of those you can get from tractor supply. Is there anything else I should do for them?

 

[micstrachan]

I’m in California, where it is very mild. We did have frost eight nights in a row recently, and the chickens handled it fine, even in my uninsulated coop.

Having said that, one year a young hen had a very heavy molt in early January. She was nearly naked and started seeming hypothermic (not eating or drinking, uncoordinated, standing on her hocks, shivering), so I brought her in. She lived in the kitchen for two weeks, including tube feeding, until she was eating enough on her own and her feathers came back in.

Since then, I looked into portable heating options, since there is no electricity at my coop. I bought a couple very low watt pet heating pads and plug them into little portable invertors that run off rechargeable power tool batteries. They work great! I wrapped one over a roost with a dish drying pad wrapped around that (used ball bungies) and it stayed warm all night. We had a couple cold nights awhile back, so I slid it under a miserably molting hen and she seemed to like it. However, in my climate it’s just too warm for them most of the time, even though it’s only 4 watts. I just have it for emergency heat for a sick or severely molting hen who I don’t want to stress out by removing from the flock. Something for those of you in harsh climates to be aware of?

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

I have chickens and it is going to be around high 10s to low 20s and there coop inside is mostly brick and they have a heat lamp like one of those you can get from tractor supply. Is there anything else I should do for them?

I would say put hay or straw in, but you cant have a heat lamp then. And otherwise as long as they have food or water they are fine its negative 1F here and mine are fine.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I have chickens and it is going to be around high 10s to low 20s and there coop inside is mostly brick and they have a heat lamp like one of those you can get from tractor supply. Is there anything else I should do for them?

Higher protein feed if they aren't laying (as a snack if they are) don't give a low protein scratch (check the protein levels for ANIMAL feed online. Be careful because most info is for human food, and the grains are not the same). If you have it, baby chick foods make awesome pudding (be careful of freezing)

Humidity is painful, and places to curl up in straw or hay are lovely. If someone decides to molt and the weather turns on her, take her aside to feed her a little snack like her own bowl of chick feed and make sure she has a very deep bedding for her.

If they don't want to go outside they need food access inside, if you can keep the water bowl away from any opportunity to spill it makes life easier. I keep the duck's water bowl inside an old soup pot so when they spill (constantly) it goes into the pot and not on the floor.

Keep bedding dry as much as possible. If you don't have amazing ventilation you should stay away from deep bedding options because of the ammonia released in their poo, possible parasites transfers, and the humidity it traps.

It is a balance between insulation to keep wind out so they maintain their body heat (and any supplemental heat you offer) and reducing humidity.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I am in zone 3a. It was - 15 F ambient temp and my dual purpose looked unhappy, especially my light brahma who chose a bad time for her first molt (butt, head, neck-looks utterly ridiculous). I found an oil filled radiant heat yesterday and put it in a safe place in the coop. The temp this AM was up to 5 F this morning. much more tolerable.

I am also in 3a, if a chicken is not laying make her food more protein such as chick food or turkey grower food (check labels, you'll see the truth more than by guessing based on the name on the bag). I have put calcium (oyster shells) into an old coffee grinder and added the powder to a chick feed in a pinch of too cold to choose layer food. I don't think it is a great idea, but it was a desperate time. High protein foods constantly will make for bad egg shells, sticky chicken poo (poopy butts) and can aggravate things like liver issues (water belly).

I love oil filled radiators, BUT, I have had one with a plug that overheating and melted the wall outlet, (which would have set a fire if I hadn't noticed) and another one that made a tiny hole and burning hot oil shot out. (They were in the house, please don't give me a speech about not having heaters in coops, heat is always dangerous, but we still heat out homes)

 

[chocolate chips]

I would say put hay or straw in, but you cant have a heat lamp then. And otherwise as long as they have food or water they are fine its negative 1F here and mine are fine.

Great thanks so much for the help