How long can chickens stay in freezing weather?

[MKetter]

Chickens normally go out shortly after sunrise, around 7 a.m. As you can see with the attached image, the temperature will be below freezing for a couple hours and in the 30s until noon. I’ve seen that chickens tolerate cold better than heat but this? Can the chickens go out with 20° temperatures? If so, should they come back in after a certain amount of time? They don’t have a coop. I would have to bring them into the garage.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Assuming these are healthy birds with standard feathers that are old enough to not need heat, they can easily handle those temperatures. Just make sure there's places they can shelter from rain or cold precipitation if needed.

 

[Debbie292d]

We'll let our silkies go out 20°F or higher, but that's because they're silkies with fuzz or frizzles with skin showing. Regular breeds with feathers can be out in much colder. Ours will go back in the coop to "warm up" or eat/drink, then back out for an hour or so. Kind of like people.

 

[MKetter]

Assuming these are healthy birds with standard feathers that are old enough to not need heat, they can easily handle those temperatures. Just make sure there's places they can shelter from rain or cold precipitation if needed.

No rain in the forecast. I lean pallets against the run to protect them from the cold wind. They were hatched in April. They are healthy with standard feathers. What about their feet?

 

[MKetter]

We'll let our silkies go out 20°F or higher, but that's because they're silkies with fuzz or frizzles with skin showing. Regular breeds with feathers can be out in much colder. Ours will go back in the coop to "warm up" or eat/drink, then back out for an hour or so. Kind of like people.

If you had standard size chickens, would you bring them back in at any time while it’s below freezing temperatures? They don’t have a coop to go back in on their own.

 

[Debbie292d]

No rain in the forecast. I lean pallets against the run to protect them from the cold wind. They were hatched in April. They are healthy with standard feathers. What about their feet?

Ours usually won't walk in the snow so we shovel paths. They don't have any issues. Their coop is heated to 40°F, so if they had any frozen snow stuck to their feathers on their feet, it would eventually melt off. You can see there's one leaning out the chicken door like, whoa, what's this?



Yours shouldn't have any issues as they don't have feathers for snow/ice to stick to them.

 

[rosemarythyme]

What about their feet?

If needed they will pull one foot up at a time under their feathers to warm them up.

Keep in mind many folks keep chickens in areas with extended cold winters without need for supplemental heat. A couple of hours at 20F is hardly an issue. Biggest problem you might have is you'll have to bring fresh water out to them for a few mornings (unless you have a heated waterer).

 

[Debbie292d]

If you had standard size chickens, would you bring them back in at any time while it’s below freezing temperatures? They don’t have a coop to go back in on their own.

Probably at 10°F for regular chickens is where I'd draw the line and not let them out of the coop. I won't let ours out at all if it's below freezing, if it's windy, as then the wind chill would be way too cold.

If you could find a large used doghouse on Marketplace or somewhere that'd work. They don't need a full coop, just a hutch is what we call them. We've got two huge coops, but hutches for the growout pens.