How to keep my chickens' combs from freezing

[Chickenbubble22]

Hello all!
I have owned chickens for a few years and currently have 22 chickens. It's been a fun adventure with a few bumps along the way (props to the chickens who have dealt with me and my undertakings for 5 years now). I have a large coop right now that was built about 2 years ago. It is big and has a loft area above it for storage. My chickens live on one half of it and I store their food, bedding, supplies, etc. on the other half. I really like this coop, but the way we built it has one major flaw: there are lots of cracks that allow the coop to get very cold in the winter, and I live in central MN, so temps often drop well below 0 during the coldest months. Admittedly, some of my chickens (particularly my roosters) have suffered from frostbite in years past, but my big goal for this winter is to keep the coop very warm. What has really spurred this on is that this year I have added 4 Leghorn hens to my flock as well as a Welsummer rooster, and they all have absolutely giant combs, and I'm afraid their combs will suffer badly from frostbite. I'm planning to insulate the coop and use the deep-litter method for bedding. However, I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do to help keep the coop warm and especially what I can do to protect my Leghorns/Welsummer's combs. I would like to have a heat lamp but I worry about potentially starting a fire. What do all y'all chicken owners do for your big-combed chickens in winter?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

We're in Wisconsin, where we'll have sub-zero temps for a month or so as well. We generally don't let them (silkies) out unless it's 20°F or above and not windy.

The key to preventing frostbite is humidity. I'd get a hygrometer for your coop to be sure your humidity is below 70% as above that's when mold grows and windows can start dripping/freezing over.

We battle high outdoor humidity here, due to the farmers' fields, and we're in proximity to the Great Lakes.

We use horse bedding pellets on the coop floor and in the hen boxes. We have a DIY 5-gallon nipple water bucket in each coop/pen. That way no open water inside the coops. The coops are all heated to 40°F with an oil-filled radiant heater in one, and an electric non-digital one installed in the wall in the other.

The horse bedding pellets absorb the poop, thus less moisture and ammonia. There is an exhaust fan in both coops. The outside humidity can often be 80% or higher, yet our coops are at 60% or so.

We have three outdoor growout pens with hutches/sheds. Inside the sheds, it's horse bedding pellets, and a Cozy Coop radiant heater. Those are safe as they aren't hot to the touch, but chicks/chickens can lean up to them if they're chilled. Their electric heated nipple bucket is out in their pens.

We ran short on a heated nipple bucket last year and tested a fishtank heater plugged into a thermo cube for an ice cream pail of water. It worked nicely.