How to Keep My Chickens Warm?!?!

[Mary Coleman]

So its getting pretty cold here in North Eastern Oregon. I was driving home and my car said -6 Degrees F. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am getting very nervous because i have alot of exotic breeds who cant cope with the cold very well, so I hear. Last year when I moved here, it only reached at the lowest 20 Degrees and only snowed about half an inch. Its only December and its -6 and it has snowed about 2 inches. They roost in a large barn. How can I keep them warm this winter???? I have a heat lamp on some of them. ( the ones that decide to roost under it.) One of my friends chickens froze this morning so im very scared. Please help.

 

[gwydiana]

I've bought a reptile warming rock for my coop. I would think that's the safest way to go. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AQCJ6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Mary Coleman]

Wow never thought of that! Cool. Thank you. So do they lay on it or something? How big is it? I have about 30 birds so is it big enough for several of them to fit at a time???

 

[gwydiana]

there are different sizes you can buy several of them

 

[Mahlzeit]

What breeds do you have? Chickens are actually very cold hardy birds and don't really extra heat besides what their feathers supply them. Single combed chickens sometimes have issues with their combs getting frostbite. But I have never heard of a chicken freezing to death if they have a coop to sleep in.

 

[Mary Coleman]

Ok be prepared I have quite a few breeds!

Phoenix
Polish
Bantam Cochins
Partridge rock
Silver spangled hamburg
Japanese bantam
Turkin
Silver and gold laced Wyandottes
Easter eggers
Black australorpe
Black australopre cross
Golden sex link
Golden sex link cross
Buff brahma bantam
White faced black Spanish bantam

That's about it. I know that alot of these breeds are cold hardy, but I'm mainly conserned about my Japanese bantam,
turkin, because they are only 3 months old, white faced black Spanish, and my buff brahma has two babies because she decided to go broody a few weeks ago..... So their okay now, but I'm not sure how they will do when mamma will no longer take care of them. I also have 3 older chicks that I hatched several weeks ago. They have all of their feathers and they are in a brooder under a heat lamp. Should I ween them off of the heat lamp and have them roost? I'm afraid that the shock would be to much for them to handle. I'm sorry for all of the questions. I just moved here from Texas and I'm not very experienced with these cold conditions.

 

[Jipus5]

I'm in Louisiana, and I added a heat bulb inside their coop 3 weeks ago. Coop is made from a tractor trailer, so pretty compact but I just felt better putting some warmth in there. Last chicks hatched in October, so figured it couldn't hurt. Your weather up there is so much more severe, a little something couldn't hurt.