Just talked to a friend that had a close call last night. He had taken his dog outside & heard his hens squawking. When he opened the door to the coop smoke poured out. He had been worried about the cold temps and turned on the heat lamp he uses for chicks. Apparently it had fallen & had started smoldering. Good thing he went out when he did or he would have lost it all!
Phew, lucky he checked! This is really scary to me, how easy it happens. I get that some people have no choice when it comes to their babies and cold-sensitive species, but I do wonder when people are going to learn that
adult chickens need no help in the cold.
A couple things worth noting that I picked up on recently:
I had always wondered about this, but I finally came across someone with the same thoughts as me.
Adding heat to your coop in cold weather can actually make frostbite worse by allowing moisture to stay in the air. Cold air is dry air, and dry air is optimal for the health of the birds.
Another thing that requires a bit of a story to explain--I have a rooster that lives on his own in a pen with a house for him to huddle in. He almost never goes inside, instead sleeping on top of said house behind the wind barrier tarp I put up on his pen. Only one and a half sides of his pen are covered, enough for a wind block at the back corner where his house is. He has never had frostbite and he slept on top of his house in the subzero temps we had a little less than two weeks ago. Meanwhile, two of my hens living in my coop had frostbitten wattles on those same days. This seems to me like proof of what others have said before me, that it isn't just the cold that causes frostbite, but
the combination of cold and moisture. (And it also tells me that I need to work on the winter ventilation in my coop.
)
From this, I've concluded that
adequate ventilation will help to prevent frostbite more than adding heat to your coop will. Plus, you don't have the risk of fire hazard or losing power suddenly!
A very good, very detailed, very BIG page about ventilation and why you probably don't have enough:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...-go-out-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop
And here's an awesome open air coop used year round without being closed up for the winter, as further proof that cold isn't the enemy--moisture is!:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/445004/woods-style-house-in-the-winter
ETA: Correction about that rooster. His name is Toes, and he's called Toes because he lost his toes to frostbite many, many years ago in the time known as 'before I knew better'. I believe he got frostbite when he was in a small pen because we didn't have anywhere else for him to go. Still, not a result of cold, but a result of inadequate air exchange, and he hasn't had frostbite since he's moved to his current pen. This guy is going to be 9 years old in April and he's still kicking in spite of all he's been through.
