my pets are more like our extra children so I think thats the biggest problem. We are always going to check how cold it is at night. colin even gets up and goes and turns on the lights for a bit to warm them up. we will have to stop that. I am wondering, we have a lot of rain right now then cold nights, that is mostly why we have been turning the light on so they can dry off so they dont freeze. we had a problem when we got some and they had lice.. so we have some chickens that their feathers are just grown back in. we have cow corn that we have been grinding up to feed them as an extra treat. and we give them left overs( sweet potatoes, squash, berries)
The first question that popped into my head was, "Why are your chickens getting so wet in the first place?" Yes, I understand that's it's been raining. But to keep chickens warm, the first rule is to keep them dry. That means their bodies and their housing. How are they getting so wet that you have to go out at night and turn on lights to dry them out, and how do lights help with that process? If your hair is wet does turning on the light in a room dry it any faster?
I raise chicks outside from the beginning. They are in a pen in the run, even with temps in the teens and twenties. They have no light of any kind except sunlight during the day and moonlight during the night - they have nothing for heat but a straw covered heating pad cave. But they were dry, and they were out of the wind, the two key elements to allowing them to stay warm. And right now I have several chickens who are darn close to bald from molting. But their shelter is adequate and protects them from strong winds and snow or rain. They will feather in, and they'll be fine during the process.
I guess my point is that food and lights are not going to help wet chickens much, nor will it keep humidity from building up in the coop. They release humidity into the air when they breathe, when they poop, and if their waterer is in the coop more is released into the air that way. Add wet or damp feathers and it's a recipe for massive discomfort and the very real possibility of frostbite.
Now, it could be that I read more into your post about your chickens needing to be dried off than is actually the case. In that case I offer my apologies for jumping to conclusions. However, if your goal is healthy chickens, I would think the first thing to do is to figure out how and where your flock is being exposed to rain and correct that.
