So, my general philosophy on adding heat for my hens is that they don't need it, they have natural down and good protection from the wind. But I swear my entire flock is either in a molt, or coming out of one right now. One stubborn hen is only now finally molting after a whole summer of butt-fluff picking, right when it's starting to freeze at night and snow warnings in the next few days. I've put a (flat panel radiant) heater in the coop, with a thermostatic plug in so that it goes on at 33, off at 45, to protect them from the real freezing weather. At the time I planned that though, I thought everybody would be in the 'grow-back' mode, and not 'loose-all-the-fluff' mode, so I just wanted to protect them from the worst of it. Will this molting hen be OK with the flock warmth and heater only for below freezing, or should I be adding warmth for her before the freezing point, while she's so bare? I also don't want to acclimatize them to think they'll have the heat on all the time, which may (?) make her molt last longer. But what I really don't want is to go out one day and find that she died from being too cold and I could have kept her more comfortable.
Thanks for any input.
Thanks for any input.