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Most heritage breeds do fine in cold weather. I don't heat my coop at all. I used to, but found it just keeps the chickens from acclimating properly. If they are exposed to the cooling temps through fall, and into winter, they grow in a good coat of fluffy, downy, under-feathers. Just like a down jacket. In a good coop without a lot of drafts, they'll do just fine. Give them good, high roosts, so they can take advantage of the warmer air nearer the ceiling. I do have electricity in the coop, so I can use an electric de-icer in the water. However, when I haven't had power in the coop, like when we had a power outage for 11 days from that huge ice storm winter before last, I just dumped the ice and re-filled the water a couple of times a day. I use those black rubber tubs they sell for feeding horses, because the water freezing won't hurt them and they're flexible, so I can get the ice out. Sometimes, I have to flip the tubs upside down and stand on them, to get the ice out.
When I wanted more eggs last winter, I did break down and put a CF bulb in a clamp lamp, and put it on a timer to come on about 4 AM, and shut back off around 10 AM. I like to sleep late, so I don't get down there and open the coop very early when it's cold. The CF is something like 23 watts, light output is the equivalent of a 100 watt incandescent. Egg production went way up. When I had younger hens, they laid well through the winter anyway, but now that a lot of my hens are older, they seem to need a bit of a jump-start. (Sort of like me) If you can't gather the eggs often enough to get them before they freeze, you may not want your hens to lay much in the winter.
I have 2 small, covered runs, where they can go outside even when there's snow or ice, and have mostly dry ground to run around on. But I open the coop during the day anyway, so they can go outside, snow or not, in the winter. They usually opt to go out, at least for short periods. They're used to free ranging, they get cabin fever if they can't get outside at least a little. As long as the door's open, and they can wander in and out, they're perfectly content. Once the door's are shut in the evening, the coop warms up a little from their body heat. If your number of chickens will be a lot smaller in the winter, you may want to have a fairly small coop for the winter flock, or a way to close part of it off, to make it a little warmer for the birds. Or not, I'm just thinking your climate's colder than mine, at least it has longer periods of intense cold than we do. We often get little warming spells between the intensely cold spells.
They do need some ventilation though, or moisture will build up in the coop, and even a fairly clean coop gets pretty funky without some air circulation. Ours has 2 small doors hat open into the two covered runs, the one on the side that the prevailing wind comes from, has a door we can close when it's really cold, or windy, but we leave the other door open. Both ends have chicken wire covered windows, and we have some glass window panes from old storm windows, we put those up over the windows in the winter.
I've never lost a chicken to cold weather, but I do know people who have, not that far from me. they had larger coops, much higher ceilings, (like in an old barn) and it was very drafty. The chickens couldn't build up any body heat, the way their house was. They'll huddle together to stay warm, too. I've even seen some of the smaller hens scrunch in almost under the larger hens.
Most heritage breeds do fine in cold weather. I don't heat my coop at all. I used to, but found it just keeps the chickens from acclimating properly. If they are exposed to the cooling temps through fall, and into winter, they grow in a good coat of fluffy, downy, under-feathers. Just like a down jacket. In a good coop without a lot of drafts, they'll do just fine. Give them good, high roosts, so they can take advantage of the warmer air nearer the ceiling. I do have electricity in the coop, so I can use an electric de-icer in the water. However, when I haven't had power in the coop, like when we had a power outage for 11 days from that huge ice storm winter before last, I just dumped the ice and re-filled the water a couple of times a day. I use those black rubber tubs they sell for feeding horses, because the water freezing won't hurt them and they're flexible, so I can get the ice out. Sometimes, I have to flip the tubs upside down and stand on them, to get the ice out.
When I wanted more eggs last winter, I did break down and put a CF bulb in a clamp lamp, and put it on a timer to come on about 4 AM, and shut back off around 10 AM. I like to sleep late, so I don't get down there and open the coop very early when it's cold. The CF is something like 23 watts, light output is the equivalent of a 100 watt incandescent. Egg production went way up. When I had younger hens, they laid well through the winter anyway, but now that a lot of my hens are older, they seem to need a bit of a jump-start. (Sort of like me) If you can't gather the eggs often enough to get them before they freeze, you may not want your hens to lay much in the winter.
I have 2 small, covered runs, where they can go outside even when there's snow or ice, and have mostly dry ground to run around on. But I open the coop during the day anyway, so they can go outside, snow or not, in the winter. They usually opt to go out, at least for short periods. They're used to free ranging, they get cabin fever if they can't get outside at least a little. As long as the door's open, and they can wander in and out, they're perfectly content. Once the door's are shut in the evening, the coop warms up a little from their body heat. If your number of chickens will be a lot smaller in the winter, you may want to have a fairly small coop for the winter flock, or a way to close part of it off, to make it a little warmer for the birds. Or not, I'm just thinking your climate's colder than mine, at least it has longer periods of intense cold than we do. We often get little warming spells between the intensely cold spells.
They do need some ventilation though, or moisture will build up in the coop, and even a fairly clean coop gets pretty funky without some air circulation. Ours has 2 small doors hat open into the two covered runs, the one on the side that the prevailing wind comes from, has a door we can close when it's really cold, or windy, but we leave the other door open. Both ends have chicken wire covered windows, and we have some glass window panes from old storm windows, we put those up over the windows in the winter.
I've never lost a chicken to cold weather, but I do know people who have, not that far from me. they had larger coops, much higher ceilings, (like in an old barn) and it was very drafty. The chickens couldn't build up any body heat, the way their house was. They'll huddle together to stay warm, too. I've even seen some of the smaller hens scrunch in almost under the larger hens.
