I'm probably just being a baby about this, but it's keeping me awake at night worrying. I wanted to keep the coop just above freezing, but last night it got down to 25F here in Kansas, and the coop (inside) got down to 27F. (And yes, I know that's not that cold -- I'm from Wisconsin.) I only have 3 birds and the coop is 24 sq. ft., so their body heat isn't enough to keep it above freezing. I have a heated water bowl, so their water's fine. I keep reading that I don't need to/shouldn't heat the coop, but is it REEEEEEALLY OK??
What breeds do you have? One solution is MORE chickens! At those temps, they should be fine...feed them some corn, make sure they're dry and out of the wind...
Build them a "hover" or small box within the coop, over the roost. You can bet that they'll catch on immediately and start huddling in there.
@Rare Feathers - one gold sex-link, one "amber link," and one black Australorp. The sex links have the big single combs. :-( @Uzuri - I don't get what you mean by the "hover." Their roost is 20" below the ceiling of the coop (the whole coop is only 4' tall). Pictures?
The idea is to create a small area they can get into and warm with body heat. You do not want the body heat to disapate into the large coop area. You could pick their favorite high-up roosting spot and enclose it a bit more by suspending blankets around it like a small open-bottomed tent. The birds fly up to the roost from below and are able to keep it warmer because of the added insulation. These work well if you have quiet birds that like to spend a lot of time hanging out. Mine are more active and won't hang out in the warmer area. Good Luck! Those big single combs are really a challenge!
That's good -- they're probably in the warmest part of the coop, then, since heat rises. What could help more, though, would be to wall in part of the roost so that they've got a smaller area to heat with their bodies. Without knowing exactly how the inside of your coop looks it's hard to explain more. My "hover" is just a flattened carboard box hung right over their heads to lower the roof, but some get really fancy and are insulated, or have walls. Generally the idea is just to keep the chickens' warmth closer to the chickens. There's a million and one ways to do that, so be creative and do what works in your space!
It's OK, really. This will make you feel better, in case you haven't already found it: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-winter-coop-temperatures
I'm just a couple hours east of you. My four ladies did just fine last year. I did insulate the roof of the coop with 1/2 rigid foam, and hung an infrared light in the pen. We ended up covering all four sides of the pen with clear plastic. They had a cozy dry pen and coop all winter long.
