No heat !!!!

[Beans513]

I have read over and over chickens do not need heat well its -3 and I listened to everyone and now I have 2 sick chickens sneezing and coughing, they are shivering some too. I am worried about not doing whats best for them.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It could be a respiratory issue due to lack of ventilation. If you can change the title to respiratory issue or focus on that and ventilation you'll be doing more for your birds. The cold did not make them sick.

-3 F is cold but not too cold for birds. Yesterday was clear and sunny, the birds were outside of coop scratching around in the lean-to shelter front of coop. Temps had risen to -7 F by 10:30 am and the birds were out long before that.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I take what I read here with a grain of salt and temper it with gut feelings. They can take the cold? OK, whatever, I'm still putting up a heat lamp. I was recently told that chickens molting in winter is normal and that they'll be OK outside in single digit weather without many of their feathers. I looked at mine and said, that's ridiculous. There's no way I'm leaving her outside in 3F cold when she looks miserable and is shivering. I brought her inside to a cold room so that she can put her energy into growing feathers rather than trying to stay alive with a handicap.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Your "feelings" guided you to add a heat lamp to the feathered flock and that's fine. I agree birds need feathers to stay warm though.do that and that's fine. But your bird did not get sick due to cold is the point. Cold doesn't make birds sick unless there already is an issue and the stress of cold shows the symptoms. The OP needs to find out what's wrong with the birds and not be muddied in finding the cause and cure by focusing on the temperature.

My thought is it's due to confinement and low air quality/lack of adequate ventilation.

 

[theoldchick]

Chickens who are silently harboring a viral or bacterial illness may show signs of illness when stressed by cold. Though we want to keep our birds warm by closing off the coop-always be aware of air quality. You must have good ventilation in your coop. Good ventilation does not mean drafty. Also keep your roosting area free feces. The ammonia build-up can wreak havoc on those tiny lungs. Not to mention fungal spores from the feces that will infect the air. If you do elect to add another heat source be VERY AWARE of fire hazards. There are too many stories here about the loss of coop and chickens due to fire.

Your sick chickens need to be placed in a hospital cage and brought to a warm place. Treat accordingly for respiratory conditions. Meanwhile evaluate your other birds. Get your hands on them and check their body condition. Evaluate your diet (the chicken's) and see if there is room for improvement there. Once you are finished looking at your flock, you need to evaluate your coop. If you have shavings, remove and replace with fresh shavings or, if you have access, use shredded paper. As mentioned get the feces out of there and evaluate the placement of your roosts. You want them placed away from open area or window that will blast a cold wind on them.

You are to be commended for worrying about your flock in this kind of weather. Do your research on cold-weather coops and make changes as safely as possible.

Good luck. I hope your sick birds recover.

 

[theoldchick]

And as to chickens having a hard molt in this kind of frigid weather, I don't care what anybody says, I'm putting a wool (not that fake stuff, either) chicken sweater on them!

 

[turtlelaura67]

I'm not sure how this might apply to chickens, but here goes.

In my years of reptile keeping I've realized the importance of nightly cool-downs. I used to have an African Bell's hingeback tortoise, and every winter she suffered from nasty respiratory infections. She was from Africa, and Africa is hot, right? So I was keeping her in an enclosed vivarium with a ceramic heat lamp and the temperature controlled in the low 80s. What I forgot, though, is that pretty much every place on earth cools down at night to some degree. Once I started letting her sit at room temperature at night (and the house I lived in was chilly) the URIs stopped.

And it may very well have been a ventilation issue. At around the same time I began leaving the door to the vivarium open a bit. Anyway, it helped.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Your "feelings" guided you to add a heat lamp to the feathered flock and that's fine. I agree birds need feathers to stay warm though.do that and that's fine. But your bird did not get sick due to cold is the point. Cold doesn't make birds sick unless there already is an issue and the stress of cold shows the symptoms. The OP needs to find out what's wrong with the birds and not be muddied in finding the cause and cure by focusing on the temperature.

My thought is it's due to confinement and low air quality/lack of adequate ventilation.

There may not be anything wrong with the bird or the ventilation. It might not be as strong as is optimal, and extreme cold would then cause it to have health problems. What's the point of putting animals at elevated risk? Do people treat themselves or their kids that way? No, they remove every risk that they can. I'm not running a breeding operation where I'm trying to cull out weak birds.

 

[birdofhermes]

just because a bird can survive lower temperatures doesn't mean you should subject them to it

 

[Mama Runner]

just because a bird can survive lower temperatures doesn't mean you should subject them to it

I look at all my animals as my babies and kids. You need to do what is in your heart. Normal winter temps are one thing. The temperature across the US right now are not normal winter temperatures for most of the u.s.a.