OEG Bantam Compatibility, Housing, Temps

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

We have a Spangled OEG bantam - sweet little girl named Spreckles. Adopted her this past Spring with two silkies, a bantam WCB Polish, and a bantam Cochin. We integrated them in with our existing small flock of silkies and silkie mixes.

Spreckles is the smallest of the group, and i didn't worry about her too much until it started getting cold. We live in Sacramento County and right now the temps are ranging 28-38 at night and 48-55 during the day. i'm a bit worried because she looks very cold and not very happy. i brought her inside this past week for a couple days, but she clearly prefers company. i hooked up a heat lamp out in the pen, focused on a hutch (like a tanning booth) and i sometimes find her sitting inside. But then if any of the silkies want to be in there they boot her out. i have some tough girls in that pen, especially the broodies who come flying off their nests loaded for bear. Woe be it to any other chicken crossing their paths.

So i was wondering, if anyone else has OEG bantams, what is your experience with temperature tolerances? How do you house yours and do you have them in with other breeds? i've never had an OEG bantam before and just want her to be healthy and happy. Maybe she needs a couple little friends her own size and a separate coop and pen. She gets barreled over by the others on a regular basis.

Here she is:

. . . and then here she is again, huddled under the "tanning booth":

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I have a trio of bbr old english bantams. I keep them in a 2 section breeder pen. They do have a heat lamp in the house because on the other side are my young silkies (4 months old). So they do get some heat for that. I also have a pair of self blue oegb, and they also have a heat lamp on them because they are small and them temps are very cold at night. Not sure how they would do without a heat lamp. In their house I use straw in the winter as it helps keep the heat in. I also give them some whole corn, as that helps create heat when its digested.

 

[bantiesrule]

I have 10 oeg and 1 serama hen (she must be a class c because she isn't much smaller then the oegs). Their coop is 6 x 8 and I do not heat it. They are doing just fine. This is Minnesota and temps have been COLD. I was surprised but with the 11 little bodies, it is usually about 20 degrees warmer in the coop than it is outside.
I woke up on December 30th, looked at the temp, and panicked. It read -32. I wasn't sure if they could handle that. I quickly dug the heat lamp out of storage, ran it out there to plug in and it was +5 in their house. They were huddled together a bit but split up to come check out what I was up to. I figured if they weren't frozen little icicles then, they should be O.K. so I didn't even put the heat on. They seem to be happy.
Which brings me to my question: I feed them layer and cracked corn. I also give them treats of bird seed, lettuce, oatmeal, whatever I have that I think they would like. This winter, they tend to dig through the feed and mostly eat just the corn. Does corn have enough nutrients in it? Should I take the corn away so they have to eat the layer crumbles? Corn is supposed to be good for generating heat, so I really don't want to quit giving it to them. Any suggestions or am I worrying over nothing?

 

[B. Saffles Farms]

I have several OEGBs and all mine do just fine in the cold. I have plastic up around part of their pens, just so they can get out of the wind.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Thank you for all the responses. i do have plastic wrapped around almost all of the pens and it does help a lot. i also went ahead and wrapped a flannel sheet around the tanning booth, so it would stay warmer inside, Spreckles is in there now with her buddy Ludwig Von Chicken. It got to freezing last night and it's cold today but the sun is out and no wind, so much better than the past few days.

bantiesrule - i'm not an expert, but i do know chickens (mine anyhow) eat fairly selectively. Sometimes they go hog wild over scrambled eggs, other times they barely touch them and focus on the scratch grain or oatmeal. i just keep their feeders full and hand out treats and greens as usual and let them pick what they want.