Overwintering frizzled bantam

[CatWhisperer]

I ended up with a frizzled bantam Cochin from TSC. She is 2 months old now. Do frizzled chickens need special care in cold weather? I also have 6 month old seramas and silkies and I’ve read they don’t do well in the cold. Knowledgeable advice appreciated.

 

[azygous]

No special care would be necessary unless you are having well below freezing temps. Then you might add a bit of heat to keep the coop temp hovering just above freezing.

More efficient than heating their environment is providing a balanced diet to ensure adequate calories to produce body heat. Any feather covering is good insulation against the cold as long as the chicken is consuming adequate calories to produce body heat. In other words, the best way to heat a chicken is from the inside out.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

IMO, none of them are extremely cold hardy. Cochins are normally very cold hardy but being frizzled that adds to the discomfort. I've had frizzles up here in mid Missouri and they did OK in our winters with no special protection but I doubt they were as comfortable as the tight feathered birds.

 

[Alaskan]

How cold does it get where you are?

I would think that it would help to make sure the run has no wind blowing through it.

Maybe wall one or two sides of the run.

But besides being careful with exposing them to wind, I think they will be fine (since I am guessing you never go below 10F????)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

How cold does it get where you are?

I would think that it would help to make sure the run has no wind blowing through it.

Maybe wall one or two sides of the run.

But besides being careful with exposing them to wind, I think they will be fine (since I am guessing you never go below 10F????)

It isn't very common but it does get well below zero there.

 

[chickens really]

I run heat lamps in my Coop for my Bantams. Although our winters are extremely cold. Once we hit -5C my heat is on.

 

[Alaskan]

It isn't very common but it does get well below zero there.

I looked up Fayetteville, Arkansas since that is in the north west corner of the state...

Coldest average low is in January and 25F.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I looked up Fayetteville, Arkansas since that is in the north west corner of the state...

Coldest average low is in January and 25F.

That is very true, normally it is a relatively mild climate, but that is the average low. It gets much lower. Fayetteville record low hit -18F in 2011. The lowest in Springdale was -15.
I've lived and worked in Springdale and Rogers. I worked in turkey feed mills and remember some very cold snowy nights. My brother lives just over the border in MO. They can get some brutally cold, snowy, windy conditions.
I've hiked, hunted and fished NW AR year round. I've floated the length of the Buffalo River on several occasions from Boxley and Ponca to the confluence with the White river at Buffalo City.
I buy bees from Northern Arkansas. While it is usually very mild in late winter and early spring, last year it stayed cold so late in the spring the pickup date had to be put off almost 2 months.
We're not close enough to the ocean to have that moderating influence. I know Alaska gets bitterly cold. We can span a 60F change in temperature in just 10 hours. A 40F change isn't at all uncommon.