Southern Folks...

[Southern28Chick]

...do y'all insulate or heat your chicken houses. I feel really bad that it's been in the 20s at night and my chickens are in an uninsulated, unheated house. Are they ok in that kinda cold? They seem fine in the morning. I guess I feel bad because even my dog gets to sleep in the house at night and my chickens are out in the cold.

 

[speckledhen]

The original part of my coop, where Suede and his ladies stay, is insulated with the pink fiberglass insulation, but the addition to it, where the main laying flock stays, has double walls with many, many plastic Walmart bags stuffed in between since I had tons of those. My hexagonal coop isn't double walled or insulated and even has a fair amt of ventilation that I've stuffed towels into at the moment. We were down to under 20 degrees this morning. I have it rigged so their water doesn't freeze, but it isn't heated at all. The other coops have no actual heat, but a heat lamp comes on over the waterers about 6 a.m. to defrost anything frozen in the tray.

 

[BantyChickMom]

Trisha, you're in way better shape than mine are.
Out of 10 pens, only 4 of mine have any kind of coop (thanks to slow work and lack of resources).
The ones that don't have a coop have been wrapped with plastic or tarp to block any drafts.
Now that work has picked up, time is a big problem, along with sick kids, school functions, and getting materials home from the store in a car.
Most of mine are bantams and I'm worried about them, but hoping they'll do fine until I can get better situated.
I give them scratch in the mornings and evenings and so far they've been fine.

 

[PurpleChicken]

It's 10 degrees out there right now and even worse if you factor in wind chill.
All the standards are out in the run as happy as can be. The barn is around 42
degrees but they are happier outside. As soon as the run lights turn off they go
in to roost.

I can't tell you how many people have laughed at me when I say the barn is
heated.

Southern28, I think your babies are fine spoiled chickies.

 

[carugoman]

It was in the twenties this morning...had to turn on the heat pump in the house for the first time since last winter. My main hen house is a double wall affair with the rigid EPS insulation;1.5"inch thick. With all those birds in an enclosed and insulated space plus the two halogen lamps to provide the necessary light for egg laying and heat,the ladies seemed quite happy! I insulated the coop more for the summer heat than the winter cold. I have an unused window a/c unit that I'll used to cool down the hen house when it gets ghastly hot,late spring-summer.

DEAD AIR SPACE: if you were to incorporate a double wall system where there was at least a 2.5"air gap between the walls;the walls(as a whole unit,) were air-tight, then the "dead" airspace between the walls act as an effective insulator.

 

[Dawn419]

Ours aren't insulated yet, but just got a 2' x 125' roll of Tekfoil so I can do the roof and north wall of the playhouse coop. We had a high of 24 yesterday and a low of 16 this morning, according to our porch thermometer. The outdoor waterers were slushy when I changed out the water, so I made tekfoil sleeves for them in hopes of keeping them from freezing. May not work but got my

, just incase!

Dawn

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

I have tarps covering main openings and drafty spots.

 

[tink]

Hey Trisha
Our coop has plywood on two sides and wire on the other two. We took a tarp and closed in one wire side and part of the front. We also have a red heat lamp bulb on the ceiling. They dont seem to be complaining too much. Their water had a little ice in it this morning...it was 20 here at 8am.....and they are all fine. They snuggle up preatty good.
Tink

 

[Southern28Chick]

My babes in the main house cuddle at night with each other. I reckon I'm more scared for Blind Tiny in the townhouse by herself.

PS I finally saw Blind Tiny lay an egg this morning!!! I went out there just at the right time.

 

[Kentucky~Momma]

None of our coops are insulated. We haven't had any problems and they seem to be happy as can be, even running in the muddy runs since it has been raining terribly the last two weeks. Anyway, our oegb trio is in the garage coop so we can get them to hopefully start laying, and our silver sebrights are in a coop right next to the garage, again with a bulb for getting her to lay. I am guessing that the light does heat them up pretty good during the day and it stays a bit warmer at night. All of our standards don't have heated or insulated coops. I hope this helps and we have had quite chilly nights, and a few days that haven't been much over freezing....