I am new to the site. We are also new to chickens since July of last year. Just want to say what a great resource the site is. Thank you all for sharing your wisdom!
We have a small backyard flock of 4 (2 EEs, BA, and a Gold Star). We are in Wisconsin and are used to cold winter weather. Until this week, our lowest overnight low this winter had been -15. Our coop is not insulated and not heated, but is well ventilated and has all drafts blocked. Our chooks have a flat roosting board, 3" wide covered in flat-pile carpeting. Even with daytime winter highs in the low single digits, the chooks come outside during the day into their covered run, scratch, act normal. I wouldn't say they are
happy, exactly, (I'm sure we'd all prefer to have warmer temps, grass, bugs, etc) but they seemed to be doing fine.
Our philosophy so far has been that as long as the girls have a ventilated place to roost at night, with still air, plenty of food and plenty of water, they will be fine. Wild birds make do with much less.
THEN came the current cold snap. When overnight lows of -25 were forecast, with wind chills of -60, I got seriously nervous. I had read that our chicken breeds are cold hardy down to -25 or so, but as a newbie I did not feel good about testing their limits. We had not ever planned to use heat in the coop, but finally I broke down and asked hubby to mount a heat lamp in one corner, where the chooks could either get close to it if they chose, or stay away from it. (The lamp is mounted to a wall, high away from any litter).
The cold snap did not disappoint us -- Our
HIGH yesterday was
-13, and our overnight lows have been near -25. Two days into the cold snap, the chooks seem to be doing extremely well. The heat lamp only raised the internal temperature of the coop at night by 4 or 5 degrees, less than I would have thought. But I think it gave the girls an optional place to go for a warm up if they wanted it. Three of the four chooks chose to roost near it at night, and one (the BA) chose to roost away from it. She apparently did not need/want it at all. I have been feeding them some calorie-dense extras -- meal worms and boiled egg yolks -- which they like. Not sure if they really need extra food (?) but they seem to like it a lot.
(And I just have to share -- so excited -- that the EE sisters Irene and Penelope both chose yesterday to lay their very first eggs! I could not believe it -- one light blue egg and one sort of stone-colored. They are 26 weeks and I thought they'd wait til spring.
Our Gold Star and BA have been laying for about a month already. )
As for the heat in the coop -- I think they all probably would have been fine with no heat at all, but I felt better doing it for them. I will continue to go with no heat under normal circumstances.
