Believe me---I know I couldn't cut it for a northern winter!!! I have dear friend that's in vet school at Auburn U. She's from Canada. I talked with her this morning and asked what she was wearing---jeans and t shirt with no jacket! This morning, I was out doing chores in thermal britches under sweats and my big barn coat (and flip-flops that's a Southern Thing too) and fussing to my husband that this weekend we are buying some insulated water proof gloves for filling waterers in the morning! (I don't care how much they cost!)When you southerners think it's cold we are out in shirt sleeves and shorts, so it's no wonder folks down south want to heat their coops in the winter and the northern folks all just throw plastic on the windows of the coop and say, "There ya go, girls, all snug for the winter. Sleep tight!"
I always advise folks who want to heat their coops to first go and buy down coats and overalls, put them on, then sit inside by the fire for a bit and see how comfy it is. If you get too hot sitting by the heat in your down clothing, so will your birds. God gave them an excellent way to stay warm and we can't get any better than that.
Yes, I would. The key is having breeds that are more conducive to free range survival. Putting silkies on free range or in an open topped run is like ringing the dinner bell and hollering, "Y'all come and get it... and wipe yer feet before you come in this house!" Same with Buff Orps...too heavy and too docile to really do what it takes to survive.
Strong, wary, flighty(this is not breed specific) and started as chicks with clear areas of duck and cover and the physical ability to evade hawks. I never stoop over my birds to pick them up~this gets them used to ducking down or squatting when a shadow from above approaches. When you folks start this when your chicks are little by handling them a lot, you are conditioning them to do the same when stooped upon by a hawk. I only work my birds off the roost at night and very infrequently even then. They need to think that everyone and everything is a predator out to get them before they are suitably flighty enough to free range. The older birds will teach the younger birds this level of wariness.
Using dual purpose breeds are also a hawk deterrent...too big to effectively carry away to safety and have their feast. This leaves them out in the open trying to eat a chicken. Now, I don't know how it is around your country but hawks are just as wary about free ranging here as the chickens are. Hillbillies don't care about federal laws and they love to shoot things....anything. Hawks are very, very wary out in these parts. I can see why hawks are not so wary in the burbs and outlying areas...no rednecks picking them off for fun.
Also, you need to think of feeding....when birds are overfed they are slow. When they are constantly full of free choice feed, their free ranging isn't very active and they stand around a lot or peck lazily at the ground. They are not moving from area to area with the express purpose of feeding. I wish you all could watch my flock during the day...they all flock together(safety in numbers) and they run through all the open spaces during this season when they don't usually in other times of the year. They RUN, wings flapping, to get to the other side of open range and to get to the shelter of buildings, woodlines, trees, etc.
They have a certain times in which they graze out in the open(usually early morning and right before dusk) but they do so in a very fast and wary way and will jump and run at the slightest call from the rooster.
And these are birds that have never known hawk predation in their lives...never saw any of their number picked off by a hawk or eagle. Imagine how flighty they would be if that actually happened?
I am their natural selection...I cull any birds unfit for an active, free ranged life. This leaves a flock that doesn't have to worry about stragglers, loners, or slow birds attracting hawks to their location. I cull all the fat and docile birds/breeds. I cull all the too small, the too slow, the lonely hearts and wallflowers. What I have left behind are tough, flighty, fast and good flockers...they know how to stick close to the rooster and respond to his alert calls and will even call out alerts themselves.
It's a bird eat bird world out there and only the tough and smart survive. This is why we shake our heads at folks who buy and raise breeds unsuitable to free ranging, then pet them into domestic docility, then try to "let them out in the evenings to free range".....these birds are completely and totally unprepared for surviving even small amounts of free ranging because everything has been stacked against them. These are the very same folks who claim it is cruel and unsafe for others to free range because when they tried it, it was horribly unsuccessful.
Waaal... I'll admit to putting on a sweatshirt this morning when I went out to do chicken chores here in SC.When you southerners think it's cold we are out in shirt sleeves and shorts, so it's no wonder folks down south want to heat their coops in the winter and the northern folks all just throw plastic on the windows of the coop and say, "There ya go, girls, all snug for the winter. Sleep tight!"
I always advise folks who want to heat their coops to first go and buy down coats and overalls, put them on, then sit inside by the fire for a bit and see how comfy it is. If you get too hot sitting by the heat in your down clothing, so will your birds. God gave them an excellent way to stay warm and we can't get any better than that.
