Think it's too cold for your chickens? Think again...

[jrskol2000]

Thanks for the info looking at low teens this week and wasn't sure if I needed to worry. They don't seem to care about these temps except for the lack of bugs. I must admit the little buggers are tough.

 

[Jx2inNC]

The worst for me is not being able to get around to checking water very often when it gets cold.
They made it a couple days with mostly frozen water. I try not to let it get that way for too long.
I just started putting one waterer in the coop with them though, so maybe it will not freeze quite as badly with them in there!

 

[kelidei]

We are having a blizzard right now with 50 mile an hour winds and temps in the teens... windchill is in the 0 to -10 range and some of my wacky birds are out running around. I do have radiant panel heaters in the three coops but they do not do much to raise the ambient temps... in fact if I didn't have bird bath heaters in my bucket waterers they'd be frozen... you can even touch the surface of the heaters... they can't catch anything on fire... but it does provide a space for them to go warm up by roosting near them... I have some birds with big combs... keeps them from freezing.

 

[Coralietg]

I'm very glad to have found this thread. We're in Southern Louisiana so when we built the coop and run, the actual coop has slat flooring to let the poop fall through, closed on 4 sides except for the door which is wood frame with hardware cloth, so it would be well ventilated in the summer. It's going to get down to 22F tonight and I was freaking out thinking they would freeze.

 

[6chicks&aduck]

we got down to -15 last night and all the girls were fine this morn !

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
Nope! If you haven't heated them at all, they'll probably be quite happy at those temps!!

 

[Mrs MIA]

6chicks&aduck :

we got down to -15 last night and all the girls were fine this morn !

 

[Louieandthecrew]

I only read the first post, but thank you! This is great stuff! Way down south here in the U.S.A it doesn't usually get too cold, but it's 34F and snowing right now! It hasn't snowed at all since March of this year (I know, it starts in December, ends in March

) and I'm very grateful for the snow! My first clutch of chicks had a heat lamp even through their adolescent years in the coop, but we never even turned it on because they didn't need it! I'm planning on going on over to the coop soon and fillin' it up with some soft, dry, wood chips. We're going out to buy some hay at Home Depot (the laying boxes are out again

) and I'll be sure to get some extra for in the corners of the coop, as you said, also

Good luck this winter to all of you, and thanks for the advice!

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

A farm boy friend from Arkansas told me not to worry - chickens can't feel their feet. Is that true? And wouldn't they get frostbite anyway?

 

[Mrs MIA]

Chickens can feel their feet, and yes, they can get frostbite, especially if they're walking around in the snow. Ducks have a little less sensitivity, but they can have problems with the extreme cold, too.