Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :
Very interesting, Scooter! I've heard/read that "open" coops are best, too. I've tried my best to leave windows and doors open as much as I can, but -10F seems to be the cut-off for closing the man-door on the coop. With the door and window closed, they keep it about 20 degrees warmer in the coop.
We've had a horrible start to the winter... deep freezes for several days, then warm up to above freezing. It seems to be on a weekly schedule, too. High winds, lots of snow, followed by wind and rain.
The birds don't know what to think, and it's been hard to keep the moisture down when EVERYTHING is thawing at once.
I think Wisconsin is having your weather this year, it's been crazy here 1 week its cold as H e l then the next its raining and ALMOST 40 DEGREES
Thiis year Fall has been god awful, temperature extremes every other week, wet damp cold, below zero though its only gotten to -5 so far today it was 38, my poor chickens are confused last week they didn't come out to play for long some didn't come out at all. This week they are basking in the 40 degrees, and getting soaked by the rains, and Friday we head back to the 20's during the day and probably below at night. arggggggggggg I just wish it would get cold and stay cold and snow, I'm sick to death of mud, and wet and frozen chunked up ground that my horses can barely walk across, because yesterday it was forty and rainedan inch, and today its only 10 degrees and all that mud is frozen solid.