Im not sure about all this. Winter is making me pull my hair out.
The mentality of the original poster is the same Ive heard over and over and over in the months leading up to winter and I felt confident that my coop set up would be fine based on that info.
It seems that a small coop (ours has the floor space of half a sheet of plywood with perches and nestboxes) could hold 5 or more chickens fine and their body heat would keep the coop temp warmer than outside without insulation, so against my better judgement I built my coop smaller to appease this concept.
After our first snowfall and temps dropped to -20C, my coop thermometer read the same temp as the outside one and the chickens looked freezing, barely moving and staying perched and hunkered all day as apposed to leaving the coop to eat.
So after tarping and adding some caulking to potential heat loss areas, we tried again with no improvement.
SOOOOOO I was worried about their health and did some more reading around here and found an article that says you should infact give the chickens a larger space during the winter as their body heat WILL NOT heat a small space enough to make a difference.....larger space means not being locked inside a shoebox when large amounts of snow prevent roaming/ranging, etc This guy says give them a large non drafty non insulated building with lots of hay and shavings and a perch and they will be fine.
So I moved my girls into the dog shed, the size of a harden, with plastic and siding so no drafts but not insulated either. heated water dish, thats it.
Two days ago we get another storm, temp drops to -30c. I check on the chickens in the AM and they are all perched on the ground in the shavings instead of on the perches, and all but one are refusing to stand. Wont make their way to the food/water, just hunkered down cold as hell. Oh yeah, did I mention that they had icicles all over their faces and necks?
So I caved and bought a heat lamp, hung it over the perches. In minus 28C weather last night that lamp kept the whole shed at a comfy plus 3C and under the perch a toasty plus 10C. This AM they seem much happier.
I dont want the heater, but I fear they'll die otherwise.......what am I doing wrong? Is barely moving and icicles on the feathers normal for a non heated, non drafty uninsulated coop in -30C wheather?
The mentality of the original poster is the same Ive heard over and over and over in the months leading up to winter and I felt confident that my coop set up would be fine based on that info.
It seems that a small coop (ours has the floor space of half a sheet of plywood with perches and nestboxes) could hold 5 or more chickens fine and their body heat would keep the coop temp warmer than outside without insulation, so against my better judgement I built my coop smaller to appease this concept.
After our first snowfall and temps dropped to -20C, my coop thermometer read the same temp as the outside one and the chickens looked freezing, barely moving and staying perched and hunkered all day as apposed to leaving the coop to eat.
So after tarping and adding some caulking to potential heat loss areas, we tried again with no improvement.
SOOOOOO I was worried about their health and did some more reading around here and found an article that says you should infact give the chickens a larger space during the winter as their body heat WILL NOT heat a small space enough to make a difference.....larger space means not being locked inside a shoebox when large amounts of snow prevent roaming/ranging, etc This guy says give them a large non drafty non insulated building with lots of hay and shavings and a perch and they will be fine.
So I moved my girls into the dog shed, the size of a harden, with plastic and siding so no drafts but not insulated either. heated water dish, thats it.
Two days ago we get another storm, temp drops to -30c. I check on the chickens in the AM and they are all perched on the ground in the shavings instead of on the perches, and all but one are refusing to stand. Wont make their way to the food/water, just hunkered down cold as hell. Oh yeah, did I mention that they had icicles all over their faces and necks?
So I caved and bought a heat lamp, hung it over the perches. In minus 28C weather last night that lamp kept the whole shed at a comfy plus 3C and under the perch a toasty plus 10C. This AM they seem much happier.
I dont want the heater, but I fear they'll die otherwise.......what am I doing wrong? Is barely moving and icicles on the feathers normal for a non heated, non drafty uninsulated coop in -30C wheather?
