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

[77horses]

It's starting to finally warm up a bit (at least, more than it was before

) here and all the chickens are OK.

I remember last year it was so cold that the eggs usually were found with cracks in them and the yolk was frozen solid.

 

[CarolAnn]

Quote:
I meant to say I have it set to come on when it goes below 17-20 degrees. The lamp comes on to bring it up to 17-20. There's no numbers below 40 on the dial so I am estimating where 20 is and setting it a hair below that. I'm going to hang a thermometer in the coop this weekend to monitor the temp.

My birds wouldn't step one toe in the snow. In the fall I'd bagged quite a few big black trash bags of leaves for the chickens to scratch in during winter. I'm sure glad I did. After a week of not venturing past the main run because of snow I scraped back 3 inches of snow and broke open a bag of leaves. If you've never heard "For she's a jolly good fellow..." sung in chicken speak, well you just haven't lived.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

Quote:
I wonder too... I was pulling out my hair with our -20 something. I actually widened the driveway today and wasn't cold! The ducks are now laying- I think they have decided spring is here with all this heat

And I let the kids play outside for more than 10 minutes after school!

I can't wait for actual spring. I now have 15 babies under a heat lamp downstairs and I am cringing thinking about when they are 4 weeks old or so, when I will have to figure out something else for the brooder. My big brooder box is in a building with a TON of snow around it.... Guess I will try and dig it out in the morning!

The tractor wouldn't get that far so I think I need to try the snow blower to get a path going

Hoping that it will work!

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

The kids were enjoying getting out of their coop and running around - until I saw them showing signs of being cold ( excessive fluffing, standing on 1 leg,,shivering(?)) at which point I dried their feet and put the hens back into the interior of the coop, the boys wherever they wanted to go in the coop, and extra rations for the night. (how'd I do Ms AK?)
"Dinaki"

"Elvis"

 

[vtgirls]

Elvis is so HANDSOME -what kind of chicken is he?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Quote:
Oooh Elvis

how old is Elvis? I have one who's beginning to be pretty, maybe, wonder how long it takes to get that gorgeous?

 

[Mrs MIA]

Blue wheaten Ameraucana, and a very handsome boy.

I miss my boy... butthead that he was.

 

[Sen]

Well, being a floridian myself...XD I'm very relieved to read this! Knowing little about chickens, I assumed that they'd need to be kept warm throughout winter (and here I was thinking our "cold snaps" into the +20F's were terrible this year before reading about your 'cold snaps'...) and was all planning for when I get chickens, how to keep them warm...LOL! Guess I'll stop worrying about that.

Wonderful posts, guys, thanks for putting this up here! I'll plan more for keeping chickens cool in summer than warm in winter, I think.

 

[imthedude]

thought we were done with the really cold weather, but we've a snap coming the next three days. three below for the high on tuesday and -19 on tuesday night. it's usually a few degrees colder than the forecast low at our place. brrr.....might have to apply some vaseline.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Same here... though not until the middle of Feb. I guess we're not done with winter yet either.

Expecting brutal weather...