To Heat or not Heat my Coop

[acefaser]

I've never seen a wild bird nest with supplemental heat. If you add heat and for some reason your power goes out your chickens will die. Don't get them acclimated to a false climate.

 

[jcoz]

My ladies didn't even start to fluff up last winter until it hit single digits (F degrees), and that was their first winter. Even at -15F, it was chicken business as usual. Negative 15 outside, but suprisingly warm in the coop. Ventilation to control any humidity and a dry coop are key. No frostbite. The hardest part was keeping water from freezing, as the coop has no electricity. I'd fill the waterer with warm water and wrap the reservoir with one of those "fat burner" neoprene belts, plus the girls putting off heat, and was getting 10 hour stints with no icing. I have one barred rock this year who just grew her butt fuzz back in from moulting. She was not a gracious moulter and looked like she did battle with a weed whacker. Luckily temps have been in the 30s to 40s. It's coming tho. Erie PA can run you through all 4 seasons in one day

. Gotta love the Great Lakes region and lake effect. Don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes.

 

[WesleyBeal]

This is my first winter with chickens, and I'm looking for assurance that I'm doing it right.

I live in central Minnesota. It's getting a bit chilly now. Looking at the forecast, the high temp this coming Tuesday is supposed to be -4. The coldest low I see for the coming week is -18.

https://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:56341.1.99999?sp=KMNALEXA3

I'm not providing any supplemental heat.

With protection from the wind, what is the coldest temperature chickens will tolerate without losses? Ie., not the world record, but the point at which you start to see fatalities or health issues?

I realize that acclimatization also plays into this, and I may need to adapt my practices if we see a serious fast drop in temperature the chickens haven't had a chance to adapt to. So what I want to be assured about is with regards to "normal" changes in temperature.

Wind is another issue. The coop is old (maybe built in the 40s or 50s?), and though it needs rebuilt it was originally built for this climate. South facing windows, south wall higher than north wall, and double walled (but no insulation). I've got the windows half covered with plastic on the outside, and RIGHT NOW the other half covered from the inside because we've had winds from the south that otherwise would be blowing into the coop. Once the wind changes direction, I remove the half-covers on the inside.

There's still a bit of air-movement in the coop even with the half-covers on the inside in place. I want to maintain ventilation of course so consider that a good thing, but it raises the issue of the temperature again. I don't think I can eliminate any breeze without removing too much ventilation, so I want to be sure I'm not risking my chickens survival by not providing any heat.

Water freezing is another side issue. I've been able to solve my problems to date by keeping two waterers. One in the coop, the other thawing out in the garage. I just swap them as the one in the coop freezes, or each morning, as necessary. Now that the water is starting to freeze in just a few hours, that's going to be a bigger challenge.

Mainly though I want to be sure that my chickens can make it without heat. They're 25 weeks now. 23 hens and 4 roosters (another topic entirely).

Hokum Coco's post suggest one opinion. I'd like to hear from others.

Thanks!

 

[Lost Pine]

WOW ! Thanks for all the comments and suggestions ! I really appreciate them. Please continue to all others with their suggestions and comments.

 

[junebuggena]

This is my first winter with chickens, and I'm looking for assurance that I'm doing it right.

I live in central Minnesota. It's getting a bit chilly now. Looking at the forecast, the high temp this coming Tuesday is supposed to be -4. The coldest low I see for the coming week is -18.

https://www.wunderground.com/q/zmw:56341.1.99999?sp=KMNALEXA3

I'm not providing any supplemental heat.

With protection from the wind, what is the coldest temperature chickens will tolerate without losses? Ie., not the world record, but the point at which you start to see fatalities or health issues?

I realize that acclimatization also plays into this, and I may need to adapt my practices if we see a serious fast drop in temperature the chickens haven't had a chance to adapt to. So what I want to be assured about is with regards to "normal" changes in temperature.

Wind is another issue. The coop is old (maybe built in the 40s or 50s?), and though it needs rebuilt it was originally built for this climate. South facing windows, south wall higher than north wall, and double walled (but no insulation). I've got the windows half covered with plastic on the outside, and RIGHT NOW the other half covered from the inside because we've had winds from the south that otherwise would be blowing into the coop. Once the wind changes direction, I remove the half-covers on the inside.

There's still a bit of air-movement in the coop even with the half-covers on the inside in place. I want to maintain ventilation of course so consider that a good thing, but it raises the issue of the temperature again. I don't think I can eliminate any breeze without removing too much ventilation, so I want to be sure I'm not risking my chickens survival by not providing any heat.

Water freezing is another side issue. I've been able to solve my problems to date by keeping two waterers. One in the coop, the other thawing out in the garage. I just swap them as the one in the coop freezes, or each morning, as necessary. Now that the water is starting to freeze in just a few hours, that's going to be a bigger challenge.

Mainly though I want to be sure that my chickens can make it without heat. They're 25 weeks now. 23 hens and 4 roosters (another topic entirely).

Hokum Coco's post suggest one opinion. I'd like to hear from others.

Thanks!

Wind blowing into the coop isn't as big an issue as wind blowing directly on the birds while at roost. You want a lot of air exchange in the coop, but you don't want the birds to be in the direct path of the airflow. Understand?
The worst thing to do is to seal up the coop too much.

 

[Adalida]

I always read threads like this one to reassure myself that my peeps will indeed be okay. Logically, I know they'll be all right. I know that they survived just fine last winter. I know that they're capable of handling cold and that the pioneers let their chickens fend for themselves and they made it. Didn't stop me from fretting like crazy last night when temps got down to -10 and today they're only getting up to 9 degrees. But they're all perky today (though only half of them were willing to go free range and the rest preferred to stay in the coop).

 

[WesleyBeal]

Wind blowing into the coop isn't as big an issue as wind blowing directly on the birds while at roost. You want a lot of air exchange in the coop, but you don't want the birds to be in the direct path of the airflow. Understand?
The worst thing to do is to seal up the coop too much.

Yep, that makes sense. I haven't gone around their roosts holding a candle to see how much breeze there is. I'd guess that it is fairly random. You could light a match in my coop, most places, at any given time (I think - don't plan on actually testing that with all the straw on the floor!). On the other hand, a big gust outside sets a much smaller amount of wind bouncing off of the ceiling, walls, and floor. Doesn't blow everywhere in the coop when that happens, but doesn't blow any particular spot very predictably either. Hope that makes sense. I've put plastic up over the windows in such a way, half outside, half inside, precisely to be sure that air does get in there.

I think I'm alright.

On the other hand, that's not how they used to do it here (the property I live on now has been in my wife's family since 1904, I think). The old coop I'm using was built with glass windows on the south wall that were, people believe, closed all year (the glass windows broke long ago, and I haven't replaced them). It has two large ventilation cupolas on the roof, that were fed by two pipes which came down to about a foot and a half off the floor, that supposedly allowed for ventilation in the past.

But for now I'm not worrying about replicating the practices of the past, so much as I am the more immediate concern with weather *this* winter.

Thanks for the response!

 

[TerryH]

I always read threads like this one to reassure myself that my peeps will indeed be okay. Logically, I know they'll be all right. I know that they survived just fine last winter. I know that they're capable of handling cold and that the pioneers let their chickens fend for themselves and they made it. Didn't stop me from fretting like crazy last night when temps got down to -10 and today they're only getting up to 9 degrees. But they're all perky today (though only half of them were willing to go free range and the rest preferred to stay in the coop).

Just for the record...I'm with the ones that stayed in the coop at those temps.

 

[cjpeeps]

The dilemma I keep having as I look at coop placement/ventilation/weather changes is, at what point is it cruel not to intervene in the protection of the animals. We take horses, cattle, work dogs into a barn... and animals left outside and exposed realistically do die and freeze. Realistically, birds have managed to survive many a winter tucked away in nests through snow storms and freezing temps, but as my pets and providers of meat/eggs and my responsibility - at what point is it reasonable for me to intervene? I suppose, being as comfortable as I am inside my warm house on freezing cold days, I'm hard to convince.

 

[rdcowman]

I do not do have a heat lamp or a light in my coop! i let my girls have a break from laying! I have enough eggs! I read something somewhere that said if you have a heat lamp and your chickens are used to the heat and your electricity goes out and you can't jump start it, and it's -10 out or lower, your chickens could die because it's a big drop of temperature in the coop! That is the 1 reason i don't do heat lamps but the other is, the chickens are capable of keeping themselves warm during the winter!

I hope this helps you!