- Aug 3, 2014
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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.
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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?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.
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).