The problem is when we start thinking warm and insulation, well the only way to warm up an air space is to close it up tight.
With chickens, we need to give them adequate wind protection. With wind protection they can keep themselves warm if they are dry.
So while it seems counterintuitive to shut down drafts, and open up ventilation, that will keep birds warm.
As to frostbite, in a more arid climate that I am in, what causes frostbite is a thaw, then a temperature drop. When it is below zero, I don’t worry about moisture, it is frozen solid, not making my birds damp.
Today, though, it is supposed to get back up to 40F. I will go down, pull out the piles of manure, and add dry bedding, which tends to pull moisture from the air. If I didn’t, all that thawing manure release a lot of moisture, the melting snow does the same thing creating humidity- and then with temperatures dropping in the night, I might have birds nipped.
While I try and take good care of my chickens, I look at frostbite as not a life endangering event, but more like skinned knees on an 8 year old kid. A fact of life.
Our winter here bounces all over with temperatures and snow, sometimes we won’t get above 0 for days, then we can get to 60F above.
Mrs K
