what are you doing for cold nights?

[blueheaven]

what is everyone doing during cold/windy night?

i have a water heater, but thought they might get cold in the coop.
i leave the pop door open 24/7 but they roost up 2ft from it.

 

[chicks4kids]

I have a water heater in a little kiddie pool for them that is outside their run, I leave their pop door open as well, have about 8 inches of bedding on the floor, insulated walls and ceiling, and hope for the best. It's usually pretty warm in there in the morning--so far, they seem to be doing ok. If they're roosting next to eachother, they're also sharing body heat.

 

[teach1rusl]

My pop door gets shut about 15 minutes after dark, for heat conservation as well as predator protection. My coop is insulated, and I use a heat lamp if it's supposed to drop really low at night. My girls are young, and there are only five of them to huddle in too large space at the moment. We're adding a temporary drop ceiling tomorrow, w/heavier insulation in it, because it's vaulted now. I think this is going to be a cold winter...

 

[michickenwrangler]

Rubbed combs and wattles with Vaseline yesterday. All struggled at first but didn't want to get down by the time I was done!

I'm sure it felt good. Gave them some suet this morning, they loved it! Water heater is plugged in with a tarp rigged up on north and west side and over the waterer, sort of a windbreak/lounging area. Put an armload of straw in the coop on top of corn cob bedding and pine needles.

So far so good

 

[technodoll]

So glad I took the time (and money!) to insulate most of the coop the past couple of months...

We're getting down to -4F (-20C) at night here with the windchill, and boy is the wind ever blowing - it ripped off and splintered our garage door! But the coop is intact and just hovering around freezing point inside and no water has frozen yet - KNOCK ON WOOD. It's definitely warm enough for even the fragile birds.

Since I have small young babies in there (silkies, 9-week old brahma, etc) the 175W heating lamp is on 24/7 so that helps a lot, I'm sure.

I know the flock misses free-ranging but they refuse to go out in the snow and it's way too cold and snowy anyways.

4 more months to go...

 

[Dr HaHa]

bluehevean; I'm drinking beer! I waited until today to blow out the driveway[ about 3 hours] so as not to have to do it again with the wind. I cooped up my girls for the first time 2 days ago and they didn't like it one bit until I went out to gather eggs, add feed and water. They all took turns going to the door and looking out at the snow and wind. They were pretty placid after that. It was nice and toasty in there but I did have to up the wattage on the water heater to a 60. I got to sit down and visit for awhile a few of them came right up into my lap and we talked, mostly about the weather, coop condtions, and egg production. You know, the usual. But a few had to be picked up and when I put my nose in their neck and asked what they wanted for xmas the response was the same. They all wanted open faced roast beef sandwiches. They said chicken and turkey was way over rated and that humans could get salomonilla [their spelling] and die a horrible and painful death! So I reassured them that they were not on the menu as long as they held up their end of the deal and their little lips curled back in a relieved smile. I do love them so!

 

[desertgirl]

 

[fldiver97]

8 inches bedding, heated waterer, draftfree, dry, 4inch wide roosts and a few extra spots like oversized nest boxes tha they can huddle in if they want too. So far they have not made use of that. I stacked a couple of bales of straw abot 18 inches away from the popdoor as it may not be sealed very well and is a potential for a little draft. On the other side of the straw bales is the heated waterer, the feders and a 100 watt lamp in a metal reflector at 3 feet high. Light is on during the day for better lighting in the coop and to help keep water from freezing. I open the popdoor unless the temp is single digits. Lowest temp we had was -3 F degrees, have a min/max thermometer in the coop and the lowest even then was 20 F. I give them warm oatmeal in the morning mixed with whatever leftovers I have. I also have winter hardy breeds with rosecombs or small single combs. Youngest chicken is close to 19 weeks. So far as is well except they do not want to go out in the snow.....They will go in their covered run though as they don't have to deal with the funky white stuff some dumped all over THEIR yard!!!

Should it get really really bad and they seem to be too cold I can either change to a 250 watt red bulb or put a couple of heat emitting bulbs in the coop or in the worst case scenario move them in the garage where it pretty much never goes below 32 F. As of today I am down to 5 chickens, the coop is 8x12, the run 4x12.

 

[Mahonri]

It will get down to 35 here tonight. When I went to make certain that they had all put themselves to bed tonight they weren't spread out like they are in the summer they were all scrunched right up next to one another.

 

[ChickBond 007]

My coop is sealed tightly but not insulated. It seems that we ran out of free time in the summer to accomplish that task. However I lined the north wall with straw bales to help. We have seen wind chills as low as -14 and temps as low as 8 degrees. When the temp dips below 20 degrees, no one gets to free range (except hubby) but stay inside with food/water.