What temperature does is too cold at night? When to add heat lamp and door on coop?

[Debbie292d]

Thank you! Yes, that makes perfect sense. The only time rain and wind would be able to get in is if it's a bad storm through the ventilation and/or the coop door. I guess we would have to figure out how to keep it dry w/o blocking ventilation in that case.

I would see when the time comes first, how bad is the storm is. If an icy wind is blowing into your coop, then I'd shut it for the duration of the storm. Just use your judgment if it's worse to leave it open or not. If it's just a typical snowstorm, I'd leave it open as chickens aren't wussies, not even silkies.

 

[breegull]

Do you have more photos of the ventilation? If one were to illustrate the exchange of cool and warm air like in the below guide, does the rising, moist, warm air from the chickens' breath have anywhere to go, or does it get trapped at the peak of the roof?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/repecka-illustrates-coop-ventilation.77659/

 

[thecatumbrella]

It's starting to get cold here in SE North Carolina, but only in the evenings. Our chickens are 8 months old this is our first year raising doing this, so I'm unsure when it gets to be too cold for them at night. It got down to the 40s last nigh.

What temperature is too cold at night? When should we add heat lamp and a door on coop? We had an electronic coop door on a timer but it didn't operate correctly so we took it off. Should they be closed inside in the winter with a heat lamp or is just a heat lamp enough?

Thanks for your help!

Curious which auto door you had. We have the Omlet one on a timer, and it's been outstanding so far!

 

[RoyalChick]

I am in New Jersey. Mine have a human size door and a chicken door open into the run.
When it starts to get well below freezing or if it is very windy I close the people door.
And if a blizzard is expected I sometimes close the chicken door too. But often not because the prevailing wind doesn’t blow into the coop and I would hate them to have to wait for me to dig a path for them to go out into their run (they would yell at me).
So as others have said, I find it hard to believe that you will ever have a situation where you need to provide heat and would close the door at night if it is windy.

 

[CedarLane]

You've been given a lot of good advice. We are in Michigan and do not provide additional heat. We did our first year (2015), but haven't since then and they have done just fine. We have 1 window facing east and 2 windows facing south. The human door faces west. We will close it if necessary (if very windy and cold (-0), or stormy). We don't normally close it just for cold weather...usually only if windy as well.
Enjoy your chickens! I know it's easy to worry about them when you are first starting out, but with as far south as you are they should do well in most situations.

 

[Red Mangrove]

It gets down to 16 American here. The chickens show zero signs of discomfort while sleeping outside in trees

 

[noelgeorgia]

If the wind was blowing in through that door and directly on the roosting chickens, yes.
Otherwise, probably not.

In most coops, the door is at floor level and the roost is raised above that level. That is usually enough to keep wind from blowing onto the roosting chickens.

If wind blows a bit of rain or snow in through that door and gets the bedding wet, I would probably leave it open anyway. Then the next morning, shove that wet bedding out into the run and add some fresh dry bedding in the coop.

Yes, that makes sense. Ours is lifted a few feet off the ground with a ramp from the back door (10"x13") out. Probably gives them better airflow to leave it open.

 

[noelgeorgia]

You've been given a lot of good advice. We are in Michigan and do not provide additional heat. We did our first year (2015), but haven't since then and they have done just fine. We have 1 window facing east and 2 windows facing south. The human door faces west. We will close it if necessary (if very windy and cold (-0), or stormy). We don't normally close it just for cold weather...usually only if windy as well.
Enjoy your chickens! I know it's easy to worry about them when you are first starting out, but with as far south as you are they should do well in most situations.

Thank you! Yes, I need to relax and enjoy them more lol. We don't get cold enough here to worry about it but I think I was worried after raising chicks for the first time last year. I'd like to keep them outside in a separate coop next time but I know I have to make sure it's super warm.

 

[NatJ]

I think I was worried after raising chicks for the first time last year. I'd like to keep them outside in a separate coop next time but I know I have to make sure it's super warm.

Actually, it does not have to be "super warm" even for chicks. They need one warm place, big enough for them all to sleep at once (under a heat lamp, or under a brooder plate, or something of the sort.) Other than that, anything above freezing will do. The chicks will run to eat and drink and play in the cool areas, then back to the warm spot to warm up. In just a week or two, they will be spending small amounts of time warming up, and large amounts of time running and playing.

(That is like what they would do with a broody hen: go under her to get warm, then run off to eat and play again.)

 

[aart]

I'll post some more recent pics today. This is the coop before we added the 10x20' run which also includes under the coop. Did not know that about holding heat!

Looking forward to seeing more pics.
That's a pretty big door, both sides are kept open?
Coop is pretty short, can't ventilate high above roost.

SE North Carolina

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