What's cold? People vs Chickens

[Tala]

Quote:
Ditto. It just doesn't get cold enough in Arkansas to bother chickens.
My coop is fairly open, I just put a tarp up to keep the north winds off of them and they did fine. The roo got slight frostbite on the tips of his comb when it was in the single digits (which is quite rare for AR) so I gave them a 75 watt red lamp over the roost for those unusually cold nights, and used electric dog water dishes for MY convenience, but that's it. Probably wouldn't have needed the lamp at all if they had a more-enclosed coop, but our coop is built for when it's pushing 110*F -- which is much more likely than it staying below 20*F for long.
They ran around like normal, down coats work wonders!

 

[LeezyBeezy]

Quote:
A small group of chickens together should be enough to keep each other warm (ESPECIALLY with the deep litter method, that's just a plus). It's a lot less likely for skin on her body to get frostbite than toes and combs and wattles. Chickens have survived this long without much help, the help we do give is enough. Humans would be much more used to cold weather and hot weather if we didn't live in our insulated boxes all the time. Animals acclimate very quickly.

We have a large coop, about 16x24, with only 6 hens. Two are older, and 4 are aout 20 weeks. They are starting to integrate more. The 4 youngsters cram into a nest box, the older two will not share a roost (due to the alpha hen being a bully and pecking til the other hops off). I had planned on doing the deep litter method. One side of the coop has southern exposure and gets plenty of sun. It has plenty of ventilatin, but is really draughty. However, we have a plan for that and are improving it so they don't get cold. The roosts are nice and wide, so hopefully their toes will stay warm. Thanks for the info, this was really the only thing I've been worried about.

 

[elmo]

So true!

However, I know that a sudden temperature swing seems to feel colder until you get used to the new normal, and I think chickens are like us in that respect. Last year our first 40 degree night had our hens trying to snuggle under each other on the roost, just like when they were chicks. The night before it had been in the 60's.

Yet, over time they acclimated just fine. We had daytime temperatures in the 20's last winter and it didn't stop them from going about their usual chicken routines, just fluffed up a bit more. And these are small Serama crossbreeds, not cold hardy standards.