Why are people so convinced that chickens need heat?

[Dianemarie]

My mom came out this last weekend to see the chicken coop I built.

I told my wife, watch, the first thing she asks about will be heat.

And sure enough, it was "But won't they get cold?!"

I explain that no, chickens don't need heat, its more important they have good ventilation and a dry coop.

Then of course its "But my friends have chickens and they keep a heat lamp in their coop all winter!"

ok? So? Your friends clearly haven't actually done any research and are wasting money and will have dead chickens if they have cold weather and a power outage and chickens that aren't acclimated to the cold.

It just seems like the first thing every single person asks me when they find out I have chickens, is about heating the coop. Then when I explain they don't need it, they immediately argue with me like I don't know what I'm talking about.

I don't get it.

Because newer studies prove that a healthier chicken is one the doesn’t succumb to cold stress.
They have found that there is

My mom came out this last weekend to see the chicken coop I built.

I told my wife, watch, the first thing she asks about will be heat.

And sure enough, it was "But won't they get cold?!"

I explain that no, chickens don't need heat, its more important they have good ventilation and a dry coop.

Then of course its "But my friends have chickens and they keep a heat lamp in their coop all winter!"

ok? So? Your friends clearly haven't actually done any research and are wasting money and will have dead chickens if they have cold weather and a power outage and chickens that aren't acclimated to the cold.

It just seems like the first thing every single person asks me when they find out I have chickens, is about heating the coop. Then when I explain they don't need it, they immediately argue with me like I don't know what I'm talking about.

I don't get it.

Because newer studies prove that a healthier chicken is one the doesn’t succumb to cold stress.
They have found that there is a a toxic aldehyde in the egg yolk that happen when a chicken is exposed to cold during the egg laying cycle, Malondialdehyde. Thy show that the meat quality suffers as well. We are doing all the work to have high quality protein protein for our families, why wouldn’t we keep ou husbandry practices according to the newest information available. If your bird are just pets then why are we putting them out when it is clear they are cold and because they make it through the night it is fine. I don’t want my chickens to survive I want them to thrive, always.
They have proved that immunity response is lowered in a cold stressed hen and mortality is more likely. The studies are out there.
If we use the theories that it is cold and if we heat the area and power goes out they will freeze, yes if they are not feathered baby chicks or if we toss them out in the cold that might happen. You can’t use the threat of freezing as a reason to freeze them can you?

 

[saysfaa]

...
They have found that there is a a toxic aldehyde in the egg yolk that happen when a chicken is exposed to cold during the egg laying cycle, Malondialdehyde. Thy show that the meat quality suffers as well. We are doing all the work to have high quality protein protein for our families, why wouldn’t we keep ou husbandry practices according to the newest information available. If your bird are just pets then why are we putting them out when it is clear they are cold and because they make it through the night it is fine. I don’t want my chickens to survive I want them to thrive, always....

Interesting. I hadn't of that. I looked into it a little.

The first study I found,

The Effect of Low Temperature on Laying Performance and Physiological Stress Responses in Laying Hens​

by
Da-Hye Kim, Ju-Yong Song, Jina Park, Byung-Yeon Kwon and Kyung-Woo Lee

Department of Animal Science and Technology, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea

Animals 2023, 13(24), 3824; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13243824

40 hens were allowed to adapt to the new environment for 7 days before the experimental period began. They were all kept at 24C for this period.

Then, for 28 days, half stayed at 24C and the other half were kept at 18C,

The yolks were tested on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days.

On the 7th day after the experiment began, the hens in the cold room laid eggs with higher malondialdehyde than hens in the warm room. On the 14th, 21st, and 28th days, they did not.

Was the cold the stressor? Or was it the change in temp?

Oh. I found the table with the numbers:

The differences (µM):
7th day: 47.47 vs 41.02
14th day: 25.41 vs 24.17
21st day: 51.37 vs 50.78
28th day: 61.85 vs 65.97

There is a lot more variation between days than between warm/cold groups. Still, it is some information.

 

[saysfaa]

..,They have found that there is a a toxic aldehyde in the egg yolk that happen when a chicken is exposed to cold during the egg laying cycle, Malondialdehyde.
..

I couldn't any other studies of this. Do you know of any?

 

[saysfaa]

Lol. Oh. I still have to convert C to F to really "know" what temp it is. Their "cold" is 64F! Warm is 75.

One of things with stressors, including temperature stressors, is they are relative. When a body is kept within a very narrow temp range, it takes very little change to be stressful. When a body is exposed to wider temp ranges - frequent changes with a wide range, it takes a lot more difference from that range to be stressful.

But that is from only that one study. It is too early for conclusions, in my opinion. Edit to add: I meant, I haven't seen enough for me to draw conclusions about the aldehydes; I didn't mean anything else

 

[Debbie292d]

Because newer studies prove that a healthier chicken is one the doesn’t succumb to cold stress.
They have found that there is

Because newer studies prove that a healthier chicken is one the doesn’t succumb to cold stress.
They have found that there is a a toxic aldehyde in the egg yolk that happen when a chicken is exposed to cold during the egg laying cycle, Malondialdehyde. Thy show that the meat quality suffers as well. We are doing all the work to have high quality protein protein for our families, why wouldn’t we keep ou husbandry practices according to the newest information available. If your bird are just pets then why are we putting them out when it is clear they are cold and because they make it through the night it is fine. I don’t want my chickens to survive I want them to thrive, always.
They have proved that immunity response is lowered in a cold stressed hen and mortality is more likely. The studies are out there.
If we use the theories that it is cold and if we heat the area and power goes out they will freeze, yes if they are not feathered baby chicks or if we toss them out in the cold that might happen. You can’t use the threat of freezing as a reason to freeze them can you?

I don’t want my chickens to survive I want them to thrive, always.

 

[HenHangout]

I found a panel heater a couple years ago at goodwill for $10. The past two winters I run an extension cord to my coop and run the heater set to 'low'. Do they need it? No, but it may encourage egg laying (no idea but its the thought that counts lol). I think whats more important than heating the coop is keeping your flock's water from freezing. Whether I heat the coop or not the extension cord is still necessary for me to power a $13 bird bath 24/7

 

[K0k0shka]

I am not at all convinced by this single random study from Korea. So they exposed the chickens to a sudden drop in temperature, instead of temperature changing gradually as it would outside - dropped them in a room 10 degrees colder and, oh no, they saw some temperature stress indicators? The shock from a sudden temperature change is more significant than the absolute number.

Also, the changes they measured are tiny. Is that even statistically significant? And is it clear what those changes even mean? Do they actually indicate stress, or is it just the body responding to change? Also, the change in temperature was from 75F to 64F. This isn't mimicking winter conditions. Do y'all put heaters in your coops when it's 75F out? How about when it's 64? What does it say for the chicken if its body supposedly freaks out and gets all stressed out when it goes from a very warm day to a slightly warm day? Those chickens are not in good shape to begin with, if they get so stressed between 75 and 64 degrees.

In real life, by the time winter comes around, the chickens are already acclimated to actual cold weather, gradually. This study is not representative of what happens in real life in winter - AT ALL. Also, what breeds did they use? What condition were they in? Production breeds in large scale production settings (where these studies usually take place) look pathetic - both the meat birds and the egg birds. Their plumage is ragged and sparse, from their bodies' resources being exploited for maximum production. So they don't have good weather protection to begin with. A well taken care of hen, that has all her healthy plumage and has adapted to outside temperatures, can handle the cold just fine.

Show us a study that replicates the actual conditions you're worried about, and it will have a greater effect. This study shows nothing about chickens and winter. I'm not going to coddle my chickens or be shamed by claims that coddling is equivalent to thriving, and anything less is merely surviving. Chickens can thrive just fine by living under chicken conditions, not only by being measured by human standards and living in a heated house with a TV and warm slippers.