winter/summer housing

[Txchickhitch]

Hello, have a question. Been raising chickens for many years now but have recently build a new chicken house completely different than I have had in the past. I live in the coastal Texas reign, remember the drought and triple digits. Now with freezing weather, we are not accustomed to this new winter weather. All of our structures, by code, have to breathe, so winters are harsh hear when you are used to 60's and maybe 50's. It is throwing me for a loop. My coop is a metal frame, and I am using a large tarp for the cover. During the summer the temp inside the coop reached 110F but using a sprinkler on the roof fixed that. I just bought silver insulation to place on the inside roof of the coop to help reflect the heat back to the birds. Any recommendations for a different tarp. I have been toying with clear greenhouse tarps for the winter. Will that work or just do the same as any other? My old coop was smaller and a wood structure.

 

[NatJ]

How cold is it actually expected to get?

Chickens can cope with quite a lot of cold if they are sheltered from the wind, and are acclimated to the temperature (they get used to it as it drops during the fall & winter months.)

 

[Cammo77]

Could you use some of those emergency thermal blankets over the coop but under the tarp for when it really gets cold? I'm an Aussie so this sort of cold is weird to me