Worried about coming cold...15 below!

[my first peepers]

I live in VT and we have temps as low as 15 below predicted for later this week...with a daytime high of zero!! My girls have been okay so far and we have had a few zero nights but this is supposed to last a few days and not get above single digits. So far even on the coldest days it has at least gotten into the teens.
I am wondering if I give them a heat lamp on those REALLY cold nights will I then have to keep it on for the rest of the winter? I don't know what else to do to keep them from freezing!
Are there other northerners out there who are taking extra precautions this week?

 

[ebonykawai]

I'm near Buffalo and planning on greasing up combs and wattles today. But they'll be fine, they won't need heat. Just a draft free coop should be sufficient, and plenty of food and thawed out water.

 

[ChickLuver]

I'm going to grease combs and wattles as well. But I do have a heat lamp because my coop is a little drafty! I will also put new straw down on the floor just to add a little extra protection! It gets cold out there!! Poor babies!!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Probably this is the weather's way of telling you to fix the draftiness

, which will give you year-round benefits.

There are lots and lots of things you can do. Wood battens over gaps (glued, or glued-and-screwed). Caulk in areas chickens can't get to. Flaps to let you close down vent holes when desired. Etc etc.

Go for it

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[jjthink]

Mine are not comfortable in temps anywhere near that cold and so I add heat. They sleep in relative comfort and can choose whether or not to be in there during the day. The cold coming ina couple of days will be extremely daunting and I may leave them in there till it breaks, altho it's small and no fun at all. I only have 2 so they don't have much in the way of group body heat.
JJ

 

[lilchick]

We are expecting temps. in the single digits this week...I have frizzles and silkies and a few young ones who roost on the floor or in the nest boxes..
Today I am going to put fresh pine shavings down and newspaper layers in nest boxes with shavings...
Getting out the milk house heater to hang in there as well. After it warms back up into 20's I will not use the heater.
Make sure they go to roost with a full crop....

 

[A.J.'s]

I read your ventalation page. I worried about the curtains you talk about. do they come in different colors. That is just one example of the problem I have with reading the well thought out and well planned instructions the page contains.
I s till do not know the difference in a draft and a ventalation.
to me they are one and the same. I suppose a draft might be in a space that would cause dirrect cold to be on a hen. where a vent would be a more organized draft.
either way whether it is a draft or a vent the air is cold that comes in it. so can a draft be a vent.. can a vent be a draft. ????????
is a vent a draft. can a vent ever be a draft. do vent ever cause drafts? is the air coming in a vent ever as cold as the air coming in a draft.?
do vents cool the air as well as drafts? if i have a draft can i ever consider it a vent? If I vent the air will it be warmer than a draft hole?
When the air comes in a vent hole is there some way to e xpalin to the chickens that it is not a draft?
does the air from a vent heat easier than air from a draft.
When the wind blows air into the chicken house thru a draft hole is it colder than the air that comes in thru a vent? oh well.... i do understand that the house needs ventaliation. i cant even spell it today..and i know i know how..
i know it because my new chicken house has air so heavy i dread going in it.. to clean it is a huge job and I wait til at least the sun shines so i can see what im doing better and the sun somehow puts strength in these old knees and spirit.
so when i do get it cleaned ..maybe today there is a hint in the air of sun shine today.. i want to do something about the ventalation and improve the chickens lives.
but definately the in structions ive read so far are much above my level of comprehension. so many numbers that mean nothing to me. so many different puncuation marks that cause confusion and so many notes and ughhhhhhhhh just plain old grandma talk that does not require me to think so much and to confuse me and to make me just want to saw a hole in the roof.
technical makes this less of a hobby and more of a job just say it like it is.. curtains........... my aunt myrtles girdle.

 

[njchicks]

I see some of you worry about the drafts, and I do too. But I always keep a window cracked, about an inch or so. I thought one should always have some ventilation in the hen house, even in cold months. Is this true? Thanks Rob in Central NJ>

 

[scooter147]

We are expecting temps as low as zero Wed and Thurs night and not much higher during the day.
I will put vaseline on my roosters wattles and combs and the few "big" comb girls I have. Other than that I don't due much, not much to do. I could provide a heat lamp but with a 8 x 12 coop it does not even raise the temp a single degree.
I do close off one vent and just leave one open.
I just provide extra cracked corn, sunflower and make sure the water stays unfrozen (that's the tough one).
I have said more than once on this forum, I can't remember every losing a single chicken in cold weather but I always lose at least one or two when it gets HOT!!!!!!!!

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

Becareful with how wet it is in your coop, the humidty is more of a problem than the cold, that's what causes more frostbite than the severe cold.