Worrying about your chickens being too cold

[Bald Bee Man]

This is just my opinion but I read a lot about people worried that their chickens are cold. Whatever the temperature is in your local area when it gets what you consider cold a lot of especially backyard chicken folks seem to get worried. I am in no way an expert but from what I have seen over the past few years they seem to handle the cold just fine. We have 21 chickens and two different coops and it's been as cold as -18 here in Indiana. I have not seen my chickens in distress they seem just fine as a matter of fact it was 5 degrees the other day and I saw one chicken just sitting on the ground in the Run all puffed out just like it was a warm summer day and they were sitting in a dust bath. Frankly I think chickens are in more distress in the summer heat then they are in the winter. I believe we as humans feel for them and in turn assume that is too cold when in fact they are built to handle it. The point of this post no matter what you are raising no matter if it's chickens other livestock or even dogs I believe we need to stop assuming just because we can't handle the temperatures that they can't either. When I was a young boy we raised a Siberian Huskies they were outside all the time they had a dog house they had water and back then and most dogs were not as babied if you will like they are now. Let's face it in Alaska the Huskies were outside and when the snow would come it would snow over them and that would become their warmth they would tuck their nose in to the snow or the snow bank if it already snowed and they were fine. I say make sure they have food freshwater and let there natural instincts take care of themselves.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Well said.

 

[Trish1974]

I agree. However, I did bring in a hen who is in a hard molt and was clearly in distress in these sub zero temps (I'm in Indiana, too). Everyone else is doing just fine in their unheated coop.

 

[Bald Bee Man]

Yes absolutely if you do see one in distress you need to take action. No different than if you had cattle out in the field on a blistering cold night and you spot one in destress. Nice to see a fellow Hoosier! !!!!

 

[Nksg75]

I agree! My husband is the one who worries constantly about the cold weather.(he is a native Texan, and thinks 28* is misery!!)
I obviously am no stranger to negative temps, however I do have to ask about a particular chicken. We have 1 frizzle who is ostracized by the other hens. She roosts outside in the covered run, and she is the only one I wonder about with her feathers. She is the one in my avatar. I did put a tarp on the outside of the hardware cloth where she roosts just to break the wind.
She does a a buddy that will occasionally roost with her, so it's not that bad for her, however she's still not roosting in the main coop during the cold weather.
Question is, is it true frizzle chickens have a harder time in cold temp because of the their feathers?

 

[Bald Bee Man]

You bring up a good point that I should have clarified in the original post. Assuming your chickens are cold weather Hardy I feel everything I originally stated is true. Obviously you need to get chickens that can handle the climate you live in. I am not familiar with that breed personally so I let someone else answer your question.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I agree! My husband is the one who worries constantly about the cold weather.(he is a native Texan, and thinks 28* is misery!!)
I obviously am no stranger to negative temps, however I do have to ask about a particular chicken. We have 1 frizzle who is ostracized by the other hens. She roosts outside in the covered run, and she is the only one I wonder about with her feathers. She is the one in my avatar. I did put a tarp on the outside of the hardware cloth where she roosts just to break the wind.
She does a a buddy that will occasionally roost with her, so it's not that bad for her, however she's still not roosting in the main coop during the cold weather.
Question is, is it true frizzle chickens have a harder time in cold temp because of the their feathers?

My frizzles do fine here in Wisconsin. Proper housing is important. Is she a bantam? Is your coop small? Often a bottom bird will get pushed out of a smaller coop as they need to stay away from the dominant members to avoid being pecked.

 

[Nksg75]

No, she is not a bantam. She actually has the option of roosting in 2 other coops that are all connected to our covered run.
Through our 5 different expansions we have 1 larger coop and 2 tiny coops that we started out with. the 2 tiny coops are in the last picture, and the 1st picture is what it looks like now. Of course I am going to expand again!!!

 

[Nksg75]

My frizzles do fine here in Wisconsin. Proper housing is important. Is she a bantam? Is your coop small? Often a bottom bird will get pushed out of a smaller coop as they need to stay away from the dominant members to avoid being pecked.

I am glad to here your frizzles are fine with cooler weather. The weather here in South Texas is so frustrating. It's up, down here there. One day it will be in the high 20's, the next day it will be in the 70's.

 

[Jeniep]

I see what you are saying. Surviving is one thing and be comfortable is something else. If you have animals you should care for them to the best of your ability. I don’t think huskies should be left buried in the snow because the can survive it.