Yikes! -17 deg Tues night! How to keep coop warm enough?

[AnimalFriend<3]

As a fellow Coloradan, if you are really worried about them, put them in a dog crate in the basement for a night! Brr it is cold!!!! Why isn't spring here yet?

 

[chickychicks]

I am also in the Denver area. If our girls had a chance to get used to cold weather vs. an 80 degree drop in temperature in 4 days I would feel much better and not worry. I have three girls in a 4x6 coop, insulated with lots of ventilation in the top of the coop. After our last cold snap I realized I needed a lot more ventilation as one of the girls got frostbite. I am going to keep a heat lamp on during the day to try to keep the mass warm and run a heater at night (I wasn't comfortable with it at first, but the heat lamp seemed too bright for the girls). We have only used the heater on these really cold nights. Right now the coop is 10 degrees (ran the heater last night). I am getting ready to make some warm oatmeal and will bring them warm water and oatmeal. Not sure if I am going to let them out of the coop today or keep the door closed in order to try to keep some heat in the coop. My girls love to be outside in the cold and with the windchill (-30) I am not sure I want them hanging outside. They won't be happy, but I figure it is only one day. We originally built the coop for 6 chickens (one male rehomed and a fox got the other two), so there is a fair amount of floor space for them.

The Colorado chickens must be confused....eating worms out of the ground one day, and deep freeze the next!

 

[sharol]

I'm in Eastern KS, and the storm is just getting here. My 7 girls are in an uninsulated metal building/coop. It is fairly tight, but there are air leaks around the bottom where the metal isn't flush with the 2x4 framing and at the top where there is no insultaion at the roof peak (on purpose for ventilation). I do have a heat lamp that comes on at 20 degrees and off at about 35. This morning there was powdery snow around the pop door and on the roosts (from the roof ventilation) and around the walk in door (at the bottom where it had sifted in).

I took them warm mash made from their (hated) layer pellets with a topping of scrambled egg. They told me all about the cold and the wind and then consumed every scrap of the egg. Two headed back into the nest boxes and the other 5 were picking through the mash when I left them. I picked up the worst poo piles under the roosts and removed the worst of the snow from the area around the pop-door and on the roosts. It was 14 degrees in the coop (7 outside) and we had a power outage around 3 a.m. for a little over an hour, so the heat lamp wasn't on during that time.

I have a couple with slight frostbite from the last cold snap, and I suppose there will be a bit more from this one. I didn't open the pop-door, but I think I will mid-morning when I take them their new flock block (the first one is nearly all gone, and a new one will give them something to do) and some BOSS.

They are almost all LF (the Campine is technically LF, but she is 2/3 the size of the others) and very fluffy, so I think they will be OK. I don't envy you the temps, but in the summer, your weather is better than ours, so I guess it levels out.

 

[telehillco]

I just checked on the girls and they seem fine (got to -10.1 last night), but not at all interested in even stepping out into the run. I did see that Alaskan thread, but it is a good point that only two days ago we had temperatures in the upper 60's, so this is a rapid and big change. Thanks for the reminder about vaseline on the combs--since we're worried mostly about frostbite, I should see if I can do that tonight.

Here's our current plan:
1-keep the heat lamp on all day and of course tonight
2-add a couple of 2-gal jugs of hot water to the coop (while the bricks sound good too, water releases it's heat a lot slower than bricks or just about any other material so it should last longer)
3-try to coat the girls combs with vaseline if we can find some
4-give them some extra calorie treats during the day and before bed to keep the internal heat pumps going.
5-hope for the best

I saw on the weather map that it was -36 in Montana, so I guess we should feel lucky here in CO.

Good luck everyone.

 

[Kinney's Urban Ranch]

I'm here in Uptown Denver and reading all of your threads is extremely reassuring.

We have 2 black australorp hens, a 9 month old Plymouth Barred Rock, and a Buff Orpington pullet all spending the -17 degree day in our non-insulated coop.

We attacked the cold by adding extra hay and pinewood shavings. We also use a heated dog bowl and notice that keeping it nice and full helps to keep it working well. We also set the water bowl up on cinder blocks to keep them from spilling it and filling it with bedding. We have an inside wall-mounted feeder that they can access when they are stuck inside all day, as well. And, I am sure that we will be taking them treats during the day to give them some extra protein and entertainment.

We use a 250 watt infared heat lamp in the extreme temperatures and have noticed that they like to hang out on their roosting bars to get closer to the lamp when it is cold. We have two roosts that we crafted out of tree limbs last weekend and installed at two different heights (and distances from the lamp) so the girls can access extra warmth as they choose. They really love to sit up there and look out the window in their door. And, I love it when I can look from inside the warm house and see them all looking back at me.

I spent the entire night last night being worried about them and was happy to see that they were fine when I went out this morning. We are expecting a full day in the double negatives and tonight is supposed to be -20. From what I am reading, I am feeling 100% better about the girls making it through the next couple of days without any incidents.

Thanks, y'all! Stay warm and safe.

 

[RockwaterFarm]

just protect them from the wind, they can uddle together and keep themselves warm my ducks even huddle with the chickens when it cold enough, thats a sight to see

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Quote:
Making fun of us southerners? Ha, they're the ones living in "No mans land" while we reside in "paradise".

 

[Mrs. K]

-25 below 0 here today, the wind chill is suppose to be -45 whew, painfully cold.

Mine are outside in a the huddle box!!

It is just a plastic box on its side, with hay in the bottom and an old window propped up in front of it. The sun is shinning and they love it!

The problem I have had when I feed warm wet food is that it freezes and they don't eat it. But I am giving lots of scratch today, and corn meal mixed in, and I cut of the bacon fat, and gave them that too!

I do worry about those of you that are putting a heater in your coup, with all that bedding, sounds like a recipe for a fire!

MrsK

 

[elmo]

AnimalFriend<3 :

As a fellow Coloradan, if you are really worried about them, put them in a dog crate in the basement for a night! Brr it is cold!!!! Why isn't spring here yet?

Another option is a dog crate filled with pine shavings they can nestle down into, in the garage, especially if it's an attached garage. You don't want to bring them inside a normally heated home, though, because the sudden temperature swing when they go back out into the cold is very hard on them.​

 

[AnimalFriend<3]

Quote:
Another option is a dog crate filled with pine shavings they can nestle down into, in the garage, especially if it's an attached garage. You don't want to bring them inside a normally heated home, though, because the sudden temperature swing when they go back out into the cold is very hard on them.

Good to know!