Chickens - How Cold Is Too Cold?

[Jstpssng]

This type of heated waterer is the answer. Keeps water from freezing and the closed nipple system keeps the water clean. I also run two heat lamps suspended from chains once temperatures drop below 20 degrees.

Heated Poultry Waterer

Reliable heated poultry waterer for all seasons. Top-fill design with dense lid insulation prevents heat escape. 3 gallon capacity.

www.premier1supplies.com

They still need power though. I would need a 1000 foot extension cord. Since I moved my henhouse though, I haven’t lost a hen to weasels. I also can walk around on my lawn barefoot again.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

This is my first winter with chickens. So far they are all doing well and I'm still getting around 8 eggs a day from 9 hens. It's been down in the 20's a few nights here and there. Other than a little crust of ice on their water, they seem to be doing fine. On my coop below I covered the windows with clear plastic to stop the drafts. At what point do I need to add some form of heat? I already have several inches of straw in the bottom but they roost up high so other than insulation for the coop it's not doing anything for them.

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Just keep it above freezing. We get 7500 eggs a day per house, four houses. Lights on from 4:45 am to 9:00 pm. Lay eggs all year.

 

[BnRidge]

Just keep it above freezing. We get 7500 eggs a day per house, four houses. Lights on from 4:45 am to 9:00 pm. Lay eggs all year.

So about 10,000 per barn. 8 btu each, 80k btu total, or like having a 100k furnace on full time. Open the windows, win win.

 

[fatjay]

If you have electric, and are on a smaller scale, i found the heated horse bucket works well. Keeps water at about 34f. Amazon has the nipples and cups. make sure to leak test it first, I had a couple dribbles. But it saves me from putting new water in every other day.

 

[jyoutz]

If you have electric, and are on a smaller scale, i found the heated horse bucket works well. Keeps water at about 34f. Amazon has the nipples and cups. make sure to leak test it first, I had a couple dribbles. But it saves me from putting new water in every other day.

Looks like you made what I bought.

Heated Poultry Waterer

Reliable heated poultry waterer for all seasons. Top-fill design with dense lid insulation prevents heat escape. 3 gallon capacity.

www.premier1supplies.com

 

[Rebeldad1]

This is my first winter with chickens. So far they are all doing well and I'm still getting around 8 eggs a day from 9 hens. It's been down in the 20's a few nights here and there. Other than a little crust of ice on their water, they seem to be doing fine. On my coop below I covered the windows with clear plastic to stop the drafts. At what point do I need to add some form of heat? I already have several inches of straw in the bottom but they roost up high so other than insulation for the coop it's not doing anything for them.

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we keep ours around 145 degrees till golden brown

 

[daman1]

Up in the thumb of Michigan here, we had chickens when I was a kid ma never had any heat just good Sheds they were in never lost any that I can remember.

 

[Rockbadchild]

yeah a few heat bulb and it should do the trick

 

[OldMcDonald]

Lights on from 4:45 am to 9:00 pm. Lay eggs all year.

That is the reason hens stop laying in winter - lack of light, although I do not like lights on after dusk. Although not on as big a scale, I have relied on hens for my income from time to time over the last 60+ years. They need to be dry and not in a draught. Never experienced worse than about -25ºC (about -13ºF) outside and never found the need for heat. Also 45ºC (113F) or so in Australia, and that is worse

The reasosn for bringing lights on early is that almost all of the eggs will be laid in the first 7hrs after "lights on" so there are constantly hens going into the boxes and the eggs do not freeze before they are collected. In northern Scotland it was Midnight to 4 p.m. in mid winter - free range. Where I am now it is getting to be just after 3 p.m. when the sun sets so I would have needed to switch off by about 2.30 p.m.

Never subject the hens to 24hrs light. They need their rest the same as every other living creature.

 

[fatjay]

Looks like you made what I bought.

Heated Poultry Waterer

Reliable heated poultry waterer for all seasons. Top-fill design with dense lid insulation prevents heat escape. 3 gallon capacity.

www.premier1supplies.com

I'd seen them, but their capacity was much smaller than I needed. I'd have to change it daily. I wanted something I could change weekly.

 

[WinterDeere]

We've had chickens the last ~10 years, and have never had much trouble with cold, even occasional dips below 0F. We routinely get a week of single-digit nights, and while I'm sure they don't love it, there have been no lasting ill-effects.

Heating a coop is a very bad idea. Lots of coop fires, and the chickens don't need it in most "lower 48" climates. All you're doing is making them soft, and ensuring a dependency on heat, which they otherwise shouldn't need. They are wearing down coats, you know!

Careful about closing the coop up, as you had mentioned in the OP. Chickens (and their poop) put off a huge amount of moisture and ammonia into the air. As much as you want to protect them from the cold, they need constant ventilation. Just make sure it's not drafting directly onto them. A typical method is a vent down low and a vent in the roof, covered by a hard awning. I think the rule of thumb is 1 sq.ft. per chicken in smaller coops, but this can be reduced in larger coops. The forum at backyardchickens will clear you up on that.

My own coop is 16 sq.ft. and standing height, with a sliding window and a 4 sq.ft. vent in the roof. The vented portion of the roof is covered by the roof of the adjoining run, so no rain or snow gets in. I keep the sliding window open wide in summer, and just cracked about 3 inches (so maybe 48 sq.in. opening) in winter, with the opening being the farthest corner of the coop from their roosting bar.

Buying breeds that are known to be suited to your climate is key. I tried Brahmas at one point, which love the cold, but died of heat stroke in our summer heat waves. I've had good luck here near Philly with Barred Rock and Asian Black, as well as an Easter Egger that is just an incredible laying machine the last 6 years. That Easter Egger lays a beautiful green egg every day for about 9 months of the year, but unfortunately since all Easter Eggers are mutts of one sort or another, I doubt I'll ever be so lucky to get the same again.

 

[jyoutz]

I'd seen them, but their capacity was much smaller than I needed. I'd have to change it daily. I wanted something I could change weekly.

You must have a lot of birds because the 3 gallon unit I bought lasts about 3 days for a dozen birds in the summer.

 

[Jstpssng]

You must have a lot of birds because the 3 gallon unit I bought lasts about 3 days for a dozen birds in the summer.

I was wondering about that. I'm putting out about 2 quarts for my 6 birds and they don't drink it all.

 

[jyoutz]

I was wondering about that. I'm putting out about 2 quarts for my 6 birds and they don't drink it all.

They go through a lot less with those nipple waterers because there is little spillage or evaporation. And the water stays clean.

 

[Jstpssng]

They go through a lot less with those nipple waterers because there is little spillage or evaporation. And the water stays clean.

I have the nipples to make one, but have never gotten around to it. This time of year they'd freeze anyways as I don't have power to the building. It isn't a big deal to dump a gallon of water into their bucket on the way past every day. I have a couple of hundred dollars tied up in the galvanized founts but have never been able to get them to work right.

 

[jyoutz]

I have the nipples to make one, but have never gotten around to it. This time of year they'd freeze anyways as I don't have power to the building. It isn't a big deal to dump a gallon of water into their bucket on the way past every day. I have a couple of hundred dollars tied up in the galvanized founts but have never been able to get them to work right.

The the water in the galvanized founts always seem to get dirty really fast. With the nipple and closed bucket the water stays clean. Without power to keep water from freezing, it’s going to be a daily (or several times a day) chore to provide drinkable water. I deal with that with the water trough for the steers. Every day I break ice. I have power to heat a trough but those heaters use 1500 watts and cost about $50-60/month to operate. The water bucket for the chickens draws such low power that I don’t even notice the difference in the electric bill. Too bad that you can’t run power to the site. Direct burial cable doesn’t cost much for a 15 or 20 amp circuit.

 

[fatjay]

You must have a lot of birds because the 3 gallon unit I bought lasts about 3 days for a dozen birds in the summer.

26 birds, easily 1.5-2 gallons a day. They may have slowed down a bit with the cooler weather but so far it doesn't seem like much.

 

[jyoutz]

Just keep it above freezing. We get 7500 eggs a day per house, four houses. Lights on from 4:45 am to 9:00 pm. Lay eggs all year.

I’m curious how you collect that many eggs each day.

 

[BoylermanCT]

My coop is a 12x16 shed. Insulated 2x4 construction. I have 20 chickens and 20 ducks. Each bird generates the equivalent of 5 watts of heat, so they heat the coop. The coop rarely drops below freezing even though most winter nights we are in the teens or twenties. If the coop is dry and draft free, you should not need external heat in most locations in the US. I have the top pane of two windows on opposite ends of the shed cracked open about an inch all winter long so there is air exchange going on all the time. Without that, the coop becomes cold and humid / damp which is a bad combination. I do the top window so the wind is not blowing on the chickens who roost at 3' off the ground. Opening the bottom pane would cause the breeze to blow on the chickens.

 

[Yander]

I’m curious how you collect that many eggs each day.

He will respond to your post when he is done collecting eggs LOL