Cold Chickens?

[Combustix]

The chicken palace, that is a pretty nice set up, with sky lights:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[bp fick]

The breeds we love and keep today were mostly developed in New England: Rhode Island Red, The New Hampsire, The Plymouth Rocks, and in New York and Wisconsin: The Wyandottes, and in Ohio: The Buckeye, etc.

Cold places. Without electricity. The Plymouth Colony kept chickens, introducing them to the area, as did the earlier Jamestown Colony.

The North American breeds were kept, bred and improved over centuries here without electricity and we have the descendants of those birds today. If the bird had needed heat, it would have gone extinct long ago. The fire danger of a heat lamp and straw is all too real. Won't do a lot for your electric bill either.

I keep chickens here in an uninsulated barn, with no heat and we got to -30 last winter, a couple times and they were just fine. Chicken have been known to sleep outside, in the boughs of evergreen trees, and some prefer to do so.

Just make sure you have lots of upper eave vents or roof vents. Chicken poop is wet and a dozen birds expire gallons of water in breathing. It is humidity that freezes and causes frostbite, not the temps per se. Keep them dry and sheltered, use a heated waterer, and they'll be just fine.

I have 30 chickens in the barn you see pictured. Here's a YouTube of the flock. Chickens - YouTube

 

[forgeblast]

The main thing is to keep the water from freezing. My chickens are outside in all temps and the colder it is the more they want to be outside. I have a red cfl light in the coop and made a heater to keep the waterer from freezing but the small chicken door that lets them out is kept open all year long.
I have heard on the back yard chicken site that the best thing for winter is to have enough space for them. This gets rid of the moisture in the water vapor and keeps them from getting frost bite.

 

[Concordriver]

I keep a 250 w. infrared heating bulb in my coop. I don't think the chickens really need it. But, for some reason, the light stimulates the chickens to lay eggs much more than they do without the light.

 

[Egon]

Did someone mention Chicken Houses and Venting??

At one time in my life I had the priveledge of feeding the chickens and cleaning the Chicken House every Saturday!!

The atmosphere is bound to clear out the sinuses!:thumbsup:

 

[nybirdman]

My father raised all kinds of domestic fowl for many years.Never provided heat in the winter(Northern NY).I raise game birds mostly pheasant but have wintered Bob-White Quail...even the quail with no heat.Draft free indoor available building.Pheasant "prefer" to be outside even in the coldest,windiest days.

 

[NorTracNY]

I'm also in the no heat but enclosed, ventilated coop. I guess I'd like to find if others have observed what I have over the last several years of keeping chickens. First year chickens that start laying before winter will slow down to 1 egg every 2 or 3 days, but after the first winter they shut down completely.

 

[aczlan]

I'm also in the no heat but enclosed, ventilated coop. I guess I'd like to find if others have observed what I have over the last several years of keeping chickens. First year chickens that start laying before winter will slow down to 1 egg every 2 or 3 days, but after the first winter they shut down completely.

Ours slow down, but keep laying. We have a CFL on a timer to give them extra "daylight" (10-12 hrs of light/day IIRC) and a heater set on low to keep the (insulated, enclosed but with a door open) coop above freezing (it usually stays around 40).

Aaron Z

 

[Mousefield]

We use a timer to turn on a light early in the morning so they get at least 14 hours of "daylight". It is a "day" light bulb so it gives off a more natural light. Snowing lightly here today, just around freezing, our 89 girls still give us around 80 - 83 eggs :licking: a day. As I mentioned in my earlier post, as have others, you need to make sure there is ventilation. I have been to see coops that were just full of mildew/mold. There is a lot of moisture in that chicken poop.

 

[duckhunter27]

Chickens don't need much heat to survive . but if they are egg layers they will stop or slow way down when its cold but if you keep alittle heat in the coop they will lay lay lay all winter long.