How cold a night can chickens in a sealed but uninsulated coop withstand?

-- Cluck (@ .), December 22, 1999

Answers

Adult chickens are pretty tough. They can do fairly well in cold weather as long as they don't have a drafty house. But the cold will put a damper on their egg laying. Give them extra corn so they can better combat the cold, as well as warm water. I have my hen house built in the corner of a lean-to metal building and most of it is surrounded by hay bails. They also have a caged in outside loafing area. You might consider some sort of insulation such as this.

-- (cackle@shiver.com), December 22, 1999.

Cluck:

In an unheated and not well sealed house, mine weathered minus 35F. One hen lost her feet. After that we called her Peg. No feet didn't seem to bother her. The rest were fine but laying really drops off in cold weather. They are stupid but tough.

Best wishes,,,,,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 22, 1999.

.....Our chickens all get the run of the farm, when they head for the hay mow, you know you're in for a cold one. It takes a really cold and windy night to do them in, but we're in east central Ohio down below the "snow belt" by about a half hour.

-- Patrick (pmchenry@gradall.com), December 22, 1999.

"No feet didn't seem to bother her"? Jee-zus!!! That's one tough bird! You should breed her and create a race of super-chickens!!!

Wait, scratch that. Since she was A) stupider than all the other hens, or B) had a lower resistance to cold, she might pass those traits on.

Nevermind.

-- (cavscout@fix.net), December 22, 1999.

My brother in-law and his wife are currently keeping their hens laying by using a heatlamp in the coop. With two dozen hens they're getting up to two dozen eggs daily with temps currently running down in the teens. Gotta wonder if some sort of kerosene burning "brooder heater" can't be arranged or bought for no power days.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), December 22, 1999.

poor chickens and especially poor peg. Bring them inside or give them heat for heavens sake

-- henny penny (chickens @ are people.too), December 22, 1999.

All you need is one or two 100 light bulbs hanging about 2 feet off the floor.

-- Earl (eshuholm@tstar.net), December 22, 1999.

Earl:

That requires power. My chickens live in the dark age. They roam free during the day. They seem to like it.

Best wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), December 22, 1999.

We kept chickens when we lived in Wasilla, Alaska.

We used a red heat lamp hanging about 3 ft off the floor in a pretty well wind proof coop. We had no problems down to 30-35 below.

We didn't turn the heat on till it got down to about zero.

You wannna talk about huddle - they would *huddle* together under that light. They even laid in sub zero temps. Production fell off, of course. But the girls tried.

You gotta get to tose eggs pretty quick when it's cold.

Another strange but true tale by

-Greybear

-- Got Corn?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), December 22, 1999.

Feed your chickens lots of food and keep them out of the wind. They will handle -40F.

-- earl (ejrobill@pcpostal.com), December 22, 1999.

From HEE-HAW!!!

~~Well...I had a little chicken

and she wouldn't lay an egg

So I ran some hot water

all over her legs.

Well the little chicken cried

and the little chicken begged

and the little chicken laid a hard boiled egg~~

Corny...yeah, I know. (Slow night here...hehe)

-- GoldReal (GoldReal@aol.com), December 22, 1999.

This is my first year with chickens and cold. WE have 72 out in 3 chicken houses and 58 in the brooder pen under lights. We have a small propane heater and battery operated lights if we lose power in the brooder. So far here in NE Oregon it has gotten down to 19 degrees. We haven't added heat lamps in the coops and they are doing ok. I take them warm water and milk directly from the cow. The coops have 3 sides and a 1/2 wall. I am going to get really "Mickey Mouse" this week because we haven't completely closed the coops in yet and staple plastic tarps over open areas. The hens with no artificial light are laying about 15-20 eggs per day. I wanted to see how they would do in the worst case with no power. They get lots of scratch grain and layer feed plus kitchen scraps.

-- morgan (bitbybit@eoni.com), December 23, 1999.

this whole post is a hoot. i cackled all the way through. this is what happens when you bring the farm to suburbia. issues many of us never had to deal with. although i grew up with my very own personal chickens in Maine, i also feel sorry for the cold little peckers too.

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), December 23, 1999.

ours have taken 32-35 below thus far- no problems but a bit of frostbitten comb on a rooster or two- they don't lay much for us at this time of year- we give no supplemental heat or light- they eat plenty though.

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), December 23, 1999.

If you need to wind proof your hen house use TYPAR and 1x3 batten boards. Wrap that house up and put those boards on vertically. Use deck screws so you can take it all appart this next spring. But you also must make absolutley sure they have enough ventilation to pull humidity out of the house...or they will get pneumonia and die. Keep alot of clean dry wood shavings on the floor. Give each on a little kiss on the cheek before sunset and then worry about them all night as it gets to -40F. Then rush out in the moring and find that they didn;t miss a wink worrying about YOU! :-)

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), December 23, 1999.

Q: Why don"t roosters wear underware? A: Their pecker is on their face.

-- Chicken Lil (Hen@thecoop.com), December 23, 1999.