A winter question....

Now that it is getting colder (we have frost this morning!!), I am getting a bit more concerned about winter with the "ladies". Our coop is completely insulated - it is 4ft. high x 4ft wide x 8 ft. long. for 5 (+ 1 more hopefully when she gets her feathers back) chickens. We have a light for light (as opposed to heat), and we close the door at night. My concerns are......during the day, what do people do to keep the cold out of the coop - when the door is open? Do you put a cover of some sort, so they can still get in and out? Material? Also, I know I've asked the question before, but, who heats and who doesn't? I am in Massachusetts. I'll try to get pictures of my coop posted this afternoon. Thanks in advance.

What are you day time temps? Here ours usually get in the mid 30's and I just don't worry about the door being open. The chickens usually are out anyway and I figure that if they are okay outside then the coop is also warm enough during the day.

Sheila

When we lived in the north country (north central WA about 30 miles from the Canadian border), we never worried about the cold. But we also didn't let them out during the day. Something about having several feet of snow on the ground!!!! They didn't want to go out. We had a light for light as well and used a warmer for their water to keep it thawed, but that was it. And we checked for eggs several times a day cuz when your daytime high is in the teens eggs tend to freeze rather quickly. We never had problems with frozen combs or anything like that. I think they adjust to the cold and put on extra feathers, etc. to keep themselves warmer.

And I'm oh so glad! we don't have to contend with that anymore.

As long as threre is no draft, they should be ok. I have a doggy door with a flap that I can use if I need to. It didn't take the chickens long to figure it out either!

We were kind of thinking of a door with a flap......our run has a roof over it, so snow (except for drifts) shouldn't be too big a problem ........temps can range here.....it was probably in the 30s this morning already, as we had frost.

We have a week or two in the teens each winter and they do fine. I try to put a high wattage bulb (infrared) in and the heated water is a great idea if you can do it as that will keep their insides warm. They will cluster together for warmth anyway.

I heat my chicken house in the winter. I have a radiator space heater that I use when the temp gets down in the low 40's-30's. Thank goodness it doesn't stay that cold for long here. I have some frizzles that are sparcely feathered and they really get cold if I don't bed them down with lots of hay and the heater. We like it HOT in Alabama.