My chickens spent the night in the house.

[pcooley]

I look out at the powerline, and I see that all the doves and sparrows are doing fine in the cold. However, last night, it was going down to -14. I heard the warning on the radio not to leave pets outside in this weather one too many times, so I went out and snagged them out of the henhouse and kept them in overnight in a dog kennel. Our rooster contributed to a very noisy atmosphere at breakfast. How are everyone else's chickens doing with the cold weather.

[CathyA]

Awwwww......what a good chicken parent you are! Mine are in the coop with 2 heat lamps going. I actually went out and turned one off, since it was getting into the 30's in there. Outside, its 13. I didn't open their door, so the heat will stay in. I'll turn on the second lamp again later today since its supposed to be -1 tonight. I just didn't want them getting wide swings of temps. That might be a problem when you try to put them back out in the cold. Hopefully, your temps will go up soon. Haha.......how loud the rooster must be in the house!
I've had chickens living in my bathroom at times.....usually because of illness. The sure can stir up the dust!

[Float On]

Mine are doing o.k., they aren't interested in coming out of the hen house. They have a light on in there for a little added warmth but it's still cold. I know they huddle up and a chicken has a naturally high temp but I have to admit that I finally broke thru the ice that was keeping me from gathering eggs the last few days and all of them were cracked and frozen except the nice warm ones layed this morning. I took the frozen ones and scrambled them in the microwave and took them back out to the girls for a warm treat.

[Zzz]

You'll have to be careful putting them back out. They shouldn't go from a warm 65-70 degree house back out into freezing cold weather. You'll need to gradually acclimate them back down or they may not do well.

[Blackdog Lin]

This is our first chickens' winter and they did fine all through the cold. It got into the negatives overnight several nights - no problems. And this in an unelectrified coop. We did leave their popdoor closed so as to preserve all the heat we could for them - and went out with fresh water twice a day (frozen overnight). But they seem to be as hardy as we had hoped they would be.

We do plan to take electricity over to the coop this summer - would like to be able to provide them slightly better living conditions - and save us from that frozen water container.

[CathyA]

I think alot of us hear how some people use heat lamps, etc., and assume that we have to. I only turn mine on when its around 0-9, but I've often wondered if that's unnecessary. My hens are almost 8 years old, so I figure they deserve a little comfort! haha

There is a wide variation in the types of coops we all have and not using heat lamps might be okay for one kind of coop, but not another......so I guess we all have to play it by ear. Just remember when it gets down around zero, its probably good to coat the biggest combs with vasoline.
I feel so fortunate to have electricity to the coop.......mainly for the water in winter, and the fan in the window in summer. The fan makes such a different in their comfort. I have a box fan in the window and it faces outward. When it gets really hot (90's), I will add a fan in front of their screen door facing towards them. They love it!
Also........the utility company charges us around $45/mo as a base fee, just to have electricity to the barn, which we hardly ever use. The coop is on the same box, so I feel that at least we're getting a little something for our money!

One thing I wanted to mention though, is that sick chickens have a really hard time with the really cold weather. If I have a sick chicken in winter, I usually isolate them in a dog crate with a heat lamp over it.