It was all over the news January 6-7, 2014, Chicago would be hit with lows of -15f and windchills -40f. Ouch! Especially when just a day before the high was a balmy 32f.
Bein' a newbie chicken owner I did my due diligence and scoured the great and wonderful google for answers. Hence Project Polar Vortex commenced...
This is the advice I found:
Do not provide heat, your chickens will huddle together and create enough body heat; Chickens don't need a heat lamp even in negative temps, and if you use a heat lamp you will cause a fire; if you give them heat they will not be acclimated to cold temps and they will die if your electricity goes out; give extra scratch before bedtime, but don't feed too much scratch or you'll have fat hens; insulate your coop or don't insulate because mice will hide in the walls; provide a draft free coop, but make sure you have plenty of ventilation or your hens will get frostbitten combs; and lastly don't forget to rub Vaseline on their combs to prevent frostbite - WHAT?! Vaseline?!
Don't judge me but when it did hit -3f I did the Vaseline thing, there I admit it. My chickens made weird noises the entire time probably calling me "crazy chicken lady" and I nearly killed myself after I fell out of the coop - chicken in hand.
Anyways...with all the crazy info overload, I soon felt my head spinning, just like a newbie mom with a newborn! So instead of runnin' around like a chicken with its' head cut off, I gathered all the info and devised my plan...
Well it's nearing the end of January and we have survived!
However, so I don't cause the next "Great Chicago Fire", I now reserve the heat lamp for temps that reach -5f or less. Any temps above that, my hens do just fine. Honestly, I think I would not even use a heat lamp if I had at least two or three more hens, but my three bantam easter eggers at only about 2lbs each probably don't mind a lil coziness in negative temps.
My gals are givin me about a dozen yummy eggs a week now; even in cold temps, what more could a chicken mama ask for? It's my pleasure to keep them nice and toasty. Or perhaps maybe I should consider chicken sweaters?
This post has be linked to Tillys Nest Down Home Blog Hop.
Just an update... We had Polar Vortex part II last night and temps went to -12F to -16F. I changed my heat bulb to a 150W black Night Black Heat bulb by Zilla. It's for reptiles. It made the coop look less like a rotisserie and they seemed to sleep better with it. Temps hovered inside the coop at -1F to 3F overnight. Humidity 50%-60% Enough to take the edge off that cold. They looked fine this morning and thanked me with an early egg :)
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