Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

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Cold, damp and grey. The freezing rain started after I had been there an hour so we got some time out on the field. For the next half an hour we sat in the coop extension with Tull firing out like a bullet every time the rain eased. At least she knows not to be out foraging in the freezing rain.
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Something I tend to keep my eye on is how the chickens cope with the cold temperatures we get over the winter.
Something I read often on BYC is, don't worry, chickens don't feel the cold.
I don't, but sometimes I feel like I should, respond to this with, why are my chickens twice the size they were before it got cold?

So, chickens do feel the cold as one might expect like all creatures.
The next question is how cold does it have to be for the chicken to be uncomfortable?
Then of course one would need a scale of discomfort relative to temperature.
Currently, the scientific measure seems to be if they don't drop dead they're fine; a bit like if they're still eating drinking and walking they're fine, also obviously untrue.

A bit of perspective.
In the UK during the winter of 1963 ( it was unusually cold with ice and snow for a while) it is estimated that half the wild bird population fell down dead from the cold. There are complications, some of which are, if the ground is frozen forage is poor. If the ground is covered in snow not only is forage poor but the bird gets wet trying for what forage there is. Wet and cold hanging on a branch is likely to kill a bird faster than just cold. The length of time the temperatures are frigid, what reserves the bird may have had run out.
It needs to be born in mind that these are wild birds that are used to living in their environment and they still die like flies at temperatures way above what I've read other keepers deal with.

Those that monitor the state of our wildlife are forcasting a major wild bird loss of life during this winter. Nobody is quite clear about what major measures, but they think it's going to be worse than usual.

Yes, but, chickens have got all those lovely feathers they can puff up and that keeps them warm.
Well yes, that bit is true, they do puff up their feathers when they are cold and it does help them keep warmer than they would be if they couldn't puff up their feathers. It doesn't mean they're not cold; they're just not as cold as they might be.
The wild birds can puff up their feathers as well and they are still dying.

What the feathers will do is slow down the transfer of heat from the chicken to the environment; the feathers don't stop it. The bigger the temperature difference between the bird and the environment the faster heat is lost. A well fed and healthy bird will have calories to burn but there comes a point when the bird can't generate heat as quickly as they lose it.:( Hopefully this isn't an issue with well kept chickens at a few degrees below zero but even well kept chickens at some point of coldness they will not be able to generate heat as fast as the colder environment removes it.

So, there is a range of discomfort on both the plus and negative temperature scale with death at both extremes.

I would like the field chickens to be in the mild discomfort zone if they have to deal with either hot or cold. Part of the test of what range the chickens can suvive in is seen where domestic chickens have survived as feral chickens upon escape/release. That from what I've read is a pretty small range. Yes there are other factors other than temperature directly but temperature still effects many of these factors.

I had the water bowl in the coop freeze once this winter and that was with the foil backed tarpaulin over the round part of the coop. The tarpaulin isn't ver well fited with respect to insulation. There should be an air gap between the plastic and the tarpaulin with shelterd ends if one cannot fully seal them.
I think I've found something from the destroyed greenhouse that might work.
 
Shadrach said:
The wild birds can puff up their feathers as well and they are still dying.
Click to expand...
The wilds are exposed to the wind most of the time.
-1f this morning. Everyone looks cold. The stupid turkeys sleep in the trees until it gets around -20f. Even then one Jenny stayed in the top of the trees. They lived.
Family lore has an old native American telling my great grandfather about how they used to mainly live on wild turkeys. Until an ice storm and then there were few turkeys.
 
Last edited:
Molpet said:
The wilds are exposed to the wind most of the time.
-1f this morning. Everyone looks cold. The stupid turkeys sleep in the trees until it gets around -20f. Even then one Jenny stayed in the top of the trees. They lived.
Family lore has an old native American telling my great grandfather about how they used to mainly live on wild turkeys. Until an ice storm and then there were few turkeys.
Click to expand...
The turkeys are crazy! They don't want to go in, even if it is cold and chucking it down. :-( The chickens go in and out during the day, if it is really cold they tend to stay in.
 

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