Chicken bald back

[tinkkletoes]

Hi All

do to the loss of 2 of my lovely ladies, i know only have 3 hybrid girls left at the moment, my question is can a coop be to big ? i am thinking of the winter coming. the girls currently snuggle up in the corner of the coop to roost, this is during summer. my concern is the amount of free space that will need heat during winter. so basicly can there be too few hens in a coop. coop size in 1m squared. yes i am thinking of getting new ladies, but i was hoping to get in the spring.

[Cat tails]

Loads of people here will confirm that chickens are made of hardy stuff and can withstand quite low temperatures with their feathery insulation. Some have chickens that roost outside of the coop year round, even in snow.

 

So no, I don't think it will be a problem. If you are concerned you could always insulate the coop a bit more with things like horse blankets, but this could also limit the ventilation of the coop.

[Beantree]

Some of our coops are 1m2 Tinkkletoes and they only have three in them anyway. Plenty of bedding down will help in Winter and on occasion, with the bantams only, we have put a blanket on the roof. But if they have adequate ventilation the air in the coop will be at almost the same temperature as the air outside. What is important is that they are not sitting in a draught and that the ventilation is sufficient to avoid condensation.

[Egluntyne]

They will be fine so long as they are dry and out of draughts.

[tinkkletoes]

Hi All

thanks for your messages, i am just worrying about nothing. just don't want to let my girls get to cold in winter, guess it might not be as mild as it was last year... time to start thinking of new girls. thinking of hybrids that lay blueish eggs.

[Hippie Chick]

I'm glad you asked! I've been wondering about the same thing.

[chickencam]

They always seem to huddle up at night even if they don't like each other much during the day, it is just their way.

I rarely close the doors on my Eglu and my wooden coop which is just a bit smaller than 1m square, only when it is sub zero and they seem fine.

[Guest]

I started out with a wooden wendy house as a coop which was very large for 6 girls. Most of the time they were fine but during winter 2010 when daytime temperatures stayed at minus 10 and colder for a long time I worried the girls would be cold so made some changes.

 

I already had lino on the floor with bedding on top which cut out floor draughts. I lined the walls inside the coop with cardboard to hen head height leaving plenty of ventilation above and around the pop hole. I did this ONLY during the nasty cold spell. The girls certainly seemed quite content with that set up. I replaced the cardboard during the weekly clean