Why does everyone overcomplicate winter chicken care?

I keep seeing folks on here wrapping their coops in plastic and running heat lamps all winter, and I just don't get it. When I started keeping hens back in 2015 in Omaha, I did the same thing, lost power for two days during an ice storm, and nearly cooked my poor girls when the lamp shorted. Since then I've just done deep bedding, a little vaseline on combs, and made sure they have unfrozen water twice a day. My eight hens have made it through three straight winters with lows around -10, and the only issue was one frostbitten comb on my leghorn. Chickens are way tougher than we give them credit for, and all that extra heat and plastic actually traps moisture and causes more problems than it solves. I mean, maybe it's just me, but I think we baby them too much because we love them. Anyone else gone the no-heat route and had good luck, or am I setting myself up for a rough January?

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jordanr4224d ago

Have you noticed how much the deep bedding actually heats things up on its own? The stuff breaks down and puts off real warmth, so by the time it is really cold out my coop stays right around freezing even when it is way below zero outside. One thing that saved me is making sure the coop vents up high so the wet air can escape, because that trapped moisture from plastic is what really causes frostbite, not the cold itself. I also switched to rubber bowls for water and just swap them out a couple times a day, way easier than hauling a heated one around. Been running no heat for years now and my girls do fine, so you are not setting yourself up for anything bad as long as they can stay dry and out of the wind.

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