With the cooler temperatures approaching it's time to consider climate controls for your chickens. Now ducks are another subject altogether.
Chickens absolutely have a very tolerant temperature range although their ideal is going to be around 70-75 degrees. They can absolutely tolerate temperatures in the subzero range.
With that being said the thing no one seems to mention is humidity. This is what can make or break their tolerance level. When it's hot is miserable when the humidity is in the 80-90 percent range and can make a hot day deadly for your flock. In the same sense when it's cold when the humidity level is high it can make a cold day miserable or even deadly for your chickens. Unlike ducks that have a natural oil on their feathers to repel and insulate themselves from the moisture they don't exactly have the same protections and shouldn't be compared as such.
There are some warning signs during the winter to watch for during the cooler season such as chickens all huddling together in a corner or on a roosting bar or chickens acting listless or being very inactive.
You can do simple things to help your chickens during the cooler weather such as
1) limit drafts through their coop.
2) provide a minimal heat source that's out of access to the chickens.
3) provide extra hay or wood chips to insulate against the cooler temperatures.
4) provide extra feed that's higher in carbohydrates
5) give them reason to move around more and stay busy such as scratch feed or any type of different feed that will make them inquisitive.
Mostly try and figure out what's in the coop to decrease moisture in the coop such as clean out old hay or wood chips and use diatomaceous earth to help with moisture.
Just keep in mind that a comfortable chicken is a healthy chicken and once disease creeps into your coops it's ten times harder to get rid of. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 👨🌾😁
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