Minimum temps for bantams

BabyBantam

BabyBantam

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Messages
498
Reaction score
0
Location
Devon
I've been told that full size chickens can tolerate temps down to -15, but bantams only -5. Is this true? If so, I'm a little worried about my pekins as temp currently -3 in the ark and been down to -4 last night ( I have a max/min thermometer in the house with the girls).
They are dry and snug, a small amount of sneezing going on today but all breathing ok and no snot or swelling, so presume just cold after last night.
Last year I moved the ark under the glass veranda for protection in the snow, but it caused too much stress to the girls with light and sounds they whernt used to, so don't really want to do this again. Would like to add a layer of insulation to the ark but very conscious of not blocking ventilation in the roof (see image of my ark on previous post about winter run).
Any ideas out there on min. Temps my girls can cope with or a way to protect them not including a gazebo as this would block the daytime sun and get blown away as were exposed to gales coming off dartmoor.
 
Don't take a chance BB, get them inside at night. Yes, it is a pain but not as much as losing them to to hypothermia.
 
The time that chickens have been enjoying the comfort of coops must be a tiny blink of an eyelid compared with the millions of years they've been roosting in draughty leaky trees, along with all the other outdoor birds. If they have a dry, draughtproof coop and are, as you say, snug, I wouldn't worry about them. personally I would leave them and avoid disturbing their natural rhythms by moving them to what, to them, is an alien environment.
Yes it's tempting to empathise with them, because we think we would be uncomfortable in an unheated coop, but remember, chickens acclimatise to outdoor conditions and actually deal with cold much better than with unusual heat. It's good to give them a warm damp mash on cold winter afternoons, just add hot water to layers pellets until it's just crumbly, so you know they go to bed with full crops and have had extra water from the food to supplement their hydration. Then they will be fine. If you increase the temperature in the coop overnight, beyond what they naturally generate, either by extra insulation or by bringing them indoors, they will have to cope with a bigger contrast in the drop in temperature where they emerge into their run in the morning. I do think it's quite important, here possible, to ensure they go to roost with dry feathers, so they don't have to waste energy drying off, as this also increases humidity in the coop. So if the run is roofed, or they can be herded into a dry area for a while before roosting, this is a great help.
I think if bantams died at minus 5C, there wouldn't be many of them about by now!
 
Our Leghorn bantams were moved into the greenhouse over the worst of the Winter BB. Their combs used to shrivel up and the cockerel's was in danger of frostbite. At -4C forecast overnight they came into the house and were returned to the greenhouse after the sun had hit it. Sometimes I lit a propane gas brooder for them to get the temperature above freezing before putting them in. They loved it in there. We put leaves in for them to scratch and they had a little coop to keep them snug. Danger was always them getting too hot in the sun, but just keeping an eye on the temperature was enough.
 
Hello BB,
I have just been faced with the same problem, Pekin chicks in the house growing fast, feathered, but outgrowing their broody boxes.
Despite the temperature outside, I had to re-house them, and put them in with the sweetest natured chicken I have, Sweetie, who occupies the downstairs of a chicken house/run daytime and naturally roosts upstairs at night. I put the little ones upstairs in the roosting area with food and water
and apart from looking quaintly out of the pop hole and not venturing out yet, all seems to have gone well.
Keeping my fingers crossed as these are my first ever hatchlings from Pierre my lemon cuckoo Pekin and his ladies.
They do not seem cold or bothered, chat and twitter all the time which is a great sign of contentment, they all were well feathered and well grown from the outset, which was a great advantage, so I took a chance..
 
The main problem in cold weather can be dehydration, if the drinkers are frozen first thing in the morning when they emerge. They then need a drink quite urgently as they've been roosting for up to 15 hours and have probably be eating mainly dry pellets. I try to remember to take a spare drinker indoors overnight, filled ready for me to venture down to the run in coat over my dressing gown, whilst the kettle is heating for our early morning cup of tea.
 
valeriebutterley said:
I have just been faced with the same problem, Pekin chicks in the house growing fast, feathered, but outgrowing their broody boxes.
Despite the temperature outside, I had to re-house them, and put them in with the sweetest natured chicken I have, Sweetie, who occupies the downstairs of a chicken house/run daytime and naturally roosts upstairs at night. I put the little ones upstairs in the roosting area with food and water
and apart from looking quaintly out of the pop hole and not venturing out yet, all seems to have gone well.
Click to expand...

Hi, I have some 9 week old large fowl which were permanently in the lounge until a few days ago. I'm now training them to take the cooler temperatures of the conservatory but I was wondering at what age you put yours outdoors? Obviously I don't want ours to freeze, but they've got a full coat of feathers on (albeit not the last one) and there's an empty coop outside which is waiting for them to be ready. I was expecting to keep them indoors until spring but I'm wondering how long it will be before they are able to tolerate cooler temperatures.

I've previously worked on the assumption that they need 35°C in week 1, 30°C in week 2, 25°C in week 3, 20°C in week 4, 15°C in week 5 and they went outdoors at the start of week 6 in the summer when the temperatures were dropping to 15°C overnight as they were fully feathered by then. If I was to continue with that trend, then by week 8 they should be able to tolerate cold assuming that they have been gradually weaned onto it, but I'm not sure that's the case as they haven't had a second chick moult yet.

The conservatory is 12°C overnight, warmer during the day, while outdoors is currently -1°C overnight.

I have auto-refill drinkers hooked up to the water butts and these aren't freezing over yet, although stagnant puddles are. I think it helps a bit to have at least a (very) slow constant flow going through the pipework.
 
Katie Thear's book covering this subject says 25C at 4weeks KittyKat. Their tolerance is improving at the rate of about 2 ½ degrees a week according to her chart. So to stand -1C they would need to be about 15 weeks old. Not entirely sure about the maths there and whether it is a linear buildup or if it slows. Obviously they shouldn't be outside in Winter when moulting. There will be some variation with breed and I would expect bantams to be most vulnerable, as ours are.
 
Hi Chris, you just inspired me to go searching for the book which had been misplaced a few weeks ago! I found it now and added her recommendations to my post about my chicks: http://poultrykeeperforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=55728#p55728

I think the recommendations are really applicable at the start of the rearing period only to heat lamps as spring hatching chicks are exposed to cold day and night temperatures if raised by a hen (we were having 15°C at night in July this year) while the hen temperature is relatively constant, same as with an electric hen. I think it would help to know at which point the chicks stop sleeping under the hen and start roosting (I removed the electric hen a few nights after they stopped using it, which was at around week 4-5) and monitor what the air temperatures are inside the coop at that point. Unfortunately I'm unlikely to have hens raise my chicks, but if anyone wants to record this in the upcoming year, I think it would be helpful.
 
In the U.K, the coldest and wettest weather is yet to come, in January and February. If you hatch in late autumn, I think you need to be prepared to keep them under cover, if not with heat, until they're at least 15 weeks old and have completed their juvenile moult. If you put them out when the weather is just about tolerable for them, and then we get very low temperatures, a lot of rain and high winds, you can't then easily bring them in again. Yes, it's a bind - which is why it's probably best to plan for Spring/ Summer hatches, in tune with natural rhythms. It seems a pity to put all that loving care into hatching, only possibly to check the youngsters growth by exposing them to environmental stress.
A roofed run, with tarpaulins round the sides to shelter them from wind, would ensure they never got wet or had all their insulation blown away, which is half the battle.
 
At least our runs are all already roofed (so the chickens have somewhere dry to hide) and with shelter on at least two sides. It wouldn't take much to add a tarpaulin on a third long side to give only a short, narrow opening on the fourth side. On the other hand, they do have a fair bit of space in the conservatory and there is a small chance that in a month or so, I can move the smaller coop into there which would give them more space while still being indoors (because it's getting a hard floor). Worst case, they could have the run of the conservatory although walking through chicken crap to get outside doesn't sound appealing.
 
Hello KK,
Mine are about 6 weeks and 8.5 weeks, I just had to take the chance as they are so well feathered, and they will not get wet as it is a run/hut that my son had added a roof to, they are still in happy twitter stage and yesterday for the first time and again today they are down the ladder.
They feathered up so quickly and beautifully they are almost circular - they really are balls of fluff, and I do not think they are in danger from the cold, I could put them in the garage, but one year water froze in there, so perhaps when they roost the addition of Sweetie's body heat will be enough, hopefully.
 
I wouldn't have dared to put my lot out at 6 weeks even though they look more like chickens than chicks! As Marigold mentioned, they will have at least another moult at 15 weeks or thereabouts, which will be hard on them if they're doing it outdoors in an unsheltered area…

I would appreciate it if you could keep us posted on how they do and what sort of temperatures you're experiencing at night and day.
 
In the hut/run with Sweetie there are 5 babies, 1 older and larger than the other 4. In the custom made hut, I have ten adults, who have a lot of free-range time as they are so good, and always come fly-running to the rattle of corn, so are not a problem to find unless of course, they have decided a trip to Australia is on the cards, or they are too into a patch of dry earth, dusting themselves!
I have 2 lavender cuckoo, 1 lavender, 1 blue, 1 pure white, 2 lemon cuckoo, 1 Millefleur, one hybrid Silkie/Pyle Oxford game, and a buff Sussex bantam/Silkie.
The babies are two lemon cuckoos (the lads) and three buff girls.
I will let you know how they get on.
 
Hi KK and BB
had some very unpleasant windy and quite cold weather here. The babies seem still as cheerful as ever, chirping and tweeting, they really are loves, the one who is older has been caught up by the younger ones. The boys, both L cuckoo, have been play displaying and generally messing about. The atmosphere in the run is a bit silly, and Sweetie bears it with great fortitude, I am still waiting for her first egg, which I was told would be olive green, (or thereabouts) but with her current companions I am wondering if it will ever arrive!
 
That's interesting as our weather has gotten much warmer, but also very windy. Our coldest time of year tends to be towards end of January here, but at least the days are getting longer now :)
 
Hello KK and BB - an update.
Bitter weather here over the last two nights, mini balls of feathers still chick tweeting happily, and generally being silly and chickish, so I'm hoping apart from keeping drinkers ice free and making sure the top of the hut has a tarpaulin over it for any stray draughts, all will be well with them.
 
Hi, good to hear that they're still doing well. Any chance that you could post some photos so we can see how feathered they are?

Thanks for keeping us updated :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top