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hi guys, Ive got a flock of 5 ex batts that have been with us since september. Ive been reading books about keeping chickens and they all say that chickens dont need any heaters, they eat a lot and burn it at night, huddling to keep warm.
3 of the chooks are still a little bald so Ive padded the coop on 2 sides with an old duvet and some bubble wrap and have layed shreaded paper and extra straw inside.
do you think this is enough or is there more that i can do to help them during this cold snap?

all i do with my chooks is give them some corn in the hour before dusk so they go to bed with full crops and the digesting of the corn keeps them warm through the night

Aww Islaskye that is really sweet, I am sure it is dead cosy in the henhouse.
I worried about the cold a lot last year with my ex-batts, but they were fine. I do drape a duvet over the top of the henhouse on really cold nights.

I also think it is better to slightly over-fill the henhouse at this time of year, so that there are more little bodies in there to roost next to - so this year we got an extra hen and cockerel to join the flock, and the henhouse is pretty much full.
I also took them some of last nights potato skins which I had 'cooked' in the microwave, which they were very happy with.

Our main issue is water this time of year - I take a kettle out with me to try and de-freeze it, but it is frozen again by the time I leave for work.

I do what has already been sayed, I feed them just before dusk and I hav put plenty of bedding in for them. I noticed last night that 3 of them were huddled up all snuggled down into the bedding instead of perching. We only hav 6 at the minute but when I was a farm manger we always overstocked our houses over winter and then culled the old girls in spring time. X

Is there anything I can put in the water to stop it from freezing? some one suggested Vinegar?????!!! I thought that was to stop algae growth in summer?

ours have vinegar in the water and it still freezes, but apparently a slug of cider vinegar is good for them anyway, so you might as well. My only suggestions would be that instead of using hot water to thaw out what has frozen, put a fresh bowl of pretty warm water out. Bring in the frozen water and when it's thawed you can replace it with warm. Warm water in a warm bowl seems to take longer to freeze than mixing hot water with ice in an icy-cold bowl, and the ladies like a nice warm 'cuppa' . Also, we have some polystyrene (sp?) disks that came under a couple of shop bought pizzas*. I'm thinking of putting them on the floor under the water bowls to see if it helps insulate them slightly. Big chunks of polystyrene wouldn't work because our stoopid chickens eat it

*Please don't tell anyone we bought some shop-bought pizzas. It was a lapse and I promise not to do it again.

Cider vinegar is more to promote health, as is a clove of garlic - I also put a little rapeseed oil in the water - it can protect a little against frost as it coats the top of the water, but if it is -4 or worse there is not much you can do unless you purchase something like a snuggle pad - a microwaveable disc - that you can pop under the drinkers...