Keep a Chicken Coop Warm Without Heat

Reader Contribution by Melissa Caughey
Updated on October 5, 2023
article image
by Adobestock/Penny

Heating chicken coops is controversial; these tips to keep a chicken coop warm without heat reliably avoid freezing temperatures without turning on a lamp.

Chicken owners that live in cold climates often have to make some decisions when it comes to colder fall and winter weather with chickens.  One such dilemma is whether or not to heat your coop.  We live on Cape Cod, where we have windy winters and temperatures that occasionally dip below zero. The Cape is a man-made island surrounded entirely by the ocean. The ocean greatly affects our weather and causes us to experience small temperature fluctuations between day and night.  Snowfall varies from year to year.  Some years we have very light snowfall and others deliver a wallop of 2 feet or more.

To Heat or Not to Heat

One decision that people need to make just as important as personalities and egg color is weather hardiness.  I will never forget hearing that Martha Stewart one year wanted to add “exotic” chickens to her Connecticut flock.  She soon realized that they were not cold hardy.  They perished early their first winter.  All of our eight chickens are cold-hardy, including the Silkies.  Choosing the right type of chicken for your environment is a very important factor not to be overlooked.

Chickens are birds and not mammals.  Their bodies, circulatory, respiratory, and reproductive systems are different.  Therefore, we cannot assume that they interpret, adapt, or react the same way as our mammal bodies do in the cold.

We do not heat our chicken coop.  Knowing that we do experience occasional power outages, we did not want our flock to become accustomed to an artificially warmed coop.  Tales of flocks perishing from lack of a heated coop after an extended power outage was just something that we did not want to encounter.

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-803-7096