keeping chickens warm

[Brosia]

I want to raise chickens, know nothing about it.... but I am doing plenty of research. 

A quick question I have, during winter months (and they can be severely cold) what do you do to keep them from freezing to death? (without electricity)

[Atash Hagmahani]

Quantify "severely cold".

Chickens are tropical birds that are surprisingly adaptable to snowy-cold winters (they're covered in feathers). For most climates, it is enough to make sure that they have an enclosed, insulated roosting box to huddle up in during cold weather. In New England, people often give them a heating cable or lamp.

I have more specific guidelines, but I need to go work on some errands, and I'll wait to hear "how cold is cold".

[Dame]

Keeping the flooring dry seems to be the significant factor here.  They can survive amazing cold, and occasionally choose too take the well ventelated, dry beding and wind sheltered alternative to insulated with some heat.  They need access to unfrozen water and plenty of feed when the temp goes way down, and it takes high protien and light to keep them laying eggs during cold weather.  The pre-electrical solution to the water problem was to take them warm water 2 or 3 times per day.

[opsec]

I have more specific guidelines, but I need to go work on some errands, and I'll wait to hear "how cold is cold".

One time it was so cold that my dog stuck to the tree. Another time it was so cold that my shadow froze to the ground and I couldn't move.

[Atash Hagmahani]

You got me with the "dog stuck to a tree"; I thought maybe it was like one of those dummies who gets his tongue stuck to a lightpole. But then I knew I'd been had with the part about the shadow. 

[Ryder]

Keep them sheltered and fed and watered. We have raised them in montana where it gets -20F regularly in the winter. The main thing is to keep them laying eggs. My wifes mantra is to keep their feet warm. Lots of straw on the floor of the hen house which they like to scratch in. I normaly take pity on the biddies and hang a heat lamp up when it gets really cold. I always have a light that comes on with a timer to give them a summers worth of light in the middle of winter. Oh, and gather the eggs regularly as they will freeze solid if henrieta gets off the nest too long. I tried insulating the hen house with styrofoam sheets salvaged from packaging. The chickens kept eating the stuff....I thought it would cause all sorts of digestive distress but all that happened is that they layed their eggs already in cartons.