No matter what kind of breed you have, where you live, or how you raise your chickens, one thing they will always need is a coop. The coop is where chickens go to sleep at night and stay safe from predators.
Your chickens will probably be spending a lot of time in the coop if you live anywhere with a harsh winter, and this naturally begs an important question: do chicken coops really need to be heated?
No, chicken coops won’t require heat if properly designed, maintained and insulated (unless they’re drafty).
Rest assured that most chickens do just fine in cold weather, and have excellent insulation from their feathers, but drafty coops or coops in extremely cold environments might need supplemental heating. Of course, fixing those drafts should be done first.
The issue of heating is a contentious one among chicken keepers…
