How cosy is a chicken coop? Not very, it would seem. And there was I kidding myself that when we closed the door on our Omlet Eglu Cube the three of them would bunch up together and generate a little sauna for themselves.

Well, the revelation came this week when I bought a little wireless temperature sensor online. Very cheap for what it was – about £8 – so I wasn’t too worried about putting it out in the coop to see how warm the chickens’ collective body heat actually managed to keep their house.

On the first night, as I shut them up, the gauge was reading 4.9 degrees Celsius (40.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Four hours later – midnight – it read 5.4 Celsius (41.7 Fahrenheit). They’d hardly be sweltering, would they. Last night, the last time I looked at it, it had got down to -1.1 Celsius, and I suspect would have gone lower before morning.

Poor things – in nature they’re jungle animals, not backyard pets for the northern hemisphere.

What we don’t know, of course, is what the temperature would have been had the door been left open all night. For all we know it could have been a good three or four degrees lower, in which case the difference is greater than we think.

Still, at least that explains why they don’t seem to care about standing around in the run through all weathers, as long as they don’t get wet.

I’m guessing most of the heat is trapped by their feathers and doesn’t get out into the house at all, and certainly you can feel it when you put your hand under a wing. Either way, this could well be why they’re laying so few eggs right now.

I wouldn’t want to get my bum out and squeeze out an egg in this weather, either.

Related posts:

1. Your chicken-keeping questions answered
2. Should we let sleeping hens lie?
3. The new chickens are settling in