Looks like the zenith came not long before the nadir. 
I’ve raised chickens in Minnesota for almost 5yrs now and worried all the time about em in sub-zero weather the first few yrs. The main thing you need to do is to be sure to get cold hardy breeds. I have orpingtons, barred rock and rhode islands but there are others.
I don’t let them out of the coop at all once the snow starts and they have plenty of walking around room in their coop. I do have a heated dog water bowl for em and give em a lil extra scratch grains + I heat up the leftovers in the microwave before giving them to em and they do just fine. 
Cooper, my Portugese water dog only goes out in subzero weather to do his business, the rest of the time he’s relaxing on my bed.
Blue, my domestic shorthair cat, who is actually an outdoor/indoor cat, has not been outside in at least a month, and he normally hates being inside, he is constantly asking to go out…
This past month, he hasn’t asked to go outside even once, he’s happy in his favorite chair downstairs, or lying on the kitty bed next to my bed, or lying on my arm while he lounges in the bed
I’m starting to wonder if he’s decided that “inside cat is better”…
The chickens? They’ve got a sturdy old barn all to themselves, hay to nest in,and they huddle up for warmth, they’re all sturdy heritage breeds, and selected for their cold hardiness.
Heck, one of my sisters roosters escaped from her coop yesterday, yes, in the blizzard, and he refused to return to the coop, flying away any time he was approached, my sis was resigned to the fact that the rooster wouldn’t survive the night…
That evening, we were hit by a blizzard, 18-20" of snow, and winds up to 50 MPH, air temps down in the single digits… fancy Pants the rooster (bantam cochin) was surely doomed…
This morning, he was strutting around with pride on top of the coop roost, he had weathered the blizzard of 2015 unscathed!
Tough little rooster…
I have a quarter-acre fenced-in yard and it is the norm that my beauties go outside by themselves to do their business and come back in when they’re done.
Except the boy has learned this week that he can climb fences. In fact, with the height from the frozen snow, he can LEAP fences. And on the other side of those fences? SQUIRREL!!! (and a street. Goddammit.)
So I had him on a leash every time we went out, and now a shock collar which also requires me to be outside with him (I can’t seem him bolt towards the fence through my window).
I’ve been home all weekend but I’ve been outside about 40 times. Hate. My sinuses are absolutely wrecked from all the cold, dry air.
The dogs hate it too. They are skinny kids with short fur. No where near as rugged as my golden retriever was.
It’s going to be a whole week of this nonsense too 
In our front yard just beyond a tree with bird feeders there’s a flat spot where we dump shelled corn each morning for the deer. What the deer do not eat gets cleaned up by a flock of turkeys that visits each day.
The turkeys usually also cleanup below the tree feeders. Their scratching keeps that area clear of snow.
Best investment I ever made was in a wireless fence. The one I have is made by PetSafe, it works off of radar so you don’t have to bury wire. My dogs have a 90 foot radius out from where the control unit is plugged in and you can program it for whatever number works for you but 90 ft is the max.
Once they got acclimated to their new boundaries it works wonderfully for both man and beast. Plus you can unplug the unit and take it with if you ever want to go camping or move etc…it cues the dogs if they are getting too close to their boundary.
I love it cuz I can let them out rain, snow or shine and they stay in the yard, have plenty of running around space and they won’t take off if a squirrel or rabbit distracts them 