Cold chickens.....when to use heat lamp?

I have a brooder heat lamp that with reluctance I used for the last 5 days during an extreme sudden cold snap with temps around 10 to 12 at nite and only up to 20 during day. I am turning it off today. I am using an outdoor extension cord which ends in a gfi plug at the house. Should I use a surge protector up at the coop as well? I have a heated watered so that is plugged up all winter.

unbaked pegga said:

I have a brooder heat lamp that with reluctance I used for the last 5 days during an extreme sudden cold snap with temps around 10 to 12 at nite and only up to 20 during day. I am turning it off today. I am using an outdoor extension cord which ends in a gfi plug at the house. Should I use a surge protector up at the coop as well? I have a heated watered so that is plugged up all winter.

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I'm having the same temps as you, and my birds are totally fine, with no added heat, of any kind. And that's with the whole front wall open. Those temps are nothing to the chicken. So put away the heatlamp, or we may be reading of another coop burnt to the ground.

I plan on building a Woods Coop similar to Jack E this Spring, but up until now, I have never used any heat in the coop. The most important thing is that the chickens have protection from the wind, and that there be plenty of ventilation. Excessive heat leading to moisture build up is far worse for them than cold. I live in Maine and recently it has dropped into the negative single digits - no problems here. We hit -17º one morning a few years back and my chickens were fine. No heat or insulation - just out of the wind. Ventilation is VERY important.

chickengeorgeto said:

The old way that you mentioned was to toss the poor darlings out in the cold cold snow and let them dine on what ever they found laying around in the hoof prints of the cow, the horse, and the pig.

There never was a predator problem back then because any and all vermin were shot on sight so as you can imagine adequate ventilation was a non starter because any and all chickens ranged as free and as unrestrained as the Smallpox virus.

The farmers' garden was located far enough away from the house place so that depredations by the chicken flock wasn't an issue, or else hog wire or field fencing was erected to keep the poor darlings at bay.

Never never never forget however that any and all varmints from the smallest to the mightiest were as apt to wind up in the stew pot as was a sliced carrot, diced onion, or a striking hen.

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Your depiction sounds like the typical city person's stereotyping of rural people. I guess all those old chicken coops on farms around the nation were just for looks. The gardens were located next to the house so that they could keep deer and groundhogs out of the gardens easily....a lot of the time, those gardens were in the front yard, right up to the doorstep...they were called kitchen gardens for a reason. No one in their right minds located their personal garden too far from the house. Neither of those types of fences keep out chickens. And farmers grew their own meat, so didn't need to resort to eating "any and all varmints".

Maybe all of that is true in your country? Not here.

Never use a heat lamp. They are chickens...they have feathers, they are fine. Have you ever found a frozen Cardinal or chickadee? No.
Relax & enjoy your chickens, worry more in the heat of August.

I have found Cardinals frozen..in a freezer though.

Thanks for the perspective mate!

Beekissed said:

Your depiction sounds like the typical city person's stereotyping of rural people. I guess all those old chicken coops on farms around the nation were just for looks. The gardens were located next to the house so that they could keep deer and groundhogs out of the gardens easily....a lot of the time, those gardens were in the front yard, right up to the doorstep...they were called kitchen gardens for a reason. No one in their right minds located their personal garden too far from the house. Neither of those types of fences keep out chickens. And farmers grew their own meat, so didn't need to resort to eating "any and all varmints".

Maybe all of that is true in your country? Not here.

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During the last 100 years there never were all many chicken coops on working dirt farms. At least not in my neck of the woods.

The Garden was usually some distance from the house and barn for obvious reasons. Not only do chickens peck ripping tomatoes and pull and eat every new pea pod and bean blossom but they (Chickens) have these growths on their feet called toes and they (Chickens again) can do a very good imitation of a rotor Tiller using only their feet. This means that a chicken can un-plant your garden seed faster than you can cover it up. For the information of everyone on this forum it will soon be 150 years since the majority of Americans lived on the farm or even derived most of their income from farm related activities.

As far as eating any and all vermin goes, the last time I examined a vermin I found it wearing a silky and warm fur coat and these FUR coats were highly prized by The Sears & Roebuck Company as well as a flock of independent FUR buyers.

I know not how you harvest the pelts of animals but this old boy finds the fur comes off much easier if you'll apply some hickory wood to the pelt donors' noggin before you try to unzip the varmint's pelt from its body.

Just to show you how much these pelts meant to the bottom line of real farmers say only 80 years ago I once found an old dirt farmer's journal in some antique furniture I bought.

It seemed that this old man cleared more money in a 60 day trapping season than both he and his wife earned in a whole year planting, cultivating, and picking cotton in the hot Mississippi Sun.

All those plastic coffin that the DHLS are supposedly stock pilling are intended to be the final resting place of all the Want-to-be Farmers, Gentleman, Gentlewoman and otherwise when these citizens finally realize how hard a row that real dirt farming is.