Any Northerners NOT Use A Heat Lamp? - Page 2

i have 10 leghorns(different colors) roos included(2) it has been below 0 many times already and we have over a foot of snow and no frostbite in my coop.  Chickens are the best heater/humidifier out there

I'm so glad you posted this question. Last year I didnt add any extra heat and plan to do the same this year. Aren't chickens AMAZING!! They are so perfectly designed!

I do not heat my coop and only provide about an hour of extra light, till about 5 pm.  My coop is insulated. 

I will not heat again this year.

The wind seems to bother them more then the cold!

I only use a heat lamp to keep the water thawed (hangs directly over the waterer, and dosnt provide much heat because the coop is HUGE)

All birds can defend for them selves. I know their your babies but their ready & willing to tackle the cold just let them be. Their warm pick em up . This is the weather they live for vs the heat. The problem is you don't have feathers they do. They can handle the cold vs the heat. Think about being outside at 100 degree weather wearing a down jacket.

Just ask yourself: How did my grandparents, and great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents and their great-great grandparents heat their chicken coops in, say, Maine or New Hampshire or Montana or Wisconsin or Scotland or Norway?

Answer: They didn't. They just kept them in well ventilated coops with lots of bedding, made sure they had food and water--a big chore, keeping water ice-free in winter--and the chickens did just fine.

As will yours.

We consistently in the low 20's and I expect we'll be in the negative numbers before the end of January--I am not now nor will I ever use an heat lamp (except for brooding chicks). Too dangerous and unnecessary.

blue creek chicken man,
How is your coop constructed, and how large is it?
I'm impressed---no frostbite!

No heat for my birds.

I was talking to my friend's husband a few days ago and she has chickens and her coop is heated and her husband grumbled about having to get a separate generator for the coop for power outages.

No heated coop and the girls don't seem to mind. It is insulated, but only with blue foam insulation - about an R-8 (total of R-11 with both plywood walls, inner to cover the insulation and outer)

A couple of them have really large combs too - but they are Barred Rocks and winter hardy.

They don't like the snow that much though.


I don't think it is as cold here as in some northern States (or the prairies of Canada, the true north etc.). It is about -6c/21F right now - but I expect it will get as cold as -20c/-4F at some point, just not often.