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

[Ruby Ridge]

Reading thru some of these replys and smiling. Spoiled chickens! We are unheated/uninsulated and have made a horse stall into a coop with an attached protected yard for them outside. I currently only have a herd of 7 very happy hens with one rooster. My egg production only goes down by an egg a day in winter as long as they have a stall with a window in it. This year we are adding a regular size house window to their stall. We found it's all about the light, not heat. We are in Wisconsin so we do see the brutal temps as well. My reason for posting is reading about everyones freezing waterers in winter. I gave up waterers a long time ago. I use 3 gallon water pails for a water source. They stay clean much longer and you don't need to fill them as often. I set the bucket up on a few blocks to keep it off the ground and it works great. They make heated plug in buckets the same size, 3 or 5 gallon we have used for cats, dogs, and horses and they work really nice for the chickens in winter. No ice, no extra work, and they wipe clean when you do change the water.

 

[1muttsfan]

Well, my birds aren't exactly spoiled. No heat, window at least cracked open all winter, winter lows down to -20. Never had even a case of frostbite. We have snow on the ground now, and the first birds out when the pop door opens are my 3 week old Cream Legbar chicks.

Make sure your coops are dry and draft-free, but well-ventilated - any excess moisture in the air at cold temps will increase frostbite risk. Let your birds acclimate as the temps drop. Keep food available at all times. A source of unfrozen water is, in my opinion, crucial to health and well-being.

If it is 0 degrees outside my coop, it is very likely 0 inside as well. But, it is dry and draft-free, with other warm fluffy bodies to cuddle with.

 

[mstricer]

I also don't heat my coops. I have an 8x8 layer coop and 5 bantam cottages and never use heat. My birds freerange in the cold, the only one that seems to not like it is my blind Marans hen, she is always huddled outside.

 

[Charlotte Anne]

Hi my name is Charlotte. I live in Hagersville, Ontario. My husband and I divided a shed in half to build a chicken coop. It's about 8 x 10. We insulated it with R22 Roxul insulation, then stapled plastic over the insulation. Then used partial board for the walls and painted them. We went to a discount flooring place and bought a piece of roll out laminate flooring for $30. It makes for cleaning the floor really easy and looks good too. We placed to flooring vents in the walls for air circulation. We have a very large prexiglas window from a hockey arena as well. An old door was acquired from an abandoned farmhouse. We presently have a 60 watt light on a timer for longer daylight. We originally had a 100 watt heat lamp, but I found the coop was still too cool. We put a 250 watt heat lamp and this works better. Last week I went out to the co-op and got a heated plastic water dispenser. It holds 3 gallons of water and the base has a heater in it that comes on at 35 degrees to keep the water warm. I feed a 18% layer pellet and lots of treats. Spaghetti, baked potatoes, sour cream, yogurt, bananas, kale, rice, raisins, broccoli, cauliflower, rice krispies, etc. Pretty much everything we eat I give the hens. So far, touch wood I get my 6 eggs a day from my 6 Rhode Island Reds.

Charlotte

 

[Sneekee]

So glad i found this forum, i am new to raising chickens and have learned alot. It appears from the responses chickens dont need heat lamps. I had put a couple lamps in and the chickens seemed to love them. They would lay on there side beneath the lamps and stretch out there wings. A couple would even roll over, expose there belly to the lamps, stick there feet up and wiggle there toes next to the bulbs as there eyes rolled back into there heads. Was thinking about getting socks for those particular birds. It hasnt gotten below freezing here yet, glad i found out it is best not to get them used to heat, especially if there is a power outage. So i took the lamps out, and replaced them with a window unit. I figure that way i can pre acclimate them to realy cold temps so if the temp ever does get down to below freezing and the power goes out then to them it will actualy have the opposite effect and they will feel warmer. Dont want to push them to far too fast but next i plan to replace there water with crushed ice and then work them up to solid cubes. I may still get socks for my favorite hen, she is having a hard time adjusting to the ac in the coup after she had gotten so used to sleeping under the heating blanket in my bed. Took a little getting used to at first, but i was getting tired of changing her chicken harness/diaper every morning anyway. My wife isnt realy happy bout putting her outside tho, i think she is experincing empty nest syndrome..... is there a disscussion on empty nest syndrome here at BYC? Bet they have great ideas also on how to deal with this problem too!

 

[Tigertrea]

I just turned on my heat lamp 2 days ago. Both last night and the night, when I went outside around 10pm I noticed that most of my chickens were not sleeping. They were roosted but awake. Some were sleeping but, others had their heads up and looking around.

Last winter was my first with chickens. I used the heat lamp last year also. I also wound up with a horrible case of feather picking by spring. Right now everybody has just finished coming back into feather after molt and, all but one, look great. I thought my feather picking was due to overcrowding since they just didn't want to leave the coop, not even to go out to the run. This winter I have 2 less chickens and really don't believe they are overcrowded.(more than 4sq'/bird) I am now wondering if the red heat lamp bulb is affecting their sleep?

I've read on here many times it usually doesn't so, gave it a try. How many people have had issues using red heat lamp bulbs to warm their chickens/coop?

I keep mine up quite high, above and in front of their roosts. High enough that they cannot reach the lamp but, low enough that some heat makes it down to the roosts.

BTW, I was horribly against providing any heat for them for the "what if" reasons. But, I noticed them huddled together, in their coop, all day, hardly moving. Even when I would go into the coop they'd move, as a group to the other end, a whole 6' and avoid going outside. I just couldn't watch them suffer. After I put the lamp on they were more inclined to move about inside the coop so I believe I lessened their suffering. I totally agree they "should" be able to survive without. Next time I hope I get some heartier chickens!

 

[JacobMaxwell]

I used to strongly believe in heat lamps, I even posted in this thread about it, but this winter I decided to keep an open mind and see how my chickens would do without heat in the coop. Right now, it's -13C and it has been getting down to -20C at night and my hens are fine! There is even frost on the inside of the metals walls on the coop but they are as comfortable as ever. Even my barred rock hen who is moulting is fine. Now I'm really glad I'm not using a lamp! As an added bonus, the pooh is freezing solid, preventing dirty eggs.

 

[Phoenixxx]

We're dropping down to -20 tonight. I have a few non-winter chickens; should I chance it and see how they fare or bring them the heatlamp? They didn't seem to have an issue with -15 so I'm on the fence.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Hokum Coco: my favourite and most clever girl is half chantecler She's not my best layer but was laying 4 days on, one day off like clockwork; since it got cold she cut back to three days on, one day off which is still pretty good! (I mark the hens' days off on the calendar )

 

[JacobMaxwell]

For those of you who are using a heat lamp right now, I'm just going to say that you don't necessarily have to keep that lamp on, because right now it's -28C where I live and my hens are absolutely fine in the metal uninsulated chicken house. Personally I think the little bit of extra heat that a lamp gives is not worth the hazard of fire, at least in my small, short coop. It is totally up to you to use heat or not and I'm not trying to offend anyone.