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

[mamaboyd]

Our temps are going down to -29 celsius, so we have the heat lamp on tonight. I'm just hoping it doesn't keep them awake all night. Should we be using a red heat lamp bulb instead??

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Quote:
That's what I was wondering. Mine are having a party right now. I went back out to the coop to go check on them and they had settle a little, but half of them are still partying. I guess it should be a red infrared heat lamp or a ceramic heat lamp that has no light. I'm debating on turning it off for the night.

 

[claud]

I've never heated my coop - gets down to 0 here occassionally. I think it depends somewhat on the breed of chickens you have. RIRs I know are cold hardy. The biggest killer in cold weather seems to be wind - if they can get out of the wind and on a proper roost they should be fine.

 

[ozark hen]

claud, I am so glad you posted that about your temp and no heat. We do not have heat in our coop rooms (two of them). We did put a 60 wt bulb over two small water bowls in the small room. We use deep litter method and have 32 chickens/guineas in there. Even the 60wt. is on a timer though. Goes off at 8 p.m. and comes on at 7 a.m. North and outside walls are insulated as well. so I am banking on their own body heat. I will see what happens tonight since it is getting down near or just at single digits.
I know we have lots of Amish in the county and they do not heat their coops. Outside waterers were froze solid this morning but not inside the coops. No drafts are getting in the coops so maybe we will be ok tonight.

 

[Smitty's Farm]

Claud: That is good to hear. I am also glad you posted that about your temp. It's about 14 degrees F outside here now and dropping every hour I check it. (The weather says it feels like -2 degress & I agree!) The wind is still blowing, but not as bad as it was. As far as breeds, I think the EE & SLW are listed as cold hearty, but the RIR (rooster) is prone to frostbite, but I have RIR pullets.

What are the temps inside your coop when it's that cold?

Maybe I'll turn the light off and let the party chickens get some sleep.

Man, I wish I had that camera in the coop now.

Ozark hen: Did you get the water wiggler, willy thingy?

 

[DougD]

Smitty's Farm wrote
Re: Cold chickens.....when to use heat lamp?
Where did everyone find the ceramic lights? All I could find is the infrared at Rural King

Ceramic heat lamps at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_h...supplies&field-keywords=ceramic+heat&x=8&y=18

Also available directly from Pet Solutions:
http://www.petsolutions.com/Heat-Wave-Lamp+I15522045.aspx

Also, I recommend you use a good quality fixture with a ceramic base socket for any of these or the heat lamp bulbs. Not the ones with plastic sockets.
Example: http://www.amazon.com/Designers-Edge-Incandescent-Brooder-E-240/dp/B000E8OTTQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1199272029&sr=8-1
You can probably find a similar fixture locally.​

 

[jjthink]

Cynthia, I would be in deep doo doo (pardon the pun) if I had more than 2, that's for sure! 2 make enough poo that you'd think elephants were in residence. Once, when heat was really extreme around here (115 with heat index) I did bring BJ and (then) Betty into my basement for a few days to get them through it. Could never have managed that with a boatload of chickens - it took me forever to clean that room as it was!

I get the ceramic heat lamps at Petsmart - 150 watt, 250 watt......heat, no light.

I would love to know where to get the thermostatically controlled thingy so that the heat could go off at a certain temp.... because sometimes the one heat lamp makes the coop too hot and then the differential in temps is too extreme...

JJ

 

[anya40]

My coop is actually in the barn. It is a huge corner of the barn fenced on two sides and barn walls make the other two sides. They have a dirt floor and no wind factor. But, it is still horribly cold in there! I have two heat lamps hanging over their roost. We had one other day that got as cold as this one and the girls seemed to do ok. I'm almost afraid to go out and check on them this morning. I even have tarps hanging over the two fenced walls just to make sure I do everything I can to keep them from freezing to death. I have two bales of straw in their nests and all over the floor also. Barring getting them a heater (and I've thought about it), I don't know what else I can do for them. I think they are better off inside the barn without the wind getting to them, so that is some encouragement. I just hope they make it through this winter. This is their first one. I long for the days last year when they were safe and warm in my bathroom!

 

[ozark hen]

It is ten degrees outside right now. I just went out to check on my chickens...no heat in the coop. They were all fine. We do have one 60wt bulb over two small waterers. They were fine and the chickens were drinking those. The large waterer in the large room without a bulb over it was froze though. We will need to remedy that today. Just putting a bulb over that waterer will work fine. I am not concerned over them being cold now as I picked one up and her feet were nice and warm from roosting on them with all those feathers. I do have cold weather hardy birds too.
well, it just dropped to nine degrees, always coldest just before dawn.

 

[speckledhen]

It's 14 degrees this morning with 1" of snow on the ground. They were all just fine. It didn't feel too bad inside the insulated coops and the water wasn't frozen, except in the Ameraucanas' coop. The coiled up RV pipe defroster in the Currier & Ives tin the water sits on didn't do the job in this type of cold so DH hung a 60 watt reptile bulb over the top of it. They have a 100 watt red flood in the coop we leave on in frigid weather due to their small coop being the coldest, but it didn't help the water too much. A double walled coop makes a huge difference and this one isn't. The birds themselves seem just fine, though. Supposed to be colder tonight. The forecast for my town says 10 degrees, but at my altitude, it will most likely be 5. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr