How do you heat the laying boxes?

[RonP]

I have quite a small coop. Would a large heat lamp in the middle keep the nesting boxes to the side of it warm enough the eggs don't freeze?

PLEASE do a quick search on heat lamps and the dangers and risks involved using them.

 

[Kmath]

How e

PLEASE do a quick search on heat lamps and the dangers and risks involved using them.

how else?

 

[RonP]

I can vouch for Ron's method too. I am also in NJ and my eggs were freezing. We haven't built permanent nest boxes yet so we have 2 plastic crates we have been using lined with straw. We already had 2 seedling mats and bought the thermocube at Home Depot. The only thing we haven't done is put the mats on a timer. No excuse really, but with the ice and snow I can't always get to the coop that day so the heat mats keep the eggs from freezing overnight until we can get them the next morning. We have had NO frozen eggs in the boxes, and only one here or there that is laid outside of the box from our young chickens that just started laying. The last 2 nights it's been below 0 and still no frozen eggs. The chickens also don't seem to be hanging out in the boxes just for the heat either.

Great information!

My boxes have never seen temperatures around 0 since I remove the eggs and the mats "turn off" at 9pm.

Daytime temps haven't been in the single digits as yet this season.

My girls also haven't changed their habits at all with the addition of the heated nests.

All roost as normal, and no poop in boxes.

 

[RonP]

How e
how else?

I'm not sure I understand your question.

Click here for a recent discussion on the dangers of using heat lamps.

Click here for a safer method of heating your nest boxes.

 

[Kmath]

Are you guys talking Fahrenheit or Celsius??

 

[RonP]

Are you guys talking Fahrenheit or Celsius??

Fahrenheit

 

[nab58]

I haven't had an egg freeze and crack since I switched from lining my nest boxes with pine needles to straw. I also have a layer of straw on the coop floor where in the past it was covered in only sweet PDZ.
It's been sub zero and windy for what seems like forever.

 

[Kmath]

Coldest we got here was -22 Celsius. I'll have to find a way to keep my new one warm when I build it. I don't want to have heatpads. That to me poses a risk all on it's own.

 

[RonP]

Coldest we got here was -22 Celsius. I'll have to find a way to keep my new one warm when I build it. I don't want to have heatpads. That to me poses a risk all on it's own.

Cold hardy, fully feathered, healthy breeds will have no issues in a draft free well ventilated coop till temperatures well below -22C.

This was the motivation behind only heating the nests.

 

[RonP]

I haven't had an egg freeze and crack since I switched from lining my nest boxes with pine needles to straw. I also have a layer of straw on the coop floor where in the past it was covered in only sweet PDZ.
It's been sub zero and windy for what seems like forever.

As straw will not by itself generate heat, why do you suppose the eggs no longer freeze, as I'm sure they are still exposed to ambient air temperatures.