How do you heat the laying boxes?

[RonP]

Last night at 8pm, my coop temperatures were 16F.

I removed the late layers eggs, they felt cool to the touch.

Once inside, I took their temps.

38 to 42F...

Well above the 28F freezing point.


My birds wake up at 5:30am.

This morning 7:45am, coop temps were 14F, and had been 14F since 10:30 last night.

Once inside, I took the eggs temps.

44 to 51F... probably still retaining some heat from the hens.


Unlike last year, we had a relatively warm December, and this is the first week with daytime temps much below freezing.

 

[Cluckies]

the wood chips were very warm. I think maybe I had put to many on top of the mat... created insulation, as the temp of the wood chips increased, then the matt increased, then the wood chips increased, ect... no biggy, the eggs only seem to freeze on days where is stays below zero, or close to zero all day. 2 eggs today, not frozen.

 

[snaffle]

Sorry I can't give any suggestions for heating the nests, but wanted to share a few things.

We finished our new chicken house April of 2014. We insulated the walls and ceilings and hopefully have enough venting. It measures 10 x 20 and we have 23 standard chickens and a dozen cochin banties.The amount of chickens helps keep the inside of the coop between 15 and 32 depending on the outside temperature which has been close to zero lately.

I have a light set on a timer to come on at 3:30.When I go out at 8 to do chores, many of the hens have already layed their eggs and they are being kept warm by the hens next in line to lay. We try to go out every 2 hours and check for more.

The last eggs are layed around 1.

I find the idea of heating the next very interesting.

 

[EagleEyes]

The last eggs are layed around 1.

Seriously? My hens lay them when ever they feel like it. anywhere's from sun up till dusk.

Ron tell them about your heating setup.
If I wasn't so cheep, I'd do the same.

 

[Cluckies]

Has anybody tried these snuggle safe microwave heat pad under the bedding in the nesting boxes to keep the eggs from freezing? On another thread a guy mentioned he used them under their waterer to keep the water unfrozen for a few hours.

 

[RonP]

Ron tell them about your heating setup.
If I wasn't so cheep, I'd do the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RonP

Last year we had some unusually cold weather for our area, many days never reaching above freezing.

Although the birds and my cookie tin water heater did just fine, I froze quite a few eggs.

My work schedule allows me only to collect at 8am and 8pm. I lost dozens due to them freezing solid.

I have decided to heat the laying boxes.

My plan is to use seed heat mats on the bottom of the nests, covered with a heavy paper leaf bag . I use shredded junk mail as nesting material. I have been using the leaf bags and shredded paper for many years now it works very well for my needs.

The heat pads claim to raise the temperature 10 to 20 degrees.

The power will come from the light timer, on at 5:30am off at 9pm, then through a thermo cube, on at 35F off at 45F.

I would love your ideas or thoughts on this.

We had a full week of temps never reaching above freezing.

Not as cold as others, but still cold enough for me to have had many eggs freeze in the past...

Not one egg collected was below 40F, even though many were collected after 8pm, and coop temps were in the teens.

Heated Nesting Boxes are working great!

 

[RonP]

Update:

We have had an unusually cold February for my area, many day temperatures only in the teens.

My schedule allows egg collection once around 8AM and once around 8PM.

The heated nest boxes are working as designed, flawlessly!

This year to date I have had 0 frozen eggs, whereas last year I had literally dozens...

My coldest recorded egg temperatures was 33F, significantly above the 28F threshold for egg freezing.

That particular day, daytime high temperatures in the coop were in the low teens, and the eggs were collected at 8:30pm.

 

[aart]

 

[lm84]

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.

 

[Kmath]

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?