How do you heat your coops

[Rooster Rules]

I agree completely. For example, my situation with 5 birds and a coop that gives them 15 to 20 cubic feet per bird is very different from that of someone with 25 birds and 8 or 10 cu. ft. per bird. In the later case, the body warmth of all their chickens will warm the coop; in my case much less so.
Not at all. Give them a choice, they'll go out when they want, come in when they want.

Mine have free choice all day, and they come and go. If it's above 15 degrees they'll stay outside all day. If it's below 5 degrees they'll go inside for an hour, then come outside for an hour, then back inside.. they make their own decision. I have a ceramic emitter bulb (as I showed in a photo a page or two ago), it's on a timer, double bolted to the ceiling, basically raises the temp inside the coop by 4 to 8 degrees, just enough to take off a bit of chill. Inside they are also out of the wind. All their food and water is outside. When it was below zero yesterday morning they still came out for a while, then went inside for a half hour before coming out again.

When it hit -8 f overnight the heated dog dish did start to freeze up, although not completely.


I'm not a physicist, but I expect moving air has a different effect on inanimate things than does static air. Anyone able to confirm that?

Hi thanx for the advice on the outdoor time for the chix, today it is far to cold to open them up, -20f, and -36f windchill. Maybe later in the afternoon. This is very cold for even our region this time of the year, January and early Feb yes, but not early December, usually -2 to -4 f over night and 10 to 15 above during the day.
I firmly believe that windchill can have an effect on a cop or building by creating a convection loss of heat much faster. I find if it is say -10f, and no wind, my house stays warmer easier, furnace cycles less, more comfortable, automobiles the same thing, warms up quicker, maintains warmth better. Now the ambient temp in a building or vehicle, may register no different than the actual ambient temperatures, they will need more heat to allow it to maintain temps with increasing windchill factors. I am, not a scientist either, but this has been my experience. Can you imagine -30f temps with a 40-50 mph wind, that's like -60 to -80 windchill temps.
I have a large heated dog dish outside, it is for my dogs when they go out, is mostly ice free believe it or not.
I am getting really tired of the rhetoric some must expound, on this topic. I would prefer no heating either, but am not going to subject my birds to that much of a deep freeze. I know many others in the past in this area raised chickens without heat, maybe I am wrong, but want to allow some comfort to these little bantams if I can.
In the winter up here, during these cold snaps, wildlife, will start to die, including wild chickens, partridges and grouse, this is very bitter cold.
I am considering staying off this forum for a while, sick of this debate, I have often wondered where the Moderators are, at times, not that people are feuding, but sometimes, it seems like it.......

 

[Bert2368]

I'm not a physicist, but I expect moving air has a different effect on inanimate things than does static air. Anyone able to confirm that?

I'm not a physicist, but my dad was-

It would maybe help people dealing with keeping there chickens from freezing to understand how heat is lost?

Cooling occurs by 3 mechanisms:

1: Radiation
Object emits energy as infra red, becomes cooler. Anything warmer than it's environment does this- Pipes, chickens, the earth on a clear night with no cloud cover to reflect the IR back down...
(look at a picture of a chicken on an IR camera to see this happening)


If you wrapped your chicken in IR reflective Mylar ("a space blanket"), you can cut down on this kind of loss. Probably a better idea to do that to the henhouse interior... I put such a layer under the OUTSIDE skin of my coop to keep it cooler in summer.


2: Conduction
Object touches something, heat is transferred from the warmer object to the colder one by molecular vibration. Rate depends on the difference in temperatures, and the conductivity, size & heat capacity of the objects. Wet air has a higher heat capacity than dry air- but may be less dense, as water vapor is less dense than dry air!
It's a complex relation between humidity, temperature and heat capacity. Net effect, the damp air has a higher heat capacity, it can suck more heat out of your body per surface area touching that air.

All the people telling you that keeping the humidity down at low temperatures can be more important than keeping warmer but wetter air inside your coop are correct. And you obviously want a low conduction material for a roost (wood), not a metal bar that will freeze their toes off.

Here's a calculator for technically minded folks to play with:
http://www.coolit.co.za/airstate/airmoistobject.htm


Convection:
(to an engineer, both air and water are considered "fluid mediums")
In a fluid medium contacting a warmer object, heating causes expansion to the fluid. The warmer, less dense fluid rises away from the warm object (chicken, heated water pan, you, etc.), pulling more cold fluid up after it into contact with the object and speeding the heat transfer beyond what would occur from plain conduction.

Instead of building up a warmed area of air in contact with the chicken, pipe, or whatever and so slowing the rate of heat loss, constantly bringing more cold air into contact with it either by hot air rising (natural convection) or a brisk wind blowing past causes heat to be lost faster.

So you have a coop that keeps them out of the wind, and keep drafts away from your roosting chickens...


Evaporative cooling:
On top of all these ways to lose heat, live animals have water in them. When the water leaves them by converting from liquid to water vapor, it sucks about 540 calories of heat out of you or your chicken or your boiling tea kettle for every gram of water that they lose as vapor. You lose water as vapor when exhaling, or off your skin as sweat dries. You're a tropical animal, so your whole surface is an evaporative cooler... Your chickens don't sweat, but in hot weather they will gape their beak and pant, trying to evaporate more water.

The reason moister air AT OR NEAR ROOM TEMPERATURE feels warmer to you is because you lose less water vapor to it than you would to dry air of the same temperature.

Evaporative cooling interacts with convective cooling too, moving more dry air past water causes more of it to evaporate. Hence your turning on a fan on a hot day, and the nice feeling from a cool breeze.

Here's some information on energy and phase changes between ice, liquid water and water vapor:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/phase.html

Hope that this gave you some tools to figure out what's going on with your chickens and the cold...

 

[Hokum Coco]

Deleted

 

[ten chicks]

I too am well versed in Murphy's Law <sigh> it dictates my life. This is a sample of my life for the past two weeks,it all started with the dryer... (broken motor pulley) husband lost his ipad, $5000.00 car repair,dishwasher acting up.frozen pump,but the very worst thing was my cat dying,he was always ill in health,but i was able to pull him through whenever he had a relapse. This time i could not help him,i tried all the meds,syringe feeding him,etc,but in the end he was just to weak/ill and passed away in my arms looking at me,he gave one final purr and was gone, This above all else did me in,i can handle the broken car/dryer/dishwasher,etc,but his passing was very difficult. His brother(they were both born in my house,i have the mom and dad)still runs around going from room to room,looking for him,very sad.

So yes,Murphy's Law and i are very old acquaintances,one that i wish would stay away and not bother me,ever.


I am female,Lol

~Mia

Neglected to mention the flat tire in the middle of nowhere,with the locking nut piece thing missing from my car.....some person in my house found it,the day after i paid a $100.00 tow bill,in his vortex that he calls a garage.....i'm smiling really i am!

 

[Rooster Rules]

@ Roosterules I realize it is a public form but my posting was directed @ Tenchicks.
Plus I private message the man Oops female! so you are somewhat out of the loop.

Okay makes sense....

 

[Our Roost]

An inside coop thermometer will help you recognize the difference between inside and outside coop temps. One thing is for sure, it will never get any colder inside than the current temp outside. It was 10 degrees outside yesterday and inside my coop early morning, it was 19 degrees. I have 21 birds in an 8 x 16 ft coop. They put out a lot of their own heat and moisture during the night when roosting. A lot of warm chicken droppings alsoVery important to have adequate air ventilation due to the condensation. Trust that properly placed man made ventilation and a tightly built coop is better than a drafty one. Typically, there are many varied opinions on this site in regards to heat and lighting. Primarily I have light in the coop used more for my own purposes than the chickens. Its not for heat, its for me to see where I am going and what I am doing! Easier to see what you are doing with light than without! The sun rises in the east and settles in the west. Good to know that in the dark! Go ahead and laugh, but I have a common ordinary night light on all the time for both the chickens and myself. I find that new chicks introduced to the coop really do better with it than being in total darkness. Afterall, they have been under a heat lamp while growing and are used to some light. At dusk they all settle into the coop much better with it. If you live in a frigid climate, some insulation will help keep natural heat from the chickens contained. Build your coop tight. Space to chicken ratio is important and better than heat as they provide their own from expeling out warm air and moisture. To few chickens in a large coop will be colder than with the right amount to fill up the space needed. There is a ratio for that also. Each chicken requires a minimum amount of squuare footage adequate to live in. Trust that if you erect and build your coop properly with good building materials, the chickens will supply the heat mostly. As I mentioned before, your climate may deem some heat may be needed if your coop temp demands it. Observation of your chickens and how they are fairing will tell the whole story.

 

[jason_boivin]

How many of you are going to put an AC unit in your coops in summer. Chickens have lived a long time with out heated and insulated coops. They have nice down coats they are fine in the cold. What are you going to do for them when its 95 and they are still wearing that down coat?

 

[TXchickmum]

I have considered an AC. -gets to be 105+ here in the summer. -used a misting system/fans last summer. -thinking a small AC might go in the coop this year.

 

[Our Roost]

How many of you are going to put an AC unit in your coops in summer. Chickens have lived a long time with out heated and insulated coops. They have nice down coats they are fine in the cold. What are you going to do for them when its 95 and they are still wearing that down coat?

Really? Did you count up the survivors or what? What year was that? I've been around 66 years and don't know of any chickens that old to tell me about the winters they lived through. I dont remember my grandfather mentioning it either now that I think of it. Let me remember a bit. Yep! we had coal and oil heat back then before natural gas. Burnt wood in the fireplace also. During the depression years we ate a lot of chicken also, but they are all dead now. Sorry, but I cant remember eating any chicken without cooking them first. Im quite sure we used heat back then though! Good post.

 

[Gargoyle]

I've talked about the cold here, since that is the topic of the thread, but yes, heat bothers my chickens much more than cold. I do add a fan, set in locations that are very safe; outside a fence blowing in, they like to stand in front of it on the hot summer days. They also like a pan of water that they can stand in, but I have to change that quickly- it gets dirty and they drink from it. I also have a number of extra windows on their coop that I cover with plastic in the window, open up (but still covered tightly with hardware cloth) in the summer so there is a lot of ventilation.