Thinking about heating my chicken house

[BarnyardChaos]

Oh, and I want to add... whichever heater you go with, be sure it's secured. I used duct tape to attach mine to a 2x12 scrap of lumber so that it couldn't be knocked over, or knocked loose from its feet. The board also held the heater above the wood shavings on the floor, so less risk of contact with combustible material.

 

[WoDia]

An addition to my first post… I have thermometers to monitor interior temperature. When it drops drastically, I turn on the panel heaters. Most of my chickens and quail acclimate to the colder temperatures fine. But, a positive thing the panels do is provide a cozier small area for any bird wanting some extra warmth. When I do my morning check, I’ll find them snuggled together in front of the heat panels. And, I’m not as worried about molting and/or older birds getting too cold and sick during nights when there’s extreme lows. I’m not saying that a molting (etc) bird would even choose to cozy up to a heat panel, but experience tells me that they do much of the time. In years passed, I’ve opened a door on a particularly frigid morning (pre- heat panels) finding a chicken or quail huddled and shivering. I’m not willing to risk losing one like that, so I provide some extra comfort. We all have our preferences, but I respectfully disagree with some opinions. Whatever I can do to help my flocks through those frigid nights, goes a long way toward all that they contribute. My Seramas are another story. I do keep their building temperature above 40 degrees using a wall-mounted heater with overheat shutoff feature, temperature control, etc. The only drawback is that the filter has to be cleaned 1-2 times a day. I have a small metal ramp mounted above the output and a hardware cloth cage around it to prevent anything larger than dust to land on the output. I’m seriously considering what @Debbie292d uses to provide warmth for her Silkies. Sounds appealing.

 

[Dokdream]

I know a lot of people are against heating a chicken house or coop and say they don't need it, it's too dangerous ect. But I live in Northern Arkansas US and last year it got down to -3 F. I'm not comfortable with having my chickens go through that again. Previous years I've hauled hot rocks from my wood room to their house and carried 5 gallon buckets with hot water (keeping the lid on so as not to add water to the air) into their house to try to keep the temperature up in their dwelling. But this year I finally got electricity and light to my chicken house so now I have new options. (and lets be honest I'm tired of carrying really heavy things down an icy slope to my birds)
Flat panel heater on AmazonI am looking at one of these heaters, any thoughts? I want to do this as safely as possible. My little chicken house is not drafty, I have sealed up a lot of the cold areas, put a big chunk of foam in their window so it's sealed up good. But regularly it can only maintain about an 8 degree difference from the outside temperature at night. I currently have 24 chickens and they are free range until it gets bad with snow and ice and then I do keep them in their house. I know you don't want to ruin their cold hardiness so I'm not trying to make it like the Bahamas in their house, but I really don't like it when it gets into the teens in there. Especially when some of these total dumb dumb birds decide that January and February (the coldest months for me) are a nice time to molt and run around naked.
I want to try to do this safely so please let me know if there are safe heating options I can use and if the flat panel heater is a good one
Edit: my brother says the flat panel heater won't do me any good for the size of my house and says I need something like this oil heater

I bought inexpensive heaters. I have one with thermostat and one without. For the latter I bought a thermostat and an AC duplex outlet. I wired it up and set the temperature to go OFF at 60F. It is mounted just below the roof (small hutch). For the first heater, I built a metal box with hardware cloth grill in the hutch wall and mounted it higher than the nesting area. (The heater box itself is outside the hutch.) It also goes off at 60F. The chickens ignore both heaters; no evidence of the hens pecking at them. Yes, I monitor the heaters daily, cleaning off dust as necessary. The hutches are insulated so the girls do stay cozy. So far, so good.