Sponsored Post Tips From Nutrena: The Heat is On, But is heating the coop really necessary in winter?

[JenniO11]

This "Tips From Nutrena" post is brought to us by Nutrena

There are many aspects of poultry care that are frequently debated. Using an artificial heat source in your coop during winter is one those potentially “hot” topics. While there is no perfect answer, the majority of poultry owners may not need heat lamps, electric heaters and other such devices. Here’s why.

The average chicken has 8,500 feathers (assuming the bird is through molt), which is a pretty warm winter coat. But here’s the hitch: poultry owners must allow that downy insulation to fully develop, so on cold nights, the chickens can fluff their feathers and tuck in their toes to keep warm. This can only happen if we let the brood naturally acclimate to falling temperatures. Tiffany Towne, a poultry expert with Nutrena®, explains a common downfall.

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“People often want to humanize their animals. That’s understandable, especially with backyard chickens, which often become beloved family pets. But just because a poultry owner is cold, it doesn’t mean his or her chickens are,” explains Towne, who lives on a small farm in Eastern Washington. “In fact, we may be doing our chickens a disservice by not letting them acclimate to the changing season and then expecting them to go between weather extremes as they travel in and out of the coop.”

According to Towne, who has a background in raising ducks, laying hens and meat birds, acclimated chickens can often survive cold temperatures (even subzero temps) to -20 degrees F. She believes that heating lamps should be used only as a last resort in drastically cold temperatures. If you’re convinced your girls are chilly – and they’ll show it by huddling, moving slow, or sporting frostbitten combs -- try these options before adding any external sources of heat.

Choose Winter-Hardy Breeds
If you’re just starting your flock and live in a cold weather part of the country, you can manage your flock easier through the bitterly cold months by choosing the right chicken breeds. Below is a good representation of birds that are hardy through the winter, usually continue to lay (at a limited rate with artificial light), and fare well in cold temps: Delaware, Dominique, Jersey Giant, Orpington, Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, and Wynadotte.

Things are a little different if you already own breeds with large combs and/or without standard feathers, like
Silkies and Frizzles who can’t puff out their feathers and hold body heat in the air spaces. Fancy-feathered breeds (for example, Polish) can also have problems with their ornamental feathers in ice and snow. For birds without standard feathers, be especially diligent in watching for signs of cold stress. The heat lamps may need to come out just to help them maintain warmth. For fancy-feathered breeds, special care must be taken to keep them out of ice, snow and mud that may adhere to feathers.

Prevent Damp Conditions
Precipitation and wind chill can dramatically decrease a chicken’s threshold for withstanding cold. Make sure the coop is draft free and doesn’t let in precipitation – aim for still, dry air. Also keep the humidity down with proper ventilation and don’t automatically rush to shut vents in a cold snap. While you’ll prevent some heat loss, you risk raising the humidity, which can cause just as much frostbite as the cold.

Keep a Cozy (but not too cozy) Coop
Use temporary barriers to sheet off areas and make the coop smaller. This will allow for the brood’s natural body heat to warm the smaller interior space. But don’t make it so small that your girls get crabby and start misbehaving. Also insulate the walls and ceiling and consider deep litter bedding to add some additional warmth. Start with four to five inches of dry organic matter (leaves, pine needs, wood shavings, straw, etc.) and gradually add more bedding throughout the winter. Reduce mucking to one or two thorough cleanings annually.

Good Nutrition
Winter is not the time to skimp on quality feed, especially since free-range sources are depleted. You’ll want to continue feeding a high-quality, high-energy layer feed like Nutrena® NatureWise® to keep the brood strong and healthy. Keep water fresh and take steps to prevent it from freezing.

If you insist on an artificial heat source, know your winter weather conditions well. If a winter power outage is a possibility, be sure to have a Plan B in place for heating the coop. If it’s damp or if your chickens have not been acclimated to the cold weather, they may start suffering earlier than their well-acclimated counterparts.

Finally, know your chickens and their “benchmark” behavior. Watch for any signs of temperature trouble in the coop. If you’ve done your homework and are using the best chicken and coop management techniques, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll need the expense and potential hassles/hazards of a heat lamp.

To find a Nutrena dealer near you, visit www.NutrenaPoultryFeed.com.

 

[JackE]

The pic below was taken with the temp right around 10F. The front of the(Unheated, uninsulated) coop is wide open. That's a 3.5X7' hole in the front. The design of this coop goes back almost 100yrs. It was common knowledge that chickens did not need heat, waaaaay back then.
And yet today, people put THEIR own human limitations with cold temps, on their chickens. You ARE NOT doing those birds any favors by artificially adding heat, they don't need it. If anything, you are messing with their nature given ability to deal with weather conditions.
Don't pack them in too small a coop like sardines, give them a dry well lit, draft free coop, and they will be fine. If your birds are getting frostbite, it's probably because you have shut off too much ventilation/fresh air, and the humidity in the coop is too high. Or, you have too many birds in too small a coop, and whatever ventilation you have can't handle the CO2, and ammonia output from them.

 

[bruceha2000]

If it makes you feel better to preach to people, preach away. You do not really know everyone's circumstances and why they do everything they do. I appreciate the shared knowledge and experience from members of this site. You come off sounding like a know-it-all who thinks everyone should do things your way. For your information, I have PLENTY of ventilation. If we didn't put up protection, our coop WOULD "feel" the windchill as wind here in KS blows over sixty miles per hour more often than we would like. We work during the day and can't run out and change the water every hour. During those polar vortex periods, the water would freeze in less than thirty minutes. THAT is why I heat: so the girls will have water. I think most of us are smart enough to realize that we will have to provide some way of keeping the water warmer next winter. Nipples would be nice, to help them avoid frostbite from water contact when they drink from a container and sling it around, but even nipples can freeze up and be damaged with the temperatures that we have had. Roosting perches should not be where a chicken has to jump down over a height of eighteen inches. If perches are too high, they will need ramps or some means of getting to a perch that is over eighteen inches high. If people want to raise them up higher in their coops, because it is warmer up high, that is their choice. My coop is not a "walk in" design. I use deep litter method and have plenty of ventilation (roof, door, window and wall vents). I am not operating anything electrical in my water containers. They have a heat lamp HIGH above the water area and that is just fine. Even with that, the water there, in the coop, would freeze when the temperatures were below zero. I never claimed that heat made my chickens lay eggs. If one uses a heat lamp (I do) that provides some extra light, that is a personal choice. Whatever you want to do with your chickens is fine by me. My chickens never "hang out" around the waterer, where there is some heat. If they did, I'd be more concerned that there may be a health problem--not that they were cold. I don't heat the area for the benefit of keeping the chickens warm and toasty, but so that they do not go without water while we are not home. If our chickens are healthy and from all appearances, happy, it is no business of yours to tell us how we should do things. But thanks for the "suggestions". I see that you don't think heating a coop is necessary. You are not alone. But most (not all) people can convey that without making others sound like we must have designed our coops incorrectly if we are using heat. That isn't necessarily the case. It just happens to be our choice. If I don't mind paying my electric bill, it isn't your concern.

Your response was to everything I posted, not just my reply to your entry. Please do not think that my responses to other posts were meant to apply to you specifically.


I am sorry I offended or came across as "preachy".

- Your post didn't say that you heated as the only way to keep the water from freezing and yes I recognize that everyone does what they need to to solve specific problems.
- You will note that I mentioned the problem I have with nipple waterers outside the coop but still in the barn, they freeze at about 15F even with circulating heated water, thus the 250W heat lamp over the plastic waterer when it is colder. The nipples in the pipe built into the floor of the nest box and insulated with JUST the metal pins sticking out didn't freeze even at -20F. The nest box is in the coop.

It was that unfortunate need to use the heat lamp and seeing the chickens' response to the availability of heat that convinced me 100% that very few people have a need to heat their coops FOR THE CHICKENS' comfort. I would have bet that a moulting chicken would hang by the heat when it was sub zero F if not even a lot warmer. But they don't.

CGoguen's experience suggests the same thing from the opposite "side". Mine choose not to go to the heat during the day when they have the opportunity to do so. CGoguen's chickens CHOSE to sleep in the run BECAUSE the coop was heated.

Find some of the posts from last winter where people in Florida were fretting about it getting down near freezing and heating their coops because the chickens would be too cold. The intent of my post was to demonstrate the very cold temperatures at which chickens voluntarily avoid heat. My chickens don't mind cold and they don't mind wind but NOT at the same time. They pretty much hang in the barn (VERY old and drafty other than in the coop which is a converted horse stall) if it is below about 20F unless there is no wind outside AND it is sunny AND there is open ground. They like to eat the snow off my boots, but if there is nothing to interest them outside, they choose not to go in the snow very much. With no bugs or growing stuff out there, there isn't anything interesting to them. But if we get a warm spell (meaning above freezing) and the snow melts by the path I shovel to get to the barn, they will go out to nip at whatever green grass they can find if it isn't cold AND windy.

Do your chickens have roosts higher than 18" and if so, do they use a ramp? I have two parallel 10' roosts at 4' and an 8' one 9" forward of that at 2'. None ever sleep on the 2' roost. Most of the girls use the 2' one as a mid stop on the way up when they are all jockeying for position but they can all fly to 4' if needed. Some more easily than others of course, depends on the breed and size. The smallest 2 are Cubalayas, about 2/3 the size of a standard chicken and they are flyers. 4' for them is a hop and 4 flaps almost straight up. Same with an Ancona that will fly to my shoulder sometimes (no idea why, I'm not inviting her) and that is about 5'. But if there isn't enough distance forward of a roost for both going up (easy) and more importantly coming down (they aren't helicopters so they need some "runway"), I guess they might need a ramp parallel to the roosts. The problem with ramps is chicken poop ;-)

I stand by some of my statements "for all" - specifically:
- If there is air blowing over the birds in the winter, the coop DOES need to be changed/redesigned.
- If there is too much humidity due to lack of ventilation, the coop DOES need to be changed/redesigned. It isn't just for frostbite, the ammonia buildup is much more of a danger to the birds.
- There is no reason to have a light on during the day FOR LIGHT unless there is no natural light.
- It has to be REALLY cold for a chicken to need heat for THEMSELVES.

Bruce

 

[popsicle]

Thank you! I frequently find myself frustrated that some people imply that I'm mistreating or not compassionate enough to my birds for not adding heat. They just don't need it and I do think it's a disservice and potentially dangerous to not let them cope with the weather. We frequently have very strong winds in this part of Montana, power can and will go out.

 

[StacyAK]

I live in Alaska and am new to chickens. I am using my Grandpas old coop that is built onto the back of his garage (we are neighbors) and he had a blower vent (like the one in your bathroom ceiling) installed in the wall to blow warm air from the garage into the coop. With that going it stays about 20-30F inside the coop and is also good for ventilation. It has been getting well below 0 for about a month and everyone seems to be doing fine. As long as the sun is up all the ladies and ducks are outside in the run. Even at -10. Main reason I heat the coop is so I don't have to deal with waterers that are frozen rock solid. I have the water right in front of the blower vent so it keeps everything nice and thawed

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I could certainly see why many people don't provide any heat, but what about somewhere like where I live, Manitoba Canada? During the worst periods of winter it often stays around -30'C for weeks on end and sometimes gets into the-40s'c? My hen house isn't insulated but is solid with no drafts.

There is an Alaskan chicken owners thread on BYC somewhere, and if you search for Chickens in Alaska you should be able to find out what other Northern chicken owners do to help their hens through the winter.

 

[JackE]

Insulation is a waste of time and money if it is for 'keeping the chickens warm'. If your coop is properly ventilated, you are not keeping any heat in. The only good thing, as far as insulation in a chicken coop, is in the summertime/hotter months. Having insulation under the roof to help absorb roof heat. If you bother with insulating the walls, you will have to install interior walls. Otherwise the birds will make a quick mess of the insulation. After you go through the unnecessary time and expense of adding those interior walls, all you will have done is supplied a great out of view place for Mr. mouse (Or rat) to set up housekeeping of their own.

 

[omaeve]

My coop has 19 breeding pens each 3#4 feet with 19 waterer's to freeze I put in three light sockets rated for the 250 heatlamp bulbs. Keeps the coop just warm enough to keep waters from freezing in more northern climes , I would use 4

 

[bruceha2000]

We are having a week-long "Arctic Freeze", as most of the country is. I am glad we heated. One of the girls got a bit of frostbite on one ear lobe. She may have splashed water on it (water freezes almost instantly when poured or sloshed out of the bowl), When the temperatures get back to 20s and 30s at night, I am sure they won't need the heat. If I heated their coop when it is thirty degrees, it would be at least sixty degrees inside it. They don't need it that warm, for sure! The wind chill tonight is supposed to be in the negative figures. I do like getting eggs every day. That's the biggest benefit for us.

Frostbite means high humidity not low temp and yes, if they get wet, it will freeze. One of my Ancona girls had a little graying on her wattles earlier this winter. They have nipple waterers and I'm sure they get a drip or two once in a while. Both the Anconas (stupidly HUGE combs) and ONLY the Anconas had some graying winter of 2013 but no frost bite loss. Come the moult, their combs shrank to nothing and came back just fine.

Windchill means NOTHING unless the wind blows through your coop and over your chickens. And if that is the case, you need to redesign.

Heat doesn't give you eggs any more than having a rooster gives you eggs. 14 hours of light fools their bodies into "thinking" it is summer, egg laying season.

I wasn't planning to heat my coop at all, but several of my girls started sporting pale, frostbite-y looking tips to their combs after 3 days with lows around 0 and highs in the teens . . . I have 8 pullets (well, all laying but not yet 1). My coop is 4x4 + a row of next boxes. It's in a fairly sheltered area, and as ventilated as I can make it without opening the window to blow right on them. I've wrapped potential drafts with plastic. Because they're showing frostbite, I've added a 60w ceramic heat bulb. The water still froze solid in the coop, with the bulb running. I don't want to heat the coop, but I don't want to lose combs/wattles/toes etc. I'm going to cover a portion of the run later this week, once it warms up to the 30s and some of the snow melts. Other suggestions? After 3 or 4 days with the lamp (and the water still freezing) can I remove the lamp once lows are back in the 20s? Help!

Again, gray means excess humidity, maybe the coop needs a redesign. The ONLY thing you need to heat is the water, the chickens heat themselves and have the BEST natural insulation. And if you are around during the day, you can take water out several times a day and not bother with heating the water in the coop at all. They don't drink after dark anyway.

Im concerned about my girls to...But.. I tryed to put my heat lamp on couple weeks ago when we had a cold snap. But my girls wouldnt go in the coop made a lot of noises and thay slept out in the run. I fig they wernt happy with that. i felt bad. I do use a light during the day. It comes on at 6am our time wife opens up the coop to there run before work the girls seem to like it..I leave it on all day so they hav som warmth as an option..And the light goes of at 430ish..and we close up the coop. Iv checked on them on rainy cold and windy nights allready ben down to 9 here.. They seem happy on there stick and not all huddled together..With no light. So far so good..

Great you figured out they don't need or want the heat. In fact yours TOLD you they REALLY don't want the heat by sleeping outside when they naturally prefer to be up on the roost in a safe place.

All those who think they should heat their coops - try this:
- Get dressed in your warmest clothes (down if you have it) like you would if you knew you needed to sit outside for a long time.
- Go to the grocery store and do your weekly shopping. Do NOT take anything off, do NOT unzip your coat.
- See how UNCOMFORTABLY HOT you are when you simulate being a chicken in a heated coop.

But they don't need the electric light during the day either, unless you have them locked in a windowless dungeon.

It is -10 here. Girls seem ok. I have their waterer on a small heat source and it's working nicely. We made the cookie tin heater with a 25 watt bulb.

I have their light on a timer to come on about 6:00 am and shuts off at 5:00. By 4:30 they are already on their roosts as it is getting dark by then.

They are totally inside with a little run inside our carriage house with lots of straw.

It still gets cold in there.

It still gets cold in there
AND THEY ARE FINE WITH THAT!

There is NO REASON to have a light on during daylight hours if there is ANY amount of natural light. And, IMHO, if there is no natural light, you need to redesign the coop so it has some windows.

Light for the sake of light: I have one that goes on in the coop not long before sundown so they will be IN the coop when the auto door closes (though once in awhile, one misses and has to sleep in the barn alley instead of the coop anyway) and goes off not long after.

The 14 hours of light to max egg laying:
1) It doesn't have to be much light. Unless the coop is totally dark, save the electricity during daylight hours.
2) My girls are here to lay eggs, but they are animals, not machines so I don't push them with extra light.

I have a small heater in my coop. It is set to come on at approximately 25 degrees. I put hay in the bottom of the coop. I don't want to worry about frost bite.

HUGE waste of electricity.

Again, chickens DO NOT NEED and DO NOT WANT heat.
I have 12 chickens. One "decided" to moult in November. One "decided" to moult 2 weeks ago. 2 of the 5 nipples in my "built into the insulated floor nest box nipple water pipe" in the coop decided to fail (how I do not know, I have to take the box apart to get to the nipples when it warms up, I'm not a well insulated chicken and don't have a heated "coop" to work in

) the night before Thanksgiving,

Since I had to disconnect the water to the nest box water pipe, I have had to put a heat lamp over the plastic waterer (outside the coop) any time it is below about 15F. Above 15F, the new "not in the coop" uninsulated 2 nipple pipe is fine (water is circulated by a SMALL pump in an insulated 5 gallon drink cooler heated to ~70F by an aquarium heater). I might fashion one of the cookie tin heaters for next year "just in case". That 250W usage adds up fast - 6 kW a day.

READ THIS:
NOT ONE chicken hangs near the 250W heat lamp over the waterer when the lamp is on. Not those fully feathered and not the ones that are as featherless as a moulted chicken gets.

NOT ONE

Even though the moulting chicken is either ostracized or chooses not to hang with the other girls during the day (I don't know which but it held true for all of them when they moulted), it does NOT go to the heat.

If a chicken missing half its feathers doesn't hang near heat when it is -20F WHY do people think the chickens need heat ?????

Make sure there is:
VENTILATION
NO DRAFTS
Food
Water
Roosts high up
Nest boxes (if they are layers)


Bruce

 

[dwgov]

Hey everybody! I'm in South Jersey & this winter has been pretty tough. It's been way below freezing for weeks at a time. I was worried at 1st about my birds & contemplated putting a heat lamp in the coop. Well, my coop isn't insulated & has pretty much been cold. I did staple some garbage bags over the windows to prevent drafts. I have 14 hens & 1 rooster. Other than shoveling snow from their run & making sure they have food & their bulb in my makeshift water heater doesn't burn out, they have been absolutely fine. Even their egg laying hasn't been effected 1 bit. I am pretty new to this & just got my flock last Spring. The 1 thing I have learned is that we as humans worry to much & most of the time it's better to leave well enough alone. Nature tends to take care of itself unless we try to screw it up...