I'm late getting back here, but if others come by later:
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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.
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