Added a heater to the coop. Links to what I purchased

[Underwhere]

So after half the winter has passed I finally decided to add some sort of heater to the coop.

I already have a heated waterer.

Here is what I bought:
1. Thermostatically Controlled Outlet $12.85
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006U2HD2/ref=oss_product
2. Ceramic Infrared Heat Emitter 150 Watts $20.28
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002AQCQO/ref=oss_product
3. Wire Cage Clamp Lamp $20.36
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002DIWVO/ref=oss_product

Shipped from Amazon was 54.80

I used some left over chicken wire to cover the large gaps in the wire cage over the emitter just in case my girls wanted to play with it.
I hung the lamp with a worm clamp and plugged it in. Right away the ceramic emitter got hot. Way too hot to touch.

I didn't sense too much heat coming off of it at a distance of about 1.5 feet away but you can definitely feel it up close.
I'm not convinced this will completely change the temperature inside the coop with the door open but it should definitely help when the door is closed and at night.

Pics to follow.
Hopefully I'll have some way of measuring the temperature inside the coop accurately so i can post some results. Unfortunately I won't have a baseline.

 

[elmo]

Careful with fastening a clamp lamp. Never rely on the clamp only to hold it up; always have a secure backup (like a chain).

The 150 watt ceramic bulbs do get very hot, but you shouldn't expect it to heat up the coop (unless it's a very tiny coop), just provide a pool of warmth under the lamp. For fire safety, make sure the lamp is at least 18 inches away from all coop surfaces (top, sides and bottom). You were right to try to fashion a guard for the bulb. Someone we know here had one of her hens burn its comb badly on one of these bulbs last winter.

Last winter I tried a 60 watt ceramic heat bulb in our small winter coop but frankly it made me just too nervous. This year I'm using an oil filled radiator inside a birdcage in our big coop; it's much safer (doesn't get too hot to touch), and is actually heating up the whole coop set on its lowest setting (which uses 600 watts of power). However, you do need to have a pretty big coop to use a setup like this.

 

[Underwhere]

Quote:
That's good advice. I used some safety wire as a backup to the clamp. I'm definitely concerned about possible fire.
It's about 12 inches away from the roof and is far enough away from everything else.
When the coop is all shored up for the night I wanted to just have a bit more warmth for them. Seems like it's working.