Adding heat to coop in winter?

[JensHens1987]

I am new to chicken keeping and am starting to worry about winter too- I live in WI and am expecting a bitter winter again. My chicks are just four week old, living out in my garage with a heat lamp around 75-80 degrees (I've been lowering it the 5 degrees per week per recommendations). Our nights are already dropping into the 50's. I'm starting to wish that I would have waited and have gotten them in the spring- I've grown really attached to them! We had wind chills of -30 to -60 last January!!

Come winter, will they have developed those full feathers? I have a nice coop but its not insulated yet (I'm not planning on moving them out into the coop for a couple more weeks). I'm tempted to use a heater as they will still be so young come the bitter cold. I'm tempted to keep them in my garage and just let them out on nice days but don't want them stir crazy either. I would be devastated if I lost one to the cold by improper management.

 

[gtaus]

I live in northern Minnesota, Bemidji. Last year we had about 2 weeks of -45F at night with daytimes high only -20F. It was bitter cold for a long stretch. I did not have chickens last winter, but had planned on getting some chicks this spring. Before we had that bitter cold spell, I talked to a number of people about chickens in winter, and they all said that they did not heat their coops. After the cold spell, a number of people told me that they lost birds to the cold during that 2 week stretch of unusually cold temps.

Anyway, the local farm store sold out every Cozy Coop heater they had on the shelf. Lots of people who never considered a heater for the coop changed their minds when their flock started freezing to death. I bought a Cozy Coop heater this spring when they went on sale, and plan on using it only if the temps get really cold. It's a radiant heater and heats only the chickens that stand directly in front of it. It does not heat the coop per se. Here is a picture of the Cozy Coop heater.

This will be my first year with laying hens over winter. I just hope it is not my last....

 

[aart]

I don't think it's necessary to line the coop with straw but since I built my coop out of pallets the recessed areas on the inside make it very easy to do so.

The mice will love that!!

The biggest thing I found was the importance of checking for eggs often to be sure they didn't freeze, especially when it was really cold.

OhYeah.

 

[woodmort]

The mice will love that!!

OhYeah.

 

[doublecrossranch]

We are in SE Mass. We do not heat the coop. We get a few days a year that dip into the negative farenheit range. We do monitor the temp and humidity with a remote sensor. Here is a current picture. Note the humidity is a bit higher in the coop than in our house. We just let them out. The coop was really buttoned up last night due to mosquito spraying over night. We're closed the windows and pop door. In a couple hours the humidity will adjust. The lowest it got last year was -7f (-21c).

Also Inotice the battery indicator is showing low. It lasted 2.5 years. Not bad.

How far is your coop from the remote?

 

[spiritpots]

The mice will love that!!

OhYeah.

Yup! I found one little guy this spring when I was removing the straw!

 

[wamtazlady]

I am new to chicken keeping and am starting to worry about winter too- I live in WI and am expecting a bitter winter again. My chicks are just four week old, living out in my garage with a heat lamp around 75-80 degrees (I've been lowering it the 5 degrees per week per recommendations). Our nights are already dropping into the 50's. I'm starting to wish that I would have waited and have gotten them in the spring- I've grown really attached to them! We had wind chills of -30 to -60 last January!!

Come winter, will they have developed those full feathers? I have a nice coop but its not insulated yet (I'm not planning on moving them out into the coop for a couple more weeks). I'm tempted to use a heater as they will still be so young come the bitter cold. I'm tempted to keep them in my garage and just let them out on nice days but don't want them stir crazy either. I would be devastated if I lost one to the cold by improper management.

Your chicks should be fully feathered and able to withstand the winter by the time they are 8 weeks old. They will be fine long before winter arrives. The big advantage of getting chicks late in the year is that you'll be getting lots of eggs starting Feb or Mar. People who get chicks in spring have to wait until nearly fall before getting that first precious egg.

We had wind chills of -80 here this winter. My chickens were fine during that time. Wind chill would only affect the birds if there was wind blowing directly on the birds. I have a well ventilated but draft free coop. It has gotten down to -22 F all 3 winters I have lived here at least once. The birds do fine.

I wish our night time temps were just in the 50s. Around here that is summer. We're already in the 40s. I had to turn the gas insert in the fireplace on to keep the chill off the inside of the house.

I am kind of lucky this year. I only have a few chickens as it's just me here. I can only use so many eggs. The neighbor is going to let them board with her flock this winter. In return I will let her use my winter waterer so that the chickens always have thawed water.

 

[spiritpots]

I live in northern Minnesota, Bemidji. Last year we had about 2 weeks of -45F at night with daytimes high only -20F. It was bitter cold for a long stretch. I did not have chickens last winter, but had planned on getting some chicks this spring. Before we had that bitter cold spell, I talked to a number of people about chickens in winter, and they all said that they did not heat their coops. After the cold spell, a number of people told me that they lost birds to the cold during that 2 week stretch of unusually cold temps.

Anyway, the local farm store sold out every Cozy Coop heater they had on the shelf. Lots of people who never considered a heater for the coop changed their minds when their flock started freezing to death. I bought a Cozy Coop heater this spring when they went on sale, and plan on using it only if the temps get really cold. It's a radiant heater and heats only the chickens that stand directly in front of it. It does not heat the coop per se. Here is a picture of the Cozy Coop heater.

View attachment 1906499

This will be my first year with laying hens over winter. I just hope it is not my last....

I got my first chickens last spring and moved them out into their coop in July. They were fully feathered and old enough to go out earlier but I wasn't finished with the coop yet. By late fall they had grown lots of soft downy feathers, especially the Blue Orpington and Maran. Even though I was very concerned during those extreme cold spells that the girls would freeze to death without added heat they all did fine.

As far as temps go I look more at the actual temp, not windchill. I wrap all but the front side of my attached run in plastic to block as much wind as possible. I also made sure there wasn't a draft from the venting in the coop that would blow on the girls when they roost at night. I generally leave the pop door open at night (my run is very secure) so they can come and go as they like but on the really cold nights last year (-10 or colder or if there was a big storm) I would close it at night. A couple of the chickens, including the brown leghorn with a long floppy comb, did get a bit of frostbite on the tips of their combs but it healed without any trouble. I kept the food and water in the run all winter without any problem. I used this heater for the metal waterer and it worked great even at -30. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HHQDPM/?tag=backy-20

 

[gtaus]

...Even though I was very concerned during those extreme cold spells that the girls would freeze to death without added heat they all did fine.

As far as temps go I look more at the actual temp, not windchill.

...I kept the food and water in the run all winter without any problem. I used this heater for the metal waterer and it worked great even at -30. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HHQDPM/?tag=backy-20

Thanks for the info. To be clear, when I said it was -45F at night, that was actual temp, not wind chill. Very cold even for us especially since it lasted about 2 weeks.

I have the same metal waterer heater and am glad to hear it worked great even at -30F for you. They only advertise working down to +10F, but I have also heard from others that these metal waterer heaters do better than that in real life.

 

[spiritpots]

Thanks for the info. To be clear, when I said it was -45F at night, that was actual temp, not wind chill. Very cold even for us especially since it lasted about 2 weeks.

I have the same metal waterer heater and am glad to hear it worked great even at -30F for you. They only advertise working down to +10F, but I have also heard from others that these metal waterer heaters do better than that in real life.

Oh my gosh!! That's COLD!!