ALABAMA!!

[Kat C]

Do any of your hens go broody? If so why not hatch eggs under a hen and enjoy watching a mother raise them. Its more trouble in some ways and less in others. We have hatched out over 1,000 chicks and never used an incubator. If you want to try it I can offer help as I am sure others can do as well.

 

[tmoore8595]

[ Chickens are not that far removed from their wild cousins and don't need to be coddled as much as some people think ]

I agree, keeping chickens warm is actually bad for them.

 

[Member 482121]

[ Chickens are not that far removed from their wild cousins and don't need to be coddled as much as some people think ]

I agree, keeping chickens warm is actually bad for them.

Well, I kind of agree, but not my wife, who every night when she goes to gather the eggs and close the chicken house door, pets and hugs many of the hens goodnight. Yet since those chickens are not too smart, and when it rains they don't seek shelter in their house, thus getting drenched (whereas their wild cousins try to stay dry hiding under branches or bushes or overhangs), when the temperature is below fifty even I feel that turning on at least one of the two heat lamps in the chicken house during the night is not a bad idea. Birds can resist the cold quite well, but not when they are soaking wet.

 

[Kat C]

Well, I kind of agree, but not my wife, who every night when she goes to gather the eggs and close the chicken house door, pets and hugs many of the hens goodnight. Yet since those chickens are not too smart, and when it rains they don't seek shelter in their house, thus getting drenched (whereas their wild cousins try to stay dry hiding under branches or bushes or overhangs), when the temperature is below fifty even I feel that turning on at least one of the two heat lamps in the chicken house during the night is not a bad idea. Birds can resist the cold quite well, but not when they are soaking wet.

Are you sure they are soaking wet. Often the outside feathers are wet but not the under feathers. Our chickens often forage in the rain as do wild chickens...worms become more available. And the do come in at night with outer feathers wet. And they do fine. I think they know better than us what is ok and what is not.

Chickens have been domesticated long before heat lamps and did fine.

What breeds do you have. Some like silkies do not have normal feathers and might suffer more from rain.

BTW on another thread someone lost a bunch of chickens overnight. It was finally determined that they were using a Teflon coated heat lamp bulb and that can create fumes toxic to chickens.

 

[Member 482121]

Are you sure they are soaking wet. Often the outside feathers are wet but not the under feathers. Our chickens often forage in the rain as do wild chickens...worms become more available. And the do come in at night with outer feathers wet. And they do fine. I think they know better than us what is ok and what is not.

Chickens have been domesticated long before heat lamps and did fine.

What breeds do you have. Some like silkies do not have normal feathers and might suffer more from rain.

BTW on another thread someone lost a bunch of chickens overnight. It was finally determined that they were using a Teflon coated heat lamp bulb and that can create fumes toxic to chickens.

No silkies. Just regular bantams, one Plymouth barred rock (her name is Bar None) and a rooster that is part rock and part Whoknowsit.
I agree that the outer feathers shed water quite well. But I had some molting hens and some hens whose rumps had been plucked bare by the long spurs of a sex-maniac rooster, and they had no outer feathers and precious little undergarments. I guess that's why my rooster gets so excited--with semi-naked hens all around him! No Teflon on my heat lamps. They are designed for chicken coops only. The one thing that bothers me about these lamps is that they produce a lot of red light, and I don't think it's OK for chickens not to sleep in the dark but to have a light on all night. Will it affect their hormones, and could it be the cause of my rooster's increased aggressive tendencies and extreme and maniacal sexual behavior?

 

[Kat C]

No silkies. Just regular bantams, one Plymouth barred rock (her name is Bar None) and a rooster that is part rock and part Whoknowsit.
I agree that the outer feathers shed water quite well. But I had some molting hens and some hens whose rumps had been plucked bare by the long spurs of a sex-maniac rooster, and they had no outer feathers and precious little undergarments. I guess that's why my rooster gets so excited--with semi-naked hens all around him! No Teflon on my heat lamps. They are designed for chicken coops only. The one thing that bothers me about these lamps is that they produce a lot of red light, and I don't think it's OK for chickens not to sleep in the dark but to have a light on all night. Will it affect their hormones, and could it be the cause of my rooster's increased aggressive tendencies and extreme and maniacal sexual behavior?

Yes, sex maniac roosters are a problem. Do you have just one rooster? How many hens per rooster? We have 1/4 acre and many of the hens can successfully avoid the roosters a lot of the time. Right now we have 5 roosters loose in the yard with 45 hens. We don't like to go lower than 1 roo to 5 hens, but 1 to 9 is much better. We have some small pens in the yard where the rapists and the fighters go. They would be soup but we want to breed them so they just get a lockup.
The molt coupled with the rooster damage can be pretty awful, but we don't usually have that in the winter, just in spring. Sometimes we have to pen up a hen for her own protection until the feathers grow back. Some hens seem to molt gradually and never get bare (which seems more natural) and some do the extreme molt. OK a wet hen with bare back might have more trouble in the cold. Where do you live (approx if you don't want to be specific). We are in mid Alabama.
This thread might somewhat address the issue of bare backs although it is about naked necked chickens
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/winter-care-for-naked-necks.561395/
I don't know about lamps for chickens and red light. Here is a thread on that topic
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/using-a-red-light-in-chicken-coop.715147/
and this
http://www.henclass.com/light/
which says "Red heat bulbs don't simulate sunlight like white bulbs do. If you intend to have a bulb of 24/7 to heat your coop, be sure it's red."

 

[Member 482121]

I have one rooster and seven hens, but he seems to hit on three of them much more often than on the other four. Maybe those three are slower, and those three are the ones with bare rumps.

 

[Kat C]

Herman, hard to say why they go after some hens more than others. Hard to say whether their bare backs are from heavy moult or rooster romping, probably a combination. How big is your run. Do you have room to put a confining pen in the run. Sounds like your girls need a rest from your roos advances. If so I can tell you how to make a simple 4X4 pen that you can put together in about 1 hour.

 

[Lookin4GoodLife]

Yet since those chickens are not too smart, and when it rains they don't seek shelter in their house, thus getting drenched (whereas their wild cousins try to stay dry hiding under branches or bushes or overhangs),

I don't know, my chickens love going out in the rain. Whether they like the water or just any excuse to get out of the run, it's like a party out there when I let them out in the rain. I agree that them getting soaking wet in cold weather is probably not the best for their health, but I just kinda let animals be animals and let Darwin and the Big Man sort it all out.

 

[Lookin4GoodLife]

The one thing that bothers me about these lamps is that they produce a lot of red light, and I don't think it's OK for chickens not to sleep in the dark but to have a light on all night.

I agree with that too. I thought I had read that chickens didn't really see the red light, but when we had extreme cold (well for this area) for about a week a couple months ago, I turned on my heat lamp in the coop. It was obvious they could see it at night and it definitely affected their sleep as they'd be walking around in there in the middle of the night sometimes.