Baked bricks for sub zero days! just a friendly tip from up North!

[Echelontheory101]

Just sharing as someone who lives in a region where it Sub-Zero for 2 months of the year and below freezing for the rest of the 4 and a half months a year of winter, what I do to help the chickens out on these especially cold snaps when it gets into the negatives!

I bake 4 bricks (you could do as many as you want I'm just not willing to carry more than four out to the coop ) at 400° on an old sheet tray for 40 to 45 minutes and then I cover them with a towel ***this is important they will absolutely burn their feet on the bricks if you do not cover the bricks with a towel*** sheet pan and all and just put it on the coop floor. It stays hot for HOURS, the chickens sit on it, huddle around it etc and according to the thermometer in my coop it raises the temp almost 5 degrees (my coop is 8 x16 feet it will heat a small coop much more, also this is not "adding heat" to my coop I don't want to hear it... it going from -6° up to -1° is not going to kill or "spoil" my chickens lol)

I just tuck the towel ends under the sheet tray so that their scratching with their feet at the towel doesn't pull the towel off the bricks. Today it was -6° highs all day, I went out 3 hours after I put the bricks out there and they were still warm to the touch.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You get my vote for Best Chicken Tender of the Frozen North! Thank you for this idea. I've heard of something similar for putting a heated stone or brick, wrapped in a towel, at one's feet in bed at night. Makes sense.

 

[Echelontheory101]

You get my vote for Best Chicken Tender of the Frozen North! Thank you for this idea. I've heard of something similar for putting a heated stone or brick, wrapped in a towel, at one's feet in bed at night. Makes sense.

Yes totally! I've 100% done this on my grill to keep myself warm during really long power outages, I did the bricks on my grill outside on the deck and brought them in the house in a towel to warm my own feet

 

[neo71665]

I'll stick to the stock tank heater in their waterer.

I do freeze blocks of ice for them in the summer.

 

[Echelontheory101]

I'll stick to the stock tank heater in their waterer.

I do freeze blocks of ice for them in the summer.

Yeah this is more for them to warm up not to keep their water from freezing, just sharing a tip noone is forced to use it haha

 

[NatJ]

A similar idea that I saw as a child in Alaska:

Fill a 5-gallon bucket with hot water (the temperature that comes out of the faucet). Put the lid on tightly. Put it in the chicken coop.

The chickens can sit on top of the bucket or next to it, and it makes part of the coop a little warmer than it otherwise would be. Because the lid is on tightly, there is no spilled water and no extra humidity in the coop.

Like the bricks idea, this is just a little bit of extra heat in really cold weather, not an attempt to make the whole coop much warmer. Given the amount of labor involved, I saw it used for just the coldest few nights or days of the winter, not all winter long.

 

[MROO]

You get my vote for Best Chicken Tender of the Frozen North! Thank you for this idea. I've heard of something similar for putting a heated stone or brick, wrapped in a towel, at one's feet in bed at night. Makes sense.

We used a similar trick to keep our hands warm at the bus stop or out playing. Mom would bake potatoes and we'd put them, still hot, in our pockets. When they cooled off, they were a snack (or bird food.) I used it when I had to feed early. The horses would wait for the warm treat before I left for school!
I can't claim credit for this idea, though. It came from a Little House book!

 

[Echelontheory101]

A similar idea that I saw as a child in Alaska:

Fill a 5-gallon bucket with hot water (the temperature that comes out of the faucet). Put the lid on tightly. Put it in the chicken coop.

The chickens can sit on top of the bucket or next to it, and it makes part of the coop a little warmer than it otherwise would be. Because the lid is on tightly, there is no spilled water and no extra humidity in the coop.

Like the bricks idea, this is just a little bit of extra heat in really cold weather, not an attempt to make the whole coop much warmer. Given the amount of labor involved, I saw it used for just the coldest few nights or days of the winter, not all winter long.

Totally! I bring their water out to the coop in 5 gallon buckets and I'm always worried theyre gonna jump in cause theyre like ooo its warm the bricks are a little lighter snd stay warm a little longer but i love this approach too!

 

[Echelontheory101]

We used a similar trick to keep our hands warm at the bus stop or out playing. Mom would bake potatoes and we'd put them, still hot, in our pockets. When they cooled off, they were a snack (or bird food.) I used it when I had to feed early. The horses would wait for the warm treat before I left for school!
I can't claim credit for this idea, though. It came from a Little House book!

Wow I love this! Pocket potatoes! How Samwise of you! Definitely doing this for my next pond hockey game to snack myself!!