OK. Now I'll answer your questions but also list all the other reasons not to heat the coop.
It is absolutely possible they could have eaten some of the glass.
I remember butchering chickens when I was a kid and one of my jobs was cleaning gizzards. One time a chicken had a nail and another had a thick piece of glass imbedded in the gizzard and had penetrated that thick membrane. Those things were lodged in there to stay.
It didn't matter much because these birds were butchered at about 8 weeks. However, for hens that one wants to keep for years, it could be be a huge problem. But the glass in a heat lamp is very thin and will likely be ground up in the gizzard.
First let me say that it isn't a terrible idea to heat a building for chickens but if one does so, there are much more energy efficient ways to do so and the chickens should be kept in that building or at that temperature around the clock - 24/7. Temperature swings are harder on chickens than cold. In many decades of chicken keeping, I've lost birds to heat but never to cold.
So why not heat, in addition to the exorbitant cost of heating with any electric source? (Heat lamps are a highly inefficient means of providing heat)
It is unnecessary. Birds go to sleep wearing their winter coats.
It can raise humidity.
Electric goes out in winter.
Birds acclimated to a warm cozy coop will be quite stressed when power goes out in the middle of the night.
Birds kept warm at night become more stressed walking out into an icy wind in the morning (coldest time of day) than birds that were allowed to acclimatize.
How old are your young birds? I have some chicks out there that are just about 6 weeks old but were younger when I put them out with temps similar to yours.
It is absolutely possible they could have eaten some of the glass.
I remember butchering chickens when I was a kid and one of my jobs was cleaning gizzards. One time a chicken had a nail and another had a thick piece of glass imbedded in the gizzard and had penetrated that thick membrane. Those things were lodged in there to stay.
It didn't matter much because these birds were butchered at about 8 weeks. However, for hens that one wants to keep for years, it could be be a huge problem. But the glass in a heat lamp is very thin and will likely be ground up in the gizzard.
First let me say that it isn't a terrible idea to heat a building for chickens but if one does so, there are much more energy efficient ways to do so and the chickens should be kept in that building or at that temperature around the clock - 24/7. Temperature swings are harder on chickens than cold. In many decades of chicken keeping, I've lost birds to heat but never to cold.
So why not heat, in addition to the exorbitant cost of heating with any electric source? (Heat lamps are a highly inefficient means of providing heat)
It is unnecessary. Birds go to sleep wearing their winter coats.
It can raise humidity.
Electric goes out in winter.
Birds acclimated to a warm cozy coop will be quite stressed when power goes out in the middle of the night.
Birds kept warm at night become more stressed walking out into an icy wind in the morning (coldest time of day) than birds that were allowed to acclimatize.
How old are your young birds? I have some chicks out there that are just about 6 weeks old but were younger when I put them out with temps similar to yours.
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I have had heat lamps shatter before also, that glass is thin!
