Central Ohio - It's 29 degrees tonight! Do we heat lamp the Coop????

[lovenati]

We have some Golden Comets or Red Sexlinks that are new to the coop. Bill is so worried about them, he wants to put a heat lamp in the coop! but I worry about fire...and also, if they can't take the weather now...what are we going to do when it's actually winter???

 

[Grain Gypsy]

Well, I'm fairly new to chicken raising myself...like 7 months young at it. That being said, however, 3 of our 7-month-old girls are Golden Comets and they survived winter nicely in the coop. Our 14 girls (and one guy) transitioned from a brooder inside our home to the outside coop right around Christmastime, which was wicked-cold during nights here in Kansas. We used the heat lamp for a couple weeks during the transition, but then took it off completely after a couple of fair weather winter days/nights (40 degree days, mid-20 nights). We were worried sick about them, but they didn't seem to even mind at all.

I did some studying up on when (if at all) to use a heat lamp in the coop, and what I read was that one should be used ONLY with a healthy, grown flock in situations where there will be a 20-degree-or-more sudden temperature drop. My reading source is the My Pet Chicken Handbook.

One more word on Golden Comets. These girls are very cold hearty and are actually known to lay right on through winter, whereas other hen breeds will kind of slow down or stop laying altogether in the winter.

I hope this helps. Let me know how it goes!

 

[lovenati]

thank you so much! I did all this research before we got the chickens, but when they are actually here I feel completely neurotic and worried that something will happen to them! I just needed someone to talk me down. Great feedback! I know there are lots of cold temp threads so I hope this wasn't too much of a bother!