Cold chickens.....when to use heat lamp?

[carriechicks]

your info helped me but now when do u take them out from the heat lamp and put them in the barn??? I live in Ohio northwest part ??? please if you can help..thanks

 

[Ruby Ridge]

Reading thru some of these replys and smiling. Spoiled chickens! We are unheated/uninsulated and have made a horse stall into a coop with an attached protected yard for them outside. I currently only have a herd of 7 very happy hens with one rooster. My egg production only goes down by an egg a day in winter as long as they have a stall with a window in it. This year we are adding a regular size house window to their stall. We found it's all about the light, not heat. We are in Wisconsin so we do see the brutal temps as well. My reason for posting is reading about everyones freezing waterers in winter. I gave up waterers a long time ago. I use 3 gallon water pails for a water source. They stay clean much longer and you don't need to fill them as often. I set the bucket up on a few blocks to keep it off the ground and it works great. They make heated plug in buckets the same size, 3 or 5 gallon we have used for cats, dogs, and horses and they work really nice for the chickens in winter. No ice, no extra work, and they wipe clean when you do change the water.

 

[Alphabetcoop]

I too am curious about when to use heat on my chickens. I only have 5 mix breeds in a rather small coop 5x4 elevated and insulated partially. I have a 60 w bulb on them to extend their light time. I am getting anywhere from 3-4 eggs a day, but I noticed yesterday the rooster was shivering. Is that bad? He is eating and drinking. Today, I am keeping them in. Two nights ago the temps went into the single digits. It was warmer last night, in the teens. I am keeping them inside today as the sun isn't out. I feed them lots of extra foods; oatmeal, cheese, veggies, scratch, etc. They almost want the extra foods instead of the pellets. I am thinking of ordering a sweet heater. (sweeterheater.com). I do worry about them. Not sure what else I can do. They do look rather miserable. Water freezes often, but I change it out as often as I can. They have learned to drink it right when I bring it.

 

[1muttsfan]

Well, my birds aren't exactly spoiled. No heat, window at least cracked open all winter, winter lows down to -20. Never had even a case of frostbite. We have snow on the ground now, and the first birds out when the pop door opens are my 3 week old Cream Legbar chicks.

Make sure your coops are dry and draft-free, but well-ventilated - any excess moisture in the air at cold temps will increase frostbite risk. Let your birds acclimate as the temps drop. Keep food available at all times. A source of unfrozen water is, in my opinion, crucial to health and well-being.

If it is 0 degrees outside my coop, it is very likely 0 inside as well. But, it is dry and draft-free, with other warm fluffy bodies to cuddle with.

 

[mstricer]

I also don't heat my coops. I have an 8x8 layer coop and 5 bantam cottages and never use heat. My birds freerange in the cold, the only one that seems to not like it is my blind Marans hen, she is always huddled outside.

 

[1muttsfan]

Here are my little snowbirds at 3 weeks -

 

[Charlotte Anne]

Hi my name is Charlotte. I live in Hagersville, Ontario. My husband and I divided a shed in half to build a chicken coop. It's about 8 x 10. We insulated it with R22 Roxul insulation, then stapled plastic over the insulation. Then used partial board for the walls and painted them. We went to a discount flooring place and bought a piece of roll out laminate flooring for $30. It makes for cleaning the floor really easy and looks good too. We placed to flooring vents in the walls for air circulation. We have a very large prexiglas window from a hockey arena as well. An old door was acquired from an abandoned farmhouse. We presently have a 60 watt light on a timer for longer daylight. We originally had a 100 watt heat lamp, but I found the coop was still too cool. We put a 250 watt heat lamp and this works better. Last week I went out to the co-op and got a heated plastic water dispenser. It holds 3 gallons of water and the base has a heater in it that comes on at 35 degrees to keep the water warm. I feed a 18% layer pellet and lots of treats. Spaghetti, baked potatoes, sour cream, yogurt, bananas, kale, rice, raisins, broccoli, cauliflower, rice krispies, etc. Pretty much everything we eat I give the hens. So far, touch wood I get my 6 eggs a day from my 6 Rhode Island Reds.

Charlotte

 

[Charlotte Anne]

I posted pictures under the name of New Member. Check them out. Let me know what you think? Charlotte

 

[Hokum Coco]

Heat lamps!! Can you say NEVER!! These are birds not premature babies that need incubators. You treat them like babies and the first power outage in a bad nor'easter and you will have chickcicles. Would you put a heat lamp in with a polar bear and arctic fox, or snowy owl? You would have too if you kept them in a topical environment and then exposed them to polar conditions with out a chance to acclimatize. I live in Canada no insulation in the coop and no heat and no problems with a little extra corn and mixed feed.

Hope this helps
Hokum Coco

 

[Sneekee]

So glad i found this forum, i am new to raising chickens and have learned alot. It appears from the responses chickens dont need heat lamps. I had put a couple lamps in and the chickens seemed to love them. They would lay on there side beneath the lamps and stretch out there wings. A couple would even roll over, expose there belly to the lamps, stick there feet up and wiggle there toes next to the bulbs as there eyes rolled back into there heads. Was thinking about getting socks for those particular birds. It hasnt gotten below freezing here yet, glad i found out it is best not to get them used to heat, especially if there is a power outage. So i took the lamps out, and replaced them with a window unit. I figure that way i can pre acclimate them to realy cold temps so if the temp ever does get down to below freezing and the power goes out then to them it will actualy have the opposite effect and they will feel warmer. Dont want to push them to far too fast but next i plan to replace there water with crushed ice and then work them up to solid cubes. I may still get socks for my favorite hen, she is having a hard time adjusting to the ac in the coup after she had gotten so used to sleeping under the heating blanket in my bed. Took a little getting used to at first, but i was getting tired of changing her chicken harness/diaper every morning anyway. My wife isnt realy happy bout putting her outside tho, i think she is experincing empty nest syndrome..... is there a disscussion on empty nest syndrome here at BYC? Bet they have great ideas also on how to deal with this problem too!