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

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There are ceramic heat bulbs that you can get. You use them the same way you would heat lamps, but they don't give off light. I have a 250 watt and a 150 watt in my main coup which is well insulated. They are plugged in to a thermostat regulated outlet, so they turn on at 32 degrees, and off at 45.
 
I was worried about getting them too acclimated to heat but they seemed so miserable even at 40 or below that I now use a ceramic heat lamp in their coop. They seem so happy for it. If there's ever a power outage I guess I'll have to bring them in the house!

I know having heat at night probably makes the daytime temps harder to adjust to outdoors yet I hate to see them puffed and miserable 24/7. I only have 2 (1 roo, 1 hen) so they don't have the bennies of body heat that many feathered ones together would enjoy.

JJ
 
Yeah, Judy, I can see me bringing 30+ rather large chickens in the house, LOL. If you only have a couple and can do that, it's fine. Me, I'd have Rooster Wars on my hands in the livingroom! My roost is snuggled into an alcove, at least at the top near the ceiling and they all crowd on the top three bars, so they have lots of body heat shared.
 
i wonder about the thread on solar heating water and heating the coop with it.
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Hi! Actually, we ordered and successfully recently used a heated chicken waterer that turns itself on around freezing levels. We keep it in the coop and haven't had a problem yet. We ordered it from from McMurray Hatchery and yes, we spoil our only 6 hens. Call us crazy. We have one red heat lamp and a well insulated coop and just today decided to leave the coop hatch open to the massive enclosed run filled with treats and scratch since we seem to have begun vent pecking when we cooped them for two very cold days. Hope this helps. Good Luck!
 
I have a clear heat lamp that comes on early in the morning to extend their light so they will lay during the winter. Then I have a red one at night about 2 feet over their water to keep if from freezing.

Murry McMurray has heated plastic waters, but I just us the heat lamp I already have.
 
I've got 8 chickens in a small 6 x 8 short, but very well insulated, coop with DLM and they are fine without any artificial heating. I also put plastic on the walls of the run to keep out the wind and they typically only stay in there for a small portion of the day.... they prefer to free range and deal with the cold temps. Remember, they have down feathers - they fluff up and seem to deal very well.
 
Thanks everyone!
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I know what you mean about not wanting them to be to toasty. That's why I haven't used any heat yet. I wanted them to acclimate to the the cold weather. They really haven't needed it until now.

So what temps would you say is to toasty?

I went out to the coop and put the 125W infrared heat lamp in there. I tried to get it above the water, but it's not exactly over it. The chickens seem to be having a hard time settling tonight.

Typically I turn out their reg light and they settle and go to sleep, but tonight they are all over the coop. It's a chicken party! They are hopping up to the roost, hopping down, eating, drinking, walking all around, & some are crawling in and out of their nest boxes. I think the light may be to stimulating for them. Anyone else have this problem?

The good thing is that the heat lamp brought the temp up to almost 40 degrees, which is what the temps have been in there until now.

I'm going to go back and check on them again in a min to see if they finally settled to go to sleep.

Where did everyone find the ceramic lights? All I could find is the infrared at Rural King.

Thanks,
Kim
 
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Holy cow! That's really cold and here I'm worried about it in the 20's.
I'm so sorry for your loss. I do wish they could talk. Thanks for your reply.
 

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