cold weather &heat lamps

[newchicks]

What kind of sickness and how can a heat lamp cause that it?

I certainly don't want to make my 2 girls sick, that would terrible.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
One thing that may be an option for you is to stack hay bales around the outside of the coop to provide insulation. Guess it depends on how readily available hay is to you.

 

[morelcabin]

Quote:
They catch respatory infections...my neighbor used heat lamps for two years. Why I don't know because she had kept chickens for twenty years before that without heat. I guess sometone pulled the 'guilt' on her about providing some heat. In the two years she used the heatlamps she lost an awful lot of birds to colds and such. She doesn't do it anymore and warned me a long time ago not to either.

 

[Mrs MIA]

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[newchicks]

morelcabin, Aha, respritory infections makes sense, heat and cold, heat and cold. That settles it, no heat light for my girls. We've always had horses and that was up by South Dakota, and we just made sure they had a good shelter out of the wind with straw, pine shavings, etc. So I guess, the same for my girls. They have a great barn, I'm sure they'll be fine. Nothing like great words of wisdom, from those with experience. Thanks

 

[cmom]

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I put it on when a freeze or frost is forcasted. I'm sure I don't need to as I live in Florida, but I live in North Central Florida and we do get freezes & frost. My bird baths sometimes freeze solid. I just think that my birds may not get as feathered out as we don't have the months of cold and snow weather.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Update:
Currently 0°F-17.7°C outside, and 5 girls are still sleeping outside. The 40w bulb couldn't handle the sudden drop in temps (that's 25-30° lower than yesterday), so I'll have to up the wattage to keep the waterer from freezing, but that's all they have so far.

 

[tiki244]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Update:
Currently 0°F-17.7°C outside, and 5 girls are still sleeping outside. The 40w bulb couldn't handle the sudden drop in temps (that's 25-30° lower than yesterday), so I'll have to up the wattage to keep the waterer from freezing, but that's all they have so far.

Colder than here!

It was only about 36*F here and felt balmy.

I noticed last year that the light bulbs seemed to burn out a lot faster in the colder weather. I dont know what that was all about.

I insulated heavily this fall and it seems to have made a world of difference. Also I tried to get it as draft free as possible.

How much light a day do you have now?​

 

[AllChookUp]

I don't have a heat light, but have been thinking a lot about it. I have a regular light on a timer, from dusk for about 2 hours. My coop is pretty good as far as drafts, but could be better insulated.

tiki - Like you in WI, we're getting dark at about 6:30pm now. That's why I'm extending the daylight a bit with the timer.

 

[1acrefarm]

Supposed to be down to 35 tonight. I closed the barnwindow put plenty of bedding in. I raked up some pinestraw leaf mix from the woods. It is close to a foot deep in there. My animals will be cozy.