- Thread starter
- #11
hgottman2
Songster
That is pretty much the plan I have decided to follow as well. Our low tonight is 6 degrees and we are currently getting snow, so I kept them in the coop today. They looked cozy and happy before I left for work this morning, so I plan to monitor them this evening and go from there. This will likely be the coldest night of the year for us, so I will feel a lot more confident once we get through the next 2 days.The best thing to do with a heat lamp is to NOT have a heat lamp. That is NOT from my 9 months experience as a chicken owner, but rather that comes from 26 years on the fire department.
We are on our first winter keeping chickens as well.. We are bit further north of you (grand Rapids, Michigan) We had wondered about get a panel heater like this one. However after doing a lot of research we concluded that adding heat is not neccessary. Additionally adding heat can be a negative if your chickens do not get acculmated to the cold and you loose power for some reason... that could put them in a dangerous situation. we have already seen temps in the low teens this winter and we believe our chickens are doing fine. We do still worry about them as we do want to be good chicken keepers.
We have a heated waterer and keep their feeders topped off. We also have been giving them a little cracked corn each day. the thinking is that the extra calories will help keep them warm.
Thanks for your advice!