Coop Fire - New shed - extremely cold - seramas

[Aleelupton]

Title says it all. We have 10 standard chickens and 6 Class A&B Seramas in a mixed flock. We live in northeastern Ohio and have cold winters. We are first time chicken keepers and are trying our best to do things correctly with researching on the internet. In our coop we had a heat lamp and heat pad. Tragically our coop burnt down Thursday morning. Thankfully all our chickens were out of the coop and unharmed. We have since purchased and placed a new 10'x12' shed. We cut a 9"×11" hole for a chicken door into the run. The shed is completely empty. We placed wooden crates in as nest boxes, put about 7 inches of straw down and pine wood shaves in boxes, and purchased new feeders and waterers. My husband and I both own our own businesses and with the coop fire we are very behind. We want to make the coop perfect and would like to only put in the necessities until spring. The temperatures are dropping very low this week and next week. Our chickens huddled in one corner basically on top of each other this evening. I know we need to find a solution for a roost. What else can we do immediately to help keep them warm? I know everyone has an opinion on heat or no heat, but with seramas and negative temperatures coming I feel like we need something. What supplemental heat options are safe for that big of a space? Is the hole for the chicken door okay uncovered all night or do we have to purchase an automatic door? Our chickens are located at my inlaws so I cant be there morning and night to open and close it. The run has poultry netting over it so the coop and run are enclosed. We are desperate to do the right things. I'm so worried my chickens are freezing. We are pressed for time and need quick solutions/necessities. Pictures of new shed attached. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

 

[Aleelupton]

 

[SniperGoose]

I'm so sorry to hear about your coop burning down. Thankfully all the chickens were fine though! The new shed looks pretty nice too!
For heating, I'd suggest this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LX9K1JI/?tag=backy-20

I'm extremely wary of heat lamps for that very reason, and this seems to be so much safer. The reviews on it seem very promising. I just ordered one today actually. Best of luck to you!

 

[ChickNanny13]

Sorry to hear of the fire, glad your flock was not in it. Aside from roosts. poop board & nest boxes, I'm not seeing any ventilation. It's important to avoid condensation in the coop & air circulation. What breeds do you have, some are "cold" hardy.

How did the fire start? I've read alot about heat lamps causing fires in barns/coops. Hope others can help your about heating your coop .... Perhaps bales of hay/straw along the sides would help insulate & the body heat from your flock would be enough.

 

[Aleelupton]

I'm so sorry to hear about your coop burning down. Thankfully all the chickens were fine though! The new shed looks pretty nice too!
For heating, I'd suggest this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LX9K1JI/?tag=backy-20

I'm extremely wary of heat lamps for that very reason, and this seems to be so much safer. The reviews on it seem very promising. I just ordered one today actually. Best of luck to you!

I was just looking at this. Do you think it would put out enough heat to be beneficial in a space that large? I feel like with 16 chickens I may need several so they could all be near the heat.

 

[Aleelupton]

Sorry to hear of the fire, glad your flock was not in it. Aside from roosts. poop board & nest boxes, I'm not seeing any ventilation. It's important to avoid condensation in the coop & air circulation. What breeds do you have, some are "cold" hardy.

How did the fire start? I've read alot about heat lamps causing fires in barns/coops. Hope others can help your about heating your coop .... Perhaps bales of hay/straw along the sides would help insulate & the body heat from your flock would be enough.

We have great plans for roosts with poop boards, mounted nest boxes, a broody pen, and wall feeders. We would like to put in insulation and paneling as well as painting everything to make cleaning easier. For this reason we want to wait until spring to build the inside of the coop. Right now we are looking for makeshift necessities that will get us through until spring. What are easy makeshift roosts that will get us by?

We think the lamp fell and the protector came off allowing the bulb to come in contact with the bedding. We had a large prefab coop with some handmade roosts and the heat lamp hanging. We don't really know for sure, but that is our suspicions. We just want our seramas to be comfortable so we are trying hard to do the right thing. The problem is there are so many opinions out there and with us being new to all this it's very overwhelming and confusing.

 

[Kris5902]

I’d invest in the automatic door before coop heating, as you can’t be there everyday (my feeding chores are currently spread out over 2 miles and it is wearing me down quickly!)... add ventilation for sure, lots of deep litter and you could even slap some plywood or something on the interior of the walls. Insulation works by trapping air, so even just another layer on the inside forming air pockets between the studs would help fight condensation and retain heat.

 

[Aleelupton]

I’d invest in the automatic door before coop heating, as you can’t be there everyday (my feeding chores are currently spread out over 2 miles and it is wearing me down quickly!)... add ventilation for sure, lots of deep litter and you could even slap some plywood or something on the interior of the walls. Insulation works by trapping air, so even just another layer on the inside forming air pockets between the studs would help fight condensation and retain heat.

Do you have a suggestion for what type of automatic door to get? We are insulating and putting up paneling in the spring. The reason we are waiting is because we want to paint the paneling and in the dead of winter we dont have anywhere to paint the pieces before we install them. The low temps are coming in 6 days so we need to find quick easy solutions for the time being.

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

AHA! Were you the one that made it on the news?? Someone posted on this forum where a chicken owner got his/her coop burned down and I was like...... it's probably someone on here! Anyway, sorry for your loss..... live and learn, I suppose.

 

[Aleelupton]

AHA! Were you the one that made it on the news?? Someone posted on this forum where a chicken owner got his/her coop burned down and I was like...... it's probably someone on here! Anyway, sorry for your loss..... live and learn, I suppose.

No I don't think we were on the news. My inlaws did say that after the 3 different fire departments responded and left they saw a news station van drive past the house.