Coop fire

[scooter147]

A family lost their home to a chicken coop fire in the Barnhardt/Imperial area in Missouri earlier this week.
The family had two heats lamps in the chicken coop, somehow the lamps caused a fire in the coop. The winds were very high on this evening and embers from the coop fire caught the house on fire. The home was a total loss.

If heat lamps are a absolute necessity please be very very careful with them.

 

[JackE]

Another one. All for the ridiculous pursuit of keeping chickens "Warm".

 

[Hokum Coco]

I would rather awake to a frozen chicken then a destroyed coop or worse. I leave heat to the experts. Terrible loss.

 

[scooter147]

It is awful. The good news is at least it happened while the family was still awake and no one died. They saw the coop on fire called the fire department but the winds that night were terrible and by the time the fire department got there the house was well on it's way to a total loss. The husband apparently saw the embers landing on the roof and he tried to hook up the garden hose that was rolled up but in single degree temps he couldn't get water.

Enola a agree.

I tell people all the time when they ask me about chickens and cold weather and warming the coop that I have NEVER had a bird die do to the cold, never in 40+ years of raising chickens. I'll be anyone a crisp one hundred dollar bill that I will lose at least one in the 100+ degree weather every year.


A dry, draft free well ventilated coop is all that is required and a good diet and access to fresh water all day.

 

[AmericanMom]

And it seems it's always the southern states where folks are so sure their birds are going to freeze to death. Seriously, what's cold in Missouri is normal winter weather in Minnesota, and birds live just fine there. Folks just don't use (un)common sense.

And to add....

And holy cow, what did folks do a hundred years ago in the winter...I'm sure people didn't lose their whole flocks every winter because they were cold.... Seriously, people need to understand that our farm animals didn't just hatch in the late 20th century and not be adapted to the weather conditions.

 

[JackE]

Some birds just don't handle cold well, especially hard feather birds,so heat is important, if a heat lamp is just hung in the coop it could easily get knocked down, 100 years ago if it got to cold they probably used wood heat to heat large coops, but otherwise I'm sure the birds huddled up just like chicks do to stay warm.

No, they did not use wood heat. They did not provide any heat, because it was, and IS unnecessary. Oh, I'm sure there was some, with good intentions, put a wood, or kerosene heater in there, and a bunch of them probably burned their coop down for nothing.
Check out the link below. A 100yr old book. Talks about how, on pgs 23-24, chickens were kept in OPEN-air coops, in -40 temps. Unless you have some kind of thinly feathered exotic breed, you do not need to add any heat. The risks outweigh any benefit. Risks from burning your coop down, to not letting the chickens properly acclimate, and harden to the conditions. And that to me, is the big thing, not letting them properly acclimate to conditions. Making them dependant on a provided, and totally unnatural heatsource. And all for nothing, just to make the chicken keeper feel better.


http://archive.org/stream/openairpoultryho00wood#page/24/mode/2up

 

[coop-er]

This was my first winter with chickens, it was a horrible, cold, snowy, freezing, windy season. In the Fall my husband and I took certain precautions to windblock and protect our coop from the weather. We really had no idea the weather would turn as awful as it did for such a long time. I worried and worried about those birds but all winter long I continued to consult with my BYCers and told myself I would NOT add heat. My husband offered several time to arrange for heat but I resisted because I knew they were "cold hardy". Every bird did fine! Not even a bit of frostbite. They actually thrived, grew, and only slowed their laying for a few weeks. I am actually happy for this experience because if I have birds for another 25 winters I will always know heating the coop will be not be necessary.

 

[enola]

There just aren't words to help the victims feel better

Heat in brooders scares me to death! I shake my head in dispair every time I read a post where someone is heating their coop......

 

[LaurelC]

I don't quite understand why people aren't just using stuff like dog kennel heating pads? They're not THAT expensive, and if the birds get cold enough, they'll be fine huddling on the pad vs roosting. Plus, they're "safe" and designed for use outdoors. A $50 dog heating pad is certainly cheaper than building a new coop and replacing your chickens.

 

[donrae]

And to add....

And holy cow, what did folks do a hundred years ago in the winter...I'm sure people didn't lose their whole flocks every winter because they were cold.... Seriously, people need to understand that our farm animals didn't just hatch in the late 20th century and not be adapted to the weather conditions.

Exactly, especially breeds like RIR, Rocks--they were developed in New England. Course, I believe birds back then were just a lot hardier than today's flocks.....