Coop fire

[Going Quackers]

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.

Well i think in fairness, it's natural to worry about your animals.. but it's how you handle it. I also do feel winter is not what it was, i know this one is causing me stress.. and this is not my first trip round.

 

[AmericanMom]

Well i think in fairness, it's natural to worry about your animals.. but it's how you handle it. I also do feel winter is not what it was, i know this one is causing me stress.. and this is not my first trip round.

Winters are never what they "used to be" Its the cycle of the earth, some years are hotter/colder than others.... I remember hearing stories of my Grandpa as a small boy having the chore of going out "to check" on the animals during winter storms back east. I didn't say it wasn't natural to worry, I'm talking about putting heat in the coops because people don't think the animals can handle the cold...

 

[Going Quackers]

Winters are never what they "used to be" Its the cycle of the earth, some years are hotter/colder than others.... I remember hearing stories of my Grandpa as a small boy having the chore of going out "to check" on the animals during winter storms back east. I didn't say it wasn't natural to worry, I'm talking about putting heat in the coops because people don't think the animals can handle the cold...

I didn't say you did, but as i said it;s all in how you handle it, today many grab a heat lamb, a knee jerk reaction that has to be well planned out.

I am aware of cycle of the earth, just saying winter gets harder making decisions a bit more complicated than they once were, i know personally i have had to alter things and i run a lot more than just poultry, my accommodations are altering yearly.

 

[enel 1]

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.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

Sorry to hear about the family's loss. That is truly heartbreaking, and scary. I do have one heat lamp on in my coop. I'm thinking about turning it off now. I know my flock doesn't need it, but it does help me as the heat from it warms the coop a bit and I enjoy walking into the shed/coop with that warmth in there. It feels comfy in there and I would imagine my birds like it too.

All of this reminds me of a story someone once told me about his grandfather's chickens... This grandfather loved his birds (chickens) so much that he actually had a small wood stove in the barn to warm them up. He says he remembers going out there with him to put the new logs on the fire. I have to say, that I kind of like that idea, even though it is excessive! I'd be too worried that the chickens would sit on it and burn themselves - though I think this man had his set somewhere where that could not happen.

 

[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

 

[AmericanMom]

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

Agreed.... I find more folks asking questions like is it better to let a momma hen raise chicks and such and I am constantly amazed how we think that things have changed so much that barn animals have to have more then they had back in the day..
I have a coop, when its really cold as it was here in December I laid alittle more hay down, gave them alittle extra feed and made sure twice a day the water wasn't frozen, all my hens and the 17 3 month old chicks who were in a separate coop made it through without one loss or injury.

 

[scooter147]

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

You beat me to it. Years ago I had a great aunt and uncle that a very large chicken house much like the one in your photo. If I had to take a guess I would say it was 25 feet long by 15 feet wide or so ( I wish I had a photo of it) . It was much larger than the average persons coop as they sold eggs from their front door and to the local grocery stores. They probably had 150 birds or so.
The larger side was the side with the nest boxes and hanging feeders and the smaller side was were the roosts were. The roost portion of the coop was completely open on the south side. It had a hardware cloth type covering. I just got off the phone with my dad just to double check and he and I never remember them putting any type of cover over the opening.
They raised leghorns a skinny large combed breed.

 

[scooter147]

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 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.

You got that right.
We have had the coldest winter since 1976 here in Missouri. The winter in the upper Midwest has just been brutal.

 

[enel 1]

Interesting, my grandfather was an egg farmer with 20000 birds, and the chicken houses were open but he liver in western Washington and the winters are mild. I bet there was a coop fire or two in the Midwest 100 yes ago but your right...I don't heat my coop and it got down in the single digits with out a singe issue. I was speculating. I am how ever planning on getting some SQ dark Cornish in the next week or so and have built a small heated coop.