Coop fire

[enel 1]

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.

My grandfathers chicken houses were 40x80 and there was 4 of them, I guess heating them would of been impossible...

 

[Hokum Coco]

My grandfathers chicken houses were 40x80 and there was 4 of them, I guess heating them would of been impossible... Did all the chickens die from cold in the winter?? NOT! Chickens are hardy in most cases. In future due to man's pampering himself weapons of mass destruction will be built from peanut butter, cat hair, shell fish, tuna, and chalk dust to name a few ingredients.

 

[ThomasMcD]

What i did was used a cinder block, put a 120w bulb in one of the holes and put a paving stone on top of it. It now sits just under the roost that they all sleep on, it keeps the area above it about degrees warmer then the actual temp of the coop(Inside). I WOULD Recommend this idea, because even if the bulb would crack or catch fire, the concrete block would block direct flame.

 

[Bocktobery 10]

What i did was used a cinder block, put a 120w bulb in one of the holes and put a paving stone on top of it. It now sits just under the roost that they all sleep on, it keeps the area above it about degrees warmer then the actual temp of the coop(Inside). I WOULD Recommend this idea, because even if the bulb would crack or catch fire, the concrete block would block direct flame.

WOW.. I LOVE this idea! It also would keep the coop dark at night so that the hens can sleep... is this right? If a hen is cold and wants to roost on the paving stone over top of the bulb, would this get too hot?

 

[goldenberry]

I saw this fire on the news, it was terrible. We have 8 hens and do not heat our chicken run or coop. I read that chicken feathers are very volatile and can catch fire if they touch a very hot object, such as a heat lamp. I live in Illinois (right across the river from St. Louis, MO) and we have had a horrible winter. We've had temperatures down to -5 degrees with tons of snow and ice. The only problems we had with our hens was two of them had a little frost bite on their combs. They are Rhode Island Reds and had the tallest combs of the other hens. We did wrap our chicken run in plastic to keep out the wind but that is all we did to winterize the run.

 

[scooter147]

I saw this fire on the news, it was terrible. We have 8 hens and do not heat our chicken run or coop. I read that chicken feathers are very volatile and can catch fire if they touch a very hot object, such as a heat lamp. I live in Illinois (right across the river from St. Louis, MO) and we have had a horrible winter. We've had temperatures down to -5 degrees with tons of snow and ice. The only problems we had with our hens was two of them had a little frost bite on their combs. They are Rhode Island Reds and had the tallest combs of the other hens. We did wrap our chicken run in plastic to keep out the wind but that is all we did to winterize the run.

I suspect too much moisture in the coop, this will cause frostbite.
I had no frostbite this year and I live in St Louis County so had the same crappy winter.

 

[Scooby308]

Never say never.
The Handy Gas Plant was for use in dairies and chicken coops:

Then there was the Tilley heater meant for houses, but I've heard old timers talk about using them in coops:

Then you have Coleman lanterns specifically designed for poultry with a larger fuel tank. The idea was to increase egg production in winter by keeping a light on:

 

[Mommysongbird]

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.

I have said this on some Facebook chicken pages and I have gotten blasted.

I don't understand why people think that farm animals need so much special attention?? You make their coop or other home draft free or as draft free as possible and give them food, water and good bedding, they will be just fine.

I'll admit I was really worried about one of our ducks this winter especially when we got into the single digits, she is not the healthiest duck in the world (something genetic I guess) but she survived just fine. Even all of our little rooster bantams survived on top of the coop every single icy cold night, and they are all still young birds not even a year old yet.

We have lost one hen this year and that was due to her drowning one night in the duck pond.

 

[ChirpyChicks1]

I get so angry that people think they should heat a chicken coop.

 

[scooter147]

Another side of this coin is that I believe it is harder on the birds to provide a heat source in most situation. Warm, cold, warm, cold.