Extension Cord to Coop?

[Ohaus82]

I just bought and assembled my Horizon Mini Coop. It is extremely tight which is great because we do have preditors around here. However, I cant figure out how to get an extension cord in it for the heat lamp. Should I drill a hole in the bottom? Seems like a bad idea to have a hole in the bottom of my coop! My girls are 5 1/2 weeks, but were way too active to continue keeping inside. It is about 45 here now, and gets to about 70 in the day and down to about 40 at night, so I feel they need a heat lamp. Any ideas on how to get the cord in there without leaving a big opening in the coop? Would love to actually wire it correctly, but I wont be able to get someone to do that until next month.

 

[Scoop]

I have a hole drilled at the top of my front wall. It's like about 1-1/2" round. I have the cord for the heat lamp stapled (not tightly of course) to the rafters so the chickens don't pull it down. And of course I have the lamp very securely hung so we lessen the risk of a fire.

 

[Grungybones]

I'm preparing to run one to my castle coop as well. Once I drill a hole just big enough for the cord to fit through I will secure it on the inside, out of reach of the ladies and fill the gaps in the wall with caulking. I'm thinking of putting a heat lamp in there for the winter, a fan possible for the summer... Maybe cable tv or a radio for classical music. LOL

 

[Mervin]

Quote:
Go to the hardware store and buy a new plug-in end for the drag cord. Cut the plug-in end off and drill the hole just big enough for the cord. Feed the cord through and put the new plug-in end on it. It's pretty easy, just three wires. Black-jacketed wire goes to the brass-colored terminal, white-jacket to the silver-colored terminal and the bare or green-jacket wire goes to the ground terminal.

 

[robk0220]

I just looked at the coop online, and my first thought would be through the metal vent in the back....

I built ours from the ground up, so I ran all electrical while building.

If you can't use the metal vent, my other suggestion would be to use a hole saw (like you use for installing locks in doors, only smaller) to drill about 1-1/4" or so hole to put the cord through, then use silicone caulk to seal up around the cord... and staple 1/4" hardware wire over to keep any predators from digging through the caulk...

 

[Ohaus82]

Thanks everyone! I am actually using the metal vent right now. I was worried about using it because I thought opening it would make it colder, but I can get it to stay closed most of the way. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks it will get warm enough that I can stop using it and work on getting a real electrical connection in there before winter.

 

[Prospector]

Quote:
Around here you can rent a "ditchwitch" for $150/day. Plastic conduit is downright cheap. Why not do it right the first time. Call th eutilities company to come out and mark where their lines are, ditch it, run the wire through the conduit, and up into the coop through the floor. Really not that hard to do, and many online forums will point yo uin the right direction vis-a-vis advice etc.

One really good one with professional contractors can be found here if you need advice: http://forums.delphiforums.com/breaktimeclass/messages/?listmode=1 (you may need to take out a free membership)

 

[blueskylen]

we ran a heavy duty 100 ft. extension cord thru conduit and buried it a couple of inches down in the dirt between the garage and coop - DH wired an electric box in the coop and we plug it in at the garage. easy to unplug at the garage to turn off the electric if needed.