Flash freeze prediction tonight... Do I heat? or not?

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-15°F here this morning.
All chickens are alive and moving around pretty good...
....even got 4 eggs already this morning.
I gave them some rolled oats soaked in Sav-A-Chick electrolyte/vitamin solution yesterday.
Watching them closely for any lethargy.
 
Well, 7F ambient outside the coop 7:00 am this morning in Central NJ. I don't concern myself with wind chills. It was quite windy regardless.

A balmy 14F inside the coop... Door open to secured run as usual (24/7), but everyone was inside. All looked and acted normal. Too windy to be outside is my guess. I don't blame them, the wind was howling.

Too warm for any meaningful "cold" test results. I need below 0F ambient outside, which we may or may not see in any given year.

Water heater and nest box heaters working flawlessly as designed, see links in my signature. I didn't bother to check for eggs, they will be fine in the heated boxes till daytime coop temperatures are below 10F, that won't happen during this cold spell. Actually it has not in the last 4 years since I built the heated boxes. I will collect them around 8pm, before box heaters turn off for the night.

I doubled the heated water supply to 10 gallons, simply added an inexpensive aquarium air pump, 1.5W, to circulate the water. This will give a minimum 2 week heated water supply for my flock. At 14F ambient inside the coop, a 50W flood kept the 10 gallon water supply at 34F. I was hoping for some ice but no joy... but thankful for uninterrupted electricity...
 
Last edited:
FiddleChics said:
Ok, good info! I check on them all the time too... (I also have little battery cameras inside the coop to make sure everyone's good)... I did get them a heated water bowl and they seem to like that a lot... I don't want to see them stressed... High energy treats... like scratch... ? I usually do that about an hour before dark... anything else you could suggest?
Click to expand...
I give my flock a little corn and mealworms about 1 - 1 1/2 hours before they go to roost on cold days, which has pretty much been since October here. Also, when the temps get into the single digits, I remove their water bowl from the coop at night and give them fresh liquid water in the morning.
 
aart said:
Wonders how much these heaters affect the inside coop temps?
Click to expand...

Great question.

My box heaters, when on during the daytime, consume about 51 Watts.
Water heater, when on, 50 watts. When all on, about 101 watts.

A hen gives off about 10 watts (35 BTUs) of energy, so ten chickens give off about as much heat as a 100 watt light bulb.

My coop has about 1000 cubic feet, very, very well ventilated.

That said, my heaters give off about the same amount of heat as my current flock of 10.
The deep bedding probably produces a bit more.
 
RonP said:
A hen gives off about 10 watts (35 BTUs) of energy, so ten chickens give off about as much heat as a 100 watt light bulb.

My coop has about 1000 cubic feet, very, very well ventilated.

That said, my heaters give off about the same amount of heat as my current flock of 10.
The deep bedding probably produces a bit more.
Click to expand...
Always wondered about how much of that 'chicken generated heat' gets past all those feathers. Thanks for the reply Ron, glad to see you back posting again.
 

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