Heat lamp for two 6 week old chicks (and beyond) for cold NE winter?

[new_to_the_coop]

Hello everyone. We are scheduled to pick up our two chicks (which will be about a week old) in about 3-4 weeks. We will be raising them indoors and transferring them outside at about 6 weeks of age. My question is this: our coop will be a (solid) Amish built 4x4 coop. No "insulation" per se, but it will be solidly built, with sliding windows that we can open wide, or close tightly. No drafts. What watt heat lamp will I need out there? (The coop is going to be hard wired for electricity). And should I go for a red infrared or ceramic? We are only getting 2 birds, so they won't have too much body heat to share on the roost. Also, we live in the NE (cold winters); most days in the 20s, many nights fall into the single digits.

I was thinking about getting a thermostat that turns the heat source off at 40 degrees... What are your thoughts?

 

[dawnchick]

There are people on here in Alaska who don't heat their coop, and I'll bet no Amish do. There are other considerations, frostbitten toes and combs, the need for wide roosts in the cold, keeping the water liquid, etc. Lots of info on here in the coop section. Bales of hay do a lot of insulating. That's a small coop even for only two adult birds; I hope they have some sort of protected run they can get into in the cold and snow. Chickens tolerate cold much better than heat.