Heat lamp or no heat lamp for cold weather?

[HEChicken]

Who turns on the heat lamp for the chickadees and other birds outside?? It just isn't necessary, but do whatever you like.

While I do mostly agree with this (and don't provide supplemental heat for my own birds) one thing to keep in mind is that wild birds have the freedom to seek out the best places to stay warm in winter and cool in summer, while domestic birds, kept in a coop/run, are far more limited in their ability to seek out the best places to be.

 

[Missa Chickabee]

I suppose our chickens are more like grouse that the chickadees. Mostly walking in the snow. Like I said , I am rethinking this whole thing.

I wonder what they do in the cage-free egg industry in cold areas of the country where they are still growing (with huge warehouse-sized floors full of scurrying birds)

 

[Cindy in PA]

If you provide your chickens with a draft free, ventilated coop, they don't have to find "the best place", they will be in it! Also they will need unfrozen water & adequate food.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Cindy, I think that is a large part of what this thread is about, what chickens actually need versus what some people think they need and how to provide it. A lot of people have not been raised around animals and don't "intuitively" understand this. It's not as easy as applying "common sense". If you don't have any experience with something what can you base common sense on?

I grew up watching Walt Disney's TV show, but I also grew up on a farm. Even as a kid I understood the difference between the Disney raccoons and the ones I might meet when I went outside. A lot of people don't have those experiences. The way we understand things depends on our perceptions of things.

On that farm when I was a kid, we had chickens that slept in trees even in zero Fahrenheit weather. Those trees were right outside a hen house with good ventilation and draft protection, but those chickens decided to spend their nights outside in the trees instead of inside with the rest of the flock. If Disney showed something like that, that chicken would be silhouetted on a limb at the top of a mountain squawking defiantly in the teeth of a blizzard. That's the way a lot of people will perceive chickens sleeping outside. I blame Walt Disney for that, but that was not reality. These trees were in a tight deep little valley well protected from the wind, the trees were more like a thicket than a tree, and the chickens could move around to block the wind with tree limbs by repositioning themselves. And you could not ask for better ventilation.

My experiences give me different perceptions that a lot of people. Where I live now my chickens don't have that thicket in a deep protected valley to sleep outside so I have to provide them a decent protected place to sleep. The predator pressure is a lot heavier here than it was on that farm too. Conditions are different and I have to adjust.

As I said in another post, all this is my opinion and others will disagree. That does not make me right and them wrong, it’s just that we have different opinions and perceptions.

As far as opinion and perceptions, you can feed your chickens corn, wheat, oats, barley, sunflower seeds, scratch or things like that before they go to bed. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. It may help them or it may just make you feel better because you think you’ve helped them. I don't know which is correct. There is value in both of those. I choose to feed mine something more exotic, a blend of grains and other things formulated especially for chickens. It’s called chicken feed. But if you want to feed less exotic plain feeds, go for it!!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

As far as opinion and perceptions, you can feed your chickens corn, wheat, oats, barley, sunflower seeds, scratch or things like that before they go to bed. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. It may help them or it may just make you feel better because you think you’ve helped them. I don't know which is correct. There is value in both of those. I choose to feed mine something more exotic, a blend of grains and other things formulated especially for chickens. It’s called chicken feed. But if you want to feed less exotic plain feeds, go for it!!!

This is the gourmet, exotic blend of grains and other minerals, fats, vitamins and fiber that I feed my birds to keep them during our long, dark, cold winters.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks Fred. It is good to know that at least one person on here won't be accusing me of pampering my chickens because I feed them an exotic blend made special for chickens instead of a dull boring one-product treat.

 

[Rhoise]

I'm jealous the folks here in the Boise feed stores think chicken's are vegetarians, I'd love to find some of the "animal protein products" but have to resort to plain old Steel Head Trout and yogurt for a supplemental treat, but if my kids shoot a deer or two this fall well have some of that animal product to share with the chickens!

 

[furbabymum]

So I'm having an issue with lots of ventilation. Mine are in a barn and there is a lot of ventilation up high. This is our first winter together. Having kept other livestock I know that in Wyoming with our winds stuff happens. I've gone into what is currently our coop before to see every inch of space covered with frosty snow. It blew in. So I can completely cover the ventilation or I can face the possibility of a snow filled coop. Which would you do?

 

[Fred's Hens]

So I'm having an issue with lots of ventilation. Mine are in a barn and there is a lot of ventilation up high. This is our first winter together. Having kept other livestock I know that in Wyoming with our winds stuff happens. I've gone into what is currently our coop before to see every inch of space covered with frosty snow. It blew in. So I can completely cover the ventilation or I can face the possibility of a snow filled coop. Which would you do?

Any building, even a house, with soffit vents, ridge vents, cable end vents etc, can find blowing, dry, powder snow filtering in. Some attics of houses have this issue and sometimes the homeowner isn't aware of it.

The wind can blow dry snow in directly and/or the snow powder can be "sucked" in through soffits or overhands in other areas. Typically, this is result of an overhang without enough length, roof without enough pitch or other architectural design flaws creating issues that the builder didn't see coming. Special care has to be taken in areas with dry blowing snow, to prevent this. Without seeing your barn, it is difficult to make recommendations. Fixing the issue might prove to be simple to extremely difficult. Sorry.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think part of it depends on how much snow is coming in. You are looking at it and I am not.

I get some snow in the coop when the wind blows in from the north which is not the usual predominant direction for me in this valley. I occasionally also have some rain blow in. It's a judgment call, but I usually don't worry about it. I have good ventilation and with a little raking, it soon dries out without causing issues. If the coop floor were staying wet, I'd feel differently.

With a wet snow, I'd suggest blocking off the upwind vents. With a dry snow, I really don't have any great suggestions.