So in the four years we've had our chickens, we've never bothered with heat lamps. Chickens have been totally fine, and no frost bite to speak of. Plus I've seen stories of coops burning down because of said heat lamps.
But of course, my father took the advice of some lady who always heats her coop in the winter, and got a heat lamp today when he was out. I know his intentions were good and all, but our central PA winters are increasingly mild...plus our coop is sealed up for the winter with proper ventilation and is draft-free. The girls are totally fine! Now if we lived in Canada or something, and it was below 0...then maybe? But uh...we don't need one. At all. I told him that they didn't need one and explained to him that heat lamps can cause fires and all. Just because one lady at the hardware store told you she uses one for her coop, why does that mean we NEED one??? If she wants to burn down her coop, then fine, but I don't want that happening to my coop. He refused to return it, got pissed off, and said "I'll just hook it up myself then"
Yeah no, I'm gonna take it out every time you put it in there. The girls have been fine all these years. No frostbite at all. I'm honestly a bit angry about him not even bothering to listen to me about the dangers of it and how they really don't need it! I realize in some locations, people use them because the weather is actually really cold in the winter! But it hasn't been cold enough here to warrant using a heat lamp.
This isn't even the first time he's done something stupid with MY animals though. He is constantly trying to feed my chickens all types of food that they shouldn't have, harassing my geese, giving them extremely long pieces of grass without even bothering to trim it into smaller pieces first...etc. Even when I tell him not to and give him an explanation as to why not, he doesn't even listen and keeps doing it.. Like please leave my animals alone! You're gonna kill them!
They are legally mine. I paid for them all. I take care of my animals the right way, and they are happy with that. Stop interfering with them dude.
But of course, my father took the advice of some lady who always heats her coop in the winter, and got a heat lamp today when he was out. I know his intentions were good and all, but our central PA winters are increasingly mild...plus our coop is sealed up for the winter with proper ventilation and is draft-free. The girls are totally fine! Now if we lived in Canada or something, and it was below 0...then maybe? But uh...we don't need one. At all. I told him that they didn't need one and explained to him that heat lamps can cause fires and all. Just because one lady at the hardware store told you she uses one for her coop, why does that mean we NEED one??? If she wants to burn down her coop, then fine, but I don't want that happening to my coop. He refused to return it, got pissed off, and said "I'll just hook it up myself then"
Yeah no, I'm gonna take it out every time you put it in there. The girls have been fine all these years. No frostbite at all. I'm honestly a bit angry about him not even bothering to listen to me about the dangers of it and how they really don't need it! I realize in some locations, people use them because the weather is actually really cold in the winter! But it hasn't been cold enough here to warrant using a heat lamp.
This isn't even the first time he's done something stupid with MY animals though. He is constantly trying to feed my chickens all types of food that they shouldn't have, harassing my geese, giving them extremely long pieces of grass without even bothering to trim it into smaller pieces first...etc. Even when I tell him not to and give him an explanation as to why not, he doesn't even listen and keeps doing it.. Like please leave my animals alone! You're gonna kill them!
They are legally mine. I paid for them all. I take care of my animals the right way, and they are happy with that. Stop interfering with them dude.
