Heat lamps...

[bobbi-j]

They are definitely old enough to not need heat. It's plenty warm during the day for you to turn the heat lamp off. If they can be dry and out of the wind, I think they'd be fine at night, too. If you're more comfortable weaning them slowly, than do it that way.

 

[Paigettie]

I guess my concern is although they are fine now, I know last year about this time we got temps down in the -10 area, so is a week of good temps going to be enough for them to adjust? Obviously the longer the temps are good the better, but if we run into a cold snap next week I don't want my chickens to end up frozen because they didn't have enough time to aclimate... Thanks!

 

[quailman2014]

I know this is probably a dumb question but do y'all feel this same thing applies to quail? I have always provided heat to mine 40 degrees and colder. Is that a bad thing?

 

[Glor]

I use a simple house old 100w light bulb in a heat lamp fixture and plug it into a timer set to be on at 5am and off about 10 pm the latest, this way they can stay just warm enough and it keeps the egg production up and not stress them,
and the electric but is a little kinder to the pocketbook than with a heat lamp. Then in spring I take the same light and put in my brooder box for heat for the new chicks (I just keep thing simple and uncomplicated just what works for me).

 

[JackE]

I know this is probably a dumb question but do y'all feel this same thing applies to quail? I have always provided heat to mine 40 degrees and colder. Is that a bad thing?

I'd say it is. What do the wild quail do in the winter? They don't fly south, they don't have any heated houses to go in. They live right out in the open, under a bush somewhere. And they seem to be doing pretty good around here, if their natural habitats don't get bulldozed under for another housing development.
Forget the heat, and let them acclimate to the weather, as nature intended. 40degrees, come on man.

 

[Glor]

JackE I agree 40 is warm, most of the fowl should do fine at least until 30 degrees, when you get a wind chill in the teens or below I feel for them especially my old girls and you can see that they appreciate the warmth when it gets too cold.

Just for the post:
The little heat from a 100 watt keeps eggs coming too. But if left on too long does stress the birds very much, starting in the fall I have the timer set from 5am to 9:30pm so the regular light during the summer is consistent year round

My turkeys don't have any problem at all with any tempture or elements, but they do have the choice to get out of the elements.

 

[donrae]

JackE I agree 40 is warm, most of the fowl should do fine at least until 30 degrees, when you get a wind chill in the teens or below I feel for them especially my old girls and you can see that they appreciate the warmth when it gets too cold.

Just for the post:
The little heat from a 100 watt keeps eggs coming too. But if left on too long does stress the birds very much, starting in the fall I have the timer set from 5am to 9:30pm so the regular light during the summer is consistent year round

My turkeys don't have any problem at all with any tempture or elements, but they do have the choice to get out of the elements.

Folks often forget wind chill involves being in the wind

If your birds are in a coop, I'm guessing they're out of the wind. Thus, wind chill doesn't apply.

Also, heat/temperature doesn't effect egg production. The light does, sure, but not the heat.

 

[Glor]

We get some really bad cold weather here in MASS,
we get to -0 sometimes thank goodness not many but here we can go for a few weeks down in the teens
to single digits in the winter, then I give the birds
and the large animals like goats and llamas hot tap water in their bowls a few times a day and they love it
Must be like getting a hot coco to them.

 

[JackE]

JackE I agree 40 is warm, most of the fowl should do fine at least until 30 degrees, when you get a wind chill in the teens or below I feel for them especially my old girls and you can see that they appreciate the warmth when it gets too cold.

Just for the post:
The little heat from a 100 watt keeps eggs coming too. But if left on too long does stress the birds very much, starting in the fall I have the timer set from 5am to 9:30pm so the regular light during the summer is consistent year round

My turkeys don't have any problem at all with any tempture or elements, but they do have the choice to get out of the elements.

We get temps into the low single digits around here, not including wind chill. And the front of my coop is wide open, year round. Those temps are nothing to chickens. They have an average body temps of what, 105-106 degrees. Plus, they have a perfect insulating suit of feathers. They are built to handle the cold. Check out the link below. It's an old book on Open-air coops that were used 100yrs ago. On pgs 24-25, you can read about chickens being kept in open-air coops, in Canada, in -40F temps. You cannot put our human limitations with the cold on animals, especially birds.

http://archive.org/stream/openairpoultryho00wood#page/n0/mode/2up