Heater for small coop

[eggcited2]

I have a chicken coop that is about 4' x 4' x 4'. I will have 5 bantam chickens in it. Two will be seramas. Since we live in cold winter weather, I need to put heat in it (especially for the seramas).

What is safe to use as heat? I have the reflector and light for brooder heat for when I have chicks, but I don't think that would be safe in such a small coop (It heats up an entire bathroom that is 10 feet by 8 feet). I have seen a couple ceramic heaters on Amazon that do radiant heat, but they sound like they are for larger coops.

Would a 60w red colored incandescent light bulb put in the reflector of the brood lamp be ok? I have a ceramic covered one and translucent one. If the 60W would work, which of the two would be best?

 

[azygous]

The safest heater to use in coops is the Cozy Coop Heater. I have one going right now in my smaller coop. It's infrared heating so no danger of fire, and no danger of a chicken getting burned if they touch it. It is flat and hangs right on the wall wherever you can find space. Economical to operate, too. https://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Product...sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-2&tag=mozilla-20

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Heaters in my coop scare the hell out of me.

 

[azygous]

Heaters in my coop scare the hell out of me.

It would be helpful to tell us the name of this product. It resembles the Cozy heater, but it may be a cheaper knock-off. There may also be mitigating circumstances involved such as faulty wiring in the coop that caused an overloaded circuit without a breaker shut-off, and the appliance overheated because of the electrical surge. Lots of houses burn down every winter because of such faulty wiring.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

It would be helpful to tell us the name of this product. It resembles the Cozy heater, but it may be a cheaper knock-off. There may also be mitigating circumstances involved such as faulty wiring in the coop that caused an overloaded circuit without a breaker shut-off, and the appliance overheated because of the electrical surge. Lots of houses burn down every winter because of such faulty wiring.

This was for the Cozy brand. 5% of the reviews were one star, nearly every one of them had complaints of excessive heat radiating from them. However, there are 2700 reviews. It's just not a risk I was willing to take. I don't use any source of heat. I actually love my chickens to the point that I would like to use heat, but I just don't feel comfortable with it.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

It would be helpful to tell us the name of this product. It resembles the Cozy heater, but it may be a cheaper knock-off. There may also be mitigating circumstances involved such as faulty wiring in the coop that caused an overloaded circuit without a breaker shut-off, and the appliance overheated because of the electrical surge. Lots of houses burn down every winter because of such faulty wiring.

Actually in your response to a cheap knock off, that's always a risk when ordering products off of Amazon! Hard to say what the case was.

 

[azygous]

This is very concerning that a Cozy Coop heater may have failed and caused such tragedy that I just got off the phone with the customer service representative for Cozy Coop products.

They are going to address this question for us within the next 24 hours, possibly a rep will be posting on this thread so we can ask questions directly. Stay tuned.

 

[Rammy]

Chickens dont need heat. All l do every winter is wrap the coop in plastic to keep the drafts off them. Its worked for over 10 years.

 

[aart]

Chickens dont need heat. All l do every winter is wrap the coop in plastic to keep the drafts off them. Its worked for over 10 years.

Leaving the ventilation open tho, correct?

 

[azygous]

After reading about chickens in Alaska and North Dakota going without heat in the coops, I decided to try it one very cold single digit night several years ago. My coops are vented generously out into the run by the way.

Next morning, my two roosters had very bad frostbite on their large combs from the coops getting so far below freezing. Since then, including tonight where it's forecast to get down close to zero, my coops are heated to just above freezing. I had been doing this before that unfortunate frostbite incident and ever since on nights that are due to get into the teens or below. No more frostbite except for the time the two boys were involved in a dog attack on the flock and drove off the two marauding dogs and couldn't get back under cover that night when it got down to 13F. Very bad frostbite on both roos when they turned up next morning. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dogs-are-the-worst-predator-i-swear-amazing-update.1292997/

Let me say that my climate is not everyone's climate, and your climate isn't mine. A lot of chicken keepers successfully keep unheated coops in the worst winter conditions without incident of frostbite. This means that you, as an individual chicken keeper, must decide what is best for your flock under your climate conditions. One size doesn't always fit everyone.