Heating Chicken Coop???

[chickens802]

I have 26 hens and 2 roosters, no bantams they live in an 8x10 coop with a small covered run attach and have access to a large electric fenced-in area. I live in northern Vermont and it's not uncommon to get weeks of below 10 during the day and below 0. In the winter I put a red heat lamp bulb in the light fixture where I have a normal light in the summer. It has been really cold (-10 degrees) and I have been leaving the light on at night. But the chickens don't want to roost they all come inside but they don't seem to sleep. I feel bad for them with the light in their face. Also, there making a huge mess of the coop all night. I have been researching other options and found these no light heat bulbs for reptiles was wonder if they would work for the chickens. Here is a link to one on amazon: here I have also looked at chick brooders and that be stood up or hung. link here They are much more expensive so it would be great if anyone has experience with the bulb method and can tell me more about it. Any advice you all can share is much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Ted Brown]

I live in Quebec, our winters average 5F but can go - 22-25F (past two days).

I have a 10' by 16' Woods coop (open front fresh air) with a 16' by 25' covered run tarped on the north wall during winter. 17 birds.

No heat, no issues with frost bite or chicken activity. Yesterday (-22F) they mostly looked like puff balls and spent most of the day huddling as the followed the sun around the run.

 

[azygous]

Are you able to post pics of your coop with roosts and show what, if any, ventilation ports you may have around the junction between wall and ceiling?

Do you leave windows open where a cold draft hits the chickens while perched on the roosts?

Leaving a light, even a red one, on 24/7 messes with laying hormones, you realize. Pre-POL pullets can be triggered to lay too soon and older hens triggered to keep laying through short winter days when they should be taking a breather to replenish energy and nutrients. And you've seen how it interferes with their sleep.

First, care should be taken to prevent direct drafts. Second, exhaust vents positioned along the top of the walls must be employed to carry away moist air that could condense on combs to cause frostbite.

A space heater of the sealed oil-filled variety could be set to a low setting to keep the coop just above freezing on zero degree nights. Flat wall infrared heaters can be positioned where the chickens can be warmed by them as they roost. I use both of these types of heaters in my two coops to keep temps just above 32F, and it works just fine to prevent frostbite.

 

[wamtazlady]

Goes down into the -20s F here in NW Montana. At that temperature my chickens spend the day outside in their run pecking and eating and drinking and scratching and looking just fine. I see no reason to put a dangerous heat source inside my coop. Lots of ventilation makes for a dry coop and warm chickens. A couple days ago someone in the area posted on Facebook looking for a coop for their chickens. Thankfully the fire in their coop started by the heat lamp happened when the chickens were in the run or they would have lost them all. It was all so unnecessary. Was only 20 degrees that night and mid 30s during the day, not cold enough for the chickens to have needed any heat at all.

 

[azygous]

Very tiny chance of fire with space heaters with no exposed heating elements or frayed cords and as long as electrical outlets are up to code and properly grounded and a trip/breaker system is working. Electrical appliances are perfectly safe as long as they are not worn with exposed wires, as are extension cords designed for use outdoors and care is given not to run over them with a mower or a snow blower.

A heat lamp may not have an exposed heating element, but the bulb gets hot enough to trigger flashpoint when a combustible material comes into direct content with it. This is why heat lamps are so dangerous in coops with flammable bedding such as straw and shavings. I hang a heat lamp in my sand run because it can't catch sand on fire and it hangs well above chicken bodies coming into contact with it.

 

[neo71665]

As an electrican keep an eye on the heater and the outlet you plug it into. A lot of our service calls in the winter are from "bad outlets" or "bad breakers" that are actually people overloading the circuit by plugging heaters in. Heaters are basically a direct short and draw a lot of power. People don't think about that and the other 10+ outlets and crap plugged in that shared 15 or 20 amp breaker.

 

[21hens-incharge]

@Joel Just Joel

Please tell us that the second lamp in this picture is now OFF.


That proximity to the shavings is not safe at all.

 

[azygous]

I hate heat lamps. I removed the clamps from them early on and secured them with non-flammable carabiners to an eye hook. I do not use them in the close quarters of the coops, but do hang them in the run during below freezing weather. Despite all my precautions, I had a hen burn her head on the bulb because I had misjudged the height. The hen had stretched her neck to its full length while standing under the lamp. Luckily, she just burned her head feathers, creating quite a stench. It's how I noticed it.

Even when people have been aware not to trust a heat lamp clamp, if a flammable material is used to secure the lamp such as twine, if it contacts the reflector or bulb, it can catch fire and the lamp can then fall, setting bedding on fire or the entire coop. I've been on BYC so long, I've seen several of these tragedies, not to mention my own close call.

 

[WIchickMama]

A space heater of the sealed oil-filled variety could be set to a low setting to keep the coop just above freezing on zero degree nights. Flat wall infrared heaters can be positioned where the chickens can be warmed by them as they roost. I use both of these types of heaters in my two coops to keep temps just above 32F, and it works just fine to prevent frostbite.

what is the chance of fire with both these options and the bedding in the coop? I know there are always concerns with space heaters in homes and are recommended to not use extension cords.

 

[Chickeeaholic]

I have had 3 cozy coop heaters since i built my coop. i have never installed them because of all the heater police here. my birds seem/are doing ok so far. we are supposed to warm up here next week to about 30+ degrees it will be warm enough to go work in the coop then and i will install them and be ready for our next cold snap. kind of ashamed of myself in not installing them like i was originally going to.

I love my cozy coop heater. It’s been a must for chickens that decide to molt now and January. This storm was a learning experience for me too.