Heating coop

[WindingRoad]

Wild birds are always attracted to heat.Parking lots in winter are loaded with little birds hopping under cars on warm pipes to keep warm.Many wild birds die in the winter,some can take the hardship,others can't.
I use many cozy coop heaters to keep temps comfortable,only positive things happen,mainly they are comfortable when in the coop.They have air conditioning in summer,because no shade for ,coop anyway..
Yes power has gone out,several times for hours,nothing bad happened.They play outside,no they don't get sick.All myths.
They lay more eggs though,that's a fact.

Have you taken the heat away to see if egg production goes down. I live back of the beyond. They crows, blue jays, and chick-a-dees have no asphalt parking lots to run around on. We were without power for 3 days 72 hours my heated house, well insulated. 4" of closed cell foam got down to 50 F. Wonder how cold and insulated coop would get and how "comfortable" that would be for my chickens. Just sayin'

 

[NaperLix]

50 degrees is pretty warm to me. If coop were ever cold or too hot they come in To a room next to them.Which they have at times .Heated with large vented natural gas heat no electricity needed.its great for the people in house in emergency .Much cooler inside if that's needed as well.
I'm comparing my egg numbers to area friends with no heat.I have way more,same breeds.
Never any light added either.

 

[arishoks]

I use the cozy coop radiant heater for my coop and it works wonders. I also keep a digital thermometer in there to make sure it's not getting too hot. I have great ventilation too. Keeps it above freezing which is what I'm looking for. My current coop is only 4x4 right now though, so it's not a HUGE area I need to keep above freezing. I only use it when it dips below freezing here (central Missouri)

 

[Brenda Jones]

I use a flat plate brooder/heater that I got from Tractor Supply when I first got my girls. It has 2 setting (brooder~ 40 watt, and heater~ 120-140 watt * can't remember) When we get below zero temps I put it on brooder and leave it on through the night. It is hanging on the wall next to the roosting bar... the girls line up as to who wants to be closest and who doesn't (LOL) I also have their coop inside the garage with foam insulation around the outside walls. But it is a uninsulated/unheated pole barn style garage, so it gets cold, just keeps the wind off for the most part. We have only been down to -5 so far this winter, and the inside of their roost area has not gotten below around 21 F with the brooder on. Without the brooder it dips down into the single digits . So I tend to turn it on when we get below zero.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I have grow outs that refused to start using the coop this year. They are still using a plastic large dog kennel carrier. We will be -2 F tonight.

That's about all I can say to heating coops.

 

[MissE]

Last year I used a 75 watt bulb on the really cold nights. It was on a timer and also worked as their supplemental light. It's dark around 4pm in December. Light would come one at 1am and turn off at 9am. On the not so cold nights, I would just use an LED bulb. By really cold, I mean -25 to -40 nights. Even with the light the coop was not above 0.

Now I work from home and can get eggs more often, so there has been no heat. I did have a frozen egg at 4:30 this morning, but it was 30 below. The electric waterer iced over, but it wasn't thick enough to keep them from pecking through it.

Birds are not thrilled when it's this cold, but I average 12-16 eggs a day from 17 hens, so they're doing fine. Looks like a clown car with all the hens and my roo craming themselves onto one 8 ft roost instead of speading out and using both roosts, but they know how to stay warm. As a matter of fact, my 2 year old ISA just started laying again this week. She laid while everyone else was molting this fall, and then decided to molt around Thanksgiving.