Heating coop

[PhilSanchez]

What kind of and how much ventilation do you have?
What breed is the little rooster?

We get well below zero here. Even in a solid week of the high being a whopping 3°F with lows at -16°F no frostbite even on the leghorn hens.

Good ventilation will let the moist air rise and exit the coop. It is very important to have good ventilation.
That ventilation will make adding heat moot as that heat will be rolling out the vents not staying in.

I am in the mountains of N E Georgia lowest temps aro here mostly in the low teens lowest around 8 or 20 sometimes snow, hens love it their coop has a wide open front. Never could understand insulating or heating your coop. Summer is the time to think of helping your hens. Shade or even a fan. Just my opinion. Coons and opossums are what gives me a restless sleep not the weather.

 

[PhilSanchez]

Stop heating your coop. Do you have good ventilation. Chickens temp runs at 106F, They roost and cover up their feet. They grow a down coat. Just like some dogs they have two coats, their down one and their feathers. They snuggle together when it gets colder. If you start heating their coop as soon as it get cold ( to YOU) they won't grow their down coat. Chickens don't sweat, so they can't get rid of the excess heat your are providing. With heat and inadequate venting humidity builds up and the combs and birds get cold/wet


and hence frostbite. Keep your chickens DRY and they will be fine. Wash your hands but dry only one. Go outside when it's really cold and see how that wet hand feels.

If you have started heating already you might have to continue for this winter. But 0 F is nothing to chickens. What do you suppose the blue jays, the crows, the robins do in the winter. Not to mention the chick-a-dees we have here in Maine in the winter.

I kept 4 birds in an uninsulated coop without heat in the winter of '18-19 with temps -20- -30 and they were fine. Actually laid an egg every day that winter. Without a light even.

Exactly right It’s the summer not the winter to give you concern

 

[claudiabostic]

I've been using cozy coop heaters for several years. But not all the time. I use them to even out the changes in temp a bit. We can go from 80 or 90 degrees F for the high to 30 degrees F for the low in a couple of days. Or the other way around. The chickens don't get a chance to get used to the lows or the highs. With the cozy coops I can bring the lows up a little bit to soften the amount of the change and help them get used to the temperature movement for the season.
One thing to understand is that these are radiant heaters so they don't change the air temperature very much. They heat up denser things like walls and chickens. So there needs to be a clear straight line path between the heater and the chicken. Or the water bucket.
I agree with other commenters that the most important thing is ventilation. Provide a lot of ventilation before you even think about heating. The tops of my coops are all as open as possible even with temperatures below zero. I use the bottom adjustable openings to tailor the amount of air movement. You need both high and low openings to get air to circulate. If you have condensation on the walls or windows in your coop then there's enough moisture in the air to create frostbite.
I use two types of temperature controllers with the heaters. One is a temperature sensing cube tap that turns on the heater below 32 degrees and turns it off at 40 degrees. The other is a lamp dimmer on a cord. This makes it easy to turn the heater off or on and to adjust its output.
In Spring and Fall when the temps change rapidly or if we get a sudden below zero dip in the winter, then I set the heaters to come on at a low setting or for a short time to blunt the suddenness of the change. Most of the time the heaters are off. I especially have to watch the Spring temp swings. If the chickens are still in winter mode and we get a hot spell over 90 in April or May then I've had chickens die from the heat. Keeping the coop a little warmer at this time of year eases them into Summer.

 

[PhilSanchez]

Hmmm, sounds like a commercial for cozy heaters

 

[CluckerFamily]

What happens when the eye hook fails?

Thank you for your concern, I didn't want to get into all the details since the OP was trying to decide heat lamp or no heat lamp not necessarily a setup. I have two extra large hooks leading to the enclosed outlet on the ceiling, it irritates me to just have a cord hanging so the cord is ziptied to each hook as extra support.
My run is enclosed and has a roof, the run is even winterized, so they are dry. I don't use the heat lamp all day and all night long or all winter long. It is just for those weeks that we have -30F or below for weeks on end. Even then it isn't all day or all night.
But thank you for your concern.

 

[kodster]

My set up is a thermostat controlled radiant heater, set up on a thermocouple that doesn't activate until it gets below 45 degrees F. Then the heater is set up to come on when it hits 32 degrees F when the water would be freezing up, like Spot1984... my concern is the keeping the water liquified, not the comfort of the chickens. The chickens actually do better without supplemental heat. I'm on the windswept prairies of North Dakota where we get winters worse than Alaska, temperature-wise.

 

[RainbowHen]

I had considered a cozy coop heater in the past for young birds until I saw this

 

[CluckerFamily]

I had considered a cozy coop heater in the past for young birds until I saw this

View attachment 2376335

awww, that is awful and so sad. Thank you for sharing the review you found.

 

[RainbowHen]

awww, that is awful and so sad. Thank you for sharing the review you found.

Definitely put me off of the product

 

[SnowKnitty]

Heat lamps are dangerous. I had one and I wouldn't use one again. Clips break, chickens squabble, ...
I also have a Cozy Coop. I use it, when needed, for raising chicks in an uninsulated coop until they feather in and can be introduced into the flock. I have not had any problem with it.
Any electrical appliance, especially those DESIGNED to heat up, can have a manufacturing flaw or be damaged in transit. (I suppose heated chicken waterers have a bit of insurance built in because any excess heat can melt the container of water. It's harder to start a fire when something is soaked with water.)
Always, always, test electrical appliances for several days before you install them in your coop and make sure your electrical supply is clean. "Dirty" power can create safety issues with any appliance. If you use an extension cord, make sure it is rated for the power needed, don't use damaged extension cords, protect plugs connections from the elements to avoid water intrusion, and avoid joining short extension cords to reach a remote coop.