Heating the Chicken McMansion

[valley ranch]

Greetings, We live in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our coup is 6' X 7' we have a 25 watt heat bulb that keeps it nice and warm, we close the coop door at night. Our hens are just getting old enough to lay, of the 6 we have raised from chicks 5 have started to lay. We are getting 4 per day.

Richard

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Quote:
And since I still keep the egg log current, once the heater goes into the coop I should be able to tell if it was worth the effort or not by how the hens laying responds. If the coop never gets below 35 degrees, I hope that the average egg size and the egg count will go back up. I should be able to prove or disprove all of this in the next couple of months when the really cold weather gets here.

This is good science -- an experiment, measurements, and a disprovable hypothesis!

I very much want to know how this turns out.

 

[Chieftain]

Quote:
My only cold weather experience with this coop was last February on, when I closed the coop up tight, put a brooder lamp with a 60 watt lighbulb inside the coop, and booded our soon to be pullets out there until they were big enough to hit the covered run during the day. The weather kept getting warmer and the days longer, so we never have had to face the really bad weather with adult hens in the coop.

I'm certain I could do nothing and the birds would be just fine, but I have a goal in mind. I have friends who have free range chickens and don't do anything more than throw a fresh bale of straw in the tractor shed once in a while, and their hens stopped laying when the days got shorter and the nights colder.

By the way, one of my Golden Sex Links dropped an 84 gram egg today...it's probably a double-yolk and it has a nice pinch point around the middle where she bore down on it before the shell was hard. Not sure if hurt like heck or felt really good, but she stood on the roost and bellowed out the window about it at an indecent hour for a Sunday morning. Despite the cold, the two GSLs and both of my RIRs laid very nice eggs today while neither of our BJGs laid. One of the BJGs may be molting, I've found a lot of black feathers in the coop lately.

Kippis!

 

[Chieftain]

Quote:
I hate to sound rude about it, but it has been a day or so, I answered your questions, so do you have anything else to contribute to this thread besides your two questions? Or were you just building your post/word count?? If I have a pet peeve or an axe to grind with this website it is the constant snippy anonymous posts like yours with absolutely no friendly conversation what so ever. It is exactly why I do not even subscribe to my own threads anymore.

Anything else you would like to know, "Flock Mistress" (whatever the heck that means)??

??

!

 

[Wolfwoman]

Quote:
I hate to sound rude about it, but it has been a day or so, I answered your questions, so do you have anything else to contribute to this thread besides your two questions? Or were you just building your post/word count?? If I have a pet peeve or an axe to grind with this website it is the constant snippy anonymous posts like yours with absolutely no friendly conversation what so ever. It is exactly why I do not even subscribe to my own threads anymore.

Anything else you would like to know, "Flock Mistress" (whatever the heck that means)??

??

!

Wow, kinda being a pot there aren't you?

Maybe she got her answers and DIDN'T want to up her post/word count, read it and moved on?

Not every answer to a question requires another reply!

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

Quote:
I hate to sound rude about it, but it has been a day or so, I answered your questions, so do you have anything else to contribute to this thread besides your two questions? Or were you just building your post/word count?? If I have a pet peeve or an axe to grind with this website it is the constant snippy anonymous posts like yours with absolutely no friendly conversation what so ever. It is exactly why I do not even subscribe to my own threads anymore.

Anything else you would like to know, "Flock Mistress" (whatever the heck that means)??

??

!

I think that this post was uncalled for. Does everyone have to get back to you within a certain time frame before you get rude?

As for the science of heating your coop. I think you have done a lot of research and it sounds like you have it covered. For me I choose to try and not heat. I too, am frightened of a coop fire. I also picked a breed that is cold hardy so I am hoping that will help this winter. So far I have a few that have missed a day or two but they are still just starting out- right now I have 4 layers and 20 that will be soon to follow. Good luck with you heat and let us know how it goes.

 

[Kittymomma]

Quote:
I hate to sound rude about it, but it has been a day or so, I answered your questions, so do you have anything else to contribute to this thread besides your two questions? Or were you just building your post/word count?? If I have a pet peeve or an axe to grind with this website it is the constant snippy anonymous posts like yours with absolutely no friendly conversation what so ever. It is exactly why I do not even subscribe to my own threads anymore.

Anything else you would like to know, "Flock Mistress" (whatever the heck that means)??

??

!

Wow! Talk about snippy posts. She's helped a lot of people, not sure why you feel the need to be so rude about your thread not having her undivided attention...

 

[patandchickens]

Well, see how it works for you I guess, since you are certainly committed to your theory of approach to this.

Just bear in mind that heating a coop often makes it DAMPER (more humid). Far less moisture comes off frozen poo than off thawed poo; and also warmer air holds more moisture with the result that if there are ANY cold surfaces/areas you get more condensation (which makes it hard to get the humidity out of the air, even by ventilation). I am particularly concerned since, as I've said in earlier threads, that's not a lot of ventilation there.

It might work for you, of course... just be aware it's not the highest-percentage type approach and so it is good that you will be keeping a close eye on things.

"Flock mistress" is btw a generic member title that the computer automatically applies when you have exceeded a certain number of posts. It is not something a person *chooses* to have under their name.

Pat

 

[meekasmom]

I was worried about my hens getting cold in the winter. I live in northern Indiana. I bought a flat radiant heater (approx 9" x 12") and put it on the floor of the coop ( 4' x 4') and cover it with shavings and straw. It is plugged into a thermostatically controlled outlet and comes on at 32 and shuts off at 45 degrees. I also have a heated waterer in the coop. Also they have lights on a timer. So far, everything has worked out perfectly. I open their door so they can go outside during the day but they have been staying in for the most part when it's snowing or cold. It got down to 8 degrees last night and this morning they were fine.

 

[denise70]

I read in Storey's (I think) about the need for artificial light to keep up the rate of laying - apparently the drop in egg production is supposed to have more to do with light than cold. Perhaps someone else can chime in with better information. I believe they recommend 16 hours of light. I chose not to do this, because I didn't want to have to use electricity and it wasn't that important to me (plus I don't mind giving them a bit of a break) but you might want to consider hours of light as well.

This is just a suggestion because I have no actual experience with this - I am just assuming here, but since my hens have not slowed down their rate of lay and it is pretty cold here and the daylight hours are only about 9.5 hours, that people who have a dramatic decline do not have cold hardy chickens? Mine are BR's and my other "chicken keeping friends", who also do not heat their coops (or provide extra light) have Australorps and Orpingtons. They were the ones who told me that their chickens laid nearly the same as "usual" all winter" - perhaps it depends on the breed rather than a rule either way?