How colld for heatlamp

[RanchGranny]

We have seven hens in a large barn coop. It isn't drafty but it also isn't insulated very well, and gets to the low teens here sometimes. When it dips below freezing, we turn on the heat lamp during the night. The power is on much more often than it's off (that rarely happens), & the birds are acclimatized to the cold enuf to withstand an outage. They just seem more comfortable at night when it's freezing if they have the lamp; they all huddle under it. It isn't enough to change the overall temp of the coop, just the area immediately around their roosts.

It doesn't cost much to run one low watt heat lamp at night for a few weeks, & it makes both the girls & me feel better. If the power goes out, Lord knows I'll probably bring the silly things into the living room to stay warm in front of the pellet stove!

Can't let my little friends freeze to death!

Good luck this winter!

Pam
Jenny Creek Ranch
La Center, WA

 

[gritsar]

DG, I don't even close the windows on my coop unless it drops below 40.

 

[silkiechicken]

I don't heat, and mine choose to sleep under a tarp instead of inside.... even into the week of upper teens low 20F last year. All made it out just fine and no frostbite!

 

[kimboolah]

My husband put a big ole thermometer on the wall in the coop--it stayed all day today in the 40 degree area. Rained all day--that persistant, cold, relentless rain. What is up with my silkie? Her hair is all wet, she looks like someone tried to drown her and yet, she's skipping around bokking it up, inside outside all over the place. I finally picked her messy self up and put her on the roost closest to the heat lamp, hopefully she'll dry out over night. She's a nut. The rest of them (not silkies) had enough sense to come in out of the rain.

So, yeah, I heat the coop with a big ole lightbulb to keep my chooks dry and warm. They are SLEMS. Spoiled Little Egg Machines.

 

[Mrs Chickens]

No heat you could make them more comfie with some hay/ straw one makes more dust can't remember which so just do a bit of resurch. But you could make the coop more cosy, if they are free ranging out in the elements in the day give them somewhere to shelter from rain and wind, this is also good in the summer for shade.

It is not nessicary just depends on how spolit your flock is - both my flocks have wind, rain and sun shades. We have just use some old doors we had and lent then againts the coop, they can also go under our coops as they are raised

Good luck

 

[lurky]

I put the heat lamp on over the water when it gets to freezing it up on them.

 

[PortageGirl]

6 weeks? probably/maybe for a little while longer esp at night, 6 months? No, never! 40 degrees? That't like the Bahamas for chickens, don't forget they're wearing little down jackets all the time... they can brood eggs and keep them as warm as an incubator! That's 100 degrees Fahrenheit people! Maybe brooding is more specialized than day to day life, but they CAN DO IT! Even in the winter! If you keep them too warm, you diminish their ability to handle bad weather, LET THEM BE CHICKENS!