How do you heat your coops

[fishnet1971]

I am one of the 'heat if needed' ones.

Everyone knows how much I spoil my babies here. I dont heat unless the temps fall below 30 or so. I use a light bulb in one of those metal 'cones' from my brooding area. I dont have chicks in the winter, so it's sitting there anyway. The colder it gets, the higher wattage I use. when it falls below 20 or so i usually plug in the heat lamp into it. My coop is a 10 X 12 shed with heavy insulation, walls, insulated roof,etc. My childhood play house that I never got as a kid. I am in there a lot with them and like a 'little' warmth for me too! My girls are on their thrid year some of them, and i have never had an issue with the in and out change in temps.

The tajmahal ends up always above freezing temps. I have a heated waterer, but I have never had to use it. I try to keep it above 40 most of the time. I know, I know..... they are SPOILED.... So be it....We each do what's best for us. Neither bad or good either way. Yup, does let me sleep at night knowing they are happy and warm.

If it gets below 0, and is snowing bad or blowing bad I usually keep them inside, but they have enough room sunshine, and stuff to keep them busy and they dont care anyway. When I get home from work, usually there is a path shoveled for them to an area out of the wind and snow to go play for a few hours or minutes depending on what they want. I also end up shoveling down to the grass and letting them 'chow down' on it.

I have a humidity gage as well as thermometer in the coop and watch it pretty close the last few years. I have never had any frostbite issues on their combs or feet. I do scoop the poop from the shavings daily in the morning and poop board too. I love the idea of covering their 2 X 4 roosts with carpet. THAT ONE I am going to do! Dont have an issue with poop on the roosts at all either.

My DH tells me i spend wayyyyy to much time down a the tajmahal. He calls it my time machine. I loose track of it when I am with the girls and 'Bird. That's ok, they keep me happy and sane - I keep them happy and sane....

On a side note, I purchased a pellet stove last fall for the house, and the furnace only came on four times last year. costs me 2.00/day to heat my entire home and it's a 2400 sq ft. colonial. We have a small generator that can back up the fan on it if the electricity goes out. It is safer than heck with a ton of safety shut offs. Never had an issue with it. I cant believe it heated the upstairs as well without any modifications too. I cant say enough about it (and i grew up with many woodburners in the house. One hooked up to the furnace blower and ducts in the basement and two in the main floors)

In the end it is all what we decide to do for them, neither one bad. As it was said, just what each one of us prefers. It stinks we gotta prepare for the cold already doesnt it???

 

[fishnet1971]

Yea, I know I know..... But it's my play house too!!!!!!!!! (and we built 80% of it from scrap stuff we found or were given - under $500 total cost.)







Maybe if I had more girls they could huddle more and keep more heat inside without the lamp? oh oh OHHH!!!! excuse for more babies....

 

[aoxa]

Yea, I know I know..... But it's my play house too!!!!!!!!! (and we built 80% of it from scrap stuff we found or were given - under $500 total cost.)







Maybe if I had more girls they could huddle more and keep more heat inside without the lamp? oh oh OHHH!!!! excuse for more babies....

If I had a coop that nice, I'd put a heater in it and camp out all weekend with them

If I had a bird that was in distress from the cold, I would help it out. Never had one show any signs of being affected by the cold, other than not going outside. If I could heat the outdoors, I would!

 

[fishnet1971]

If I had a super cool nice huge barn like yours I would move in with your babies!!!!!

You are so lucky.


I notice from your picts. that you have your silkies and small girls in with your big girls. How do they do together?

 

[aoxa]

If I had a super cool nice huge barn like yours I would move in with your babies!!!!!    You are so lucky.


I notice from your picts. that you have your silkies and small girls in with your big girls. How do they do together?

I have two parts of my barn, my silkie/grow out pen area, and my main part for the older birds. The only ones that don't get along are the silkies and the barred rocks. If any girl is over bred, I stick her in with the silkies for recovery lol. Honey is in there now because she's very naked on the back. I have a couple of roos I have to process soon I get them done - I couldn't do it.

They are starting to really irritate me though. The girls are stressed from their advances. I know it has to be done.

I have to also create a bachelor pad and breeding pens. So much work, so little time!!

Thanks by the way! Just found out that there is a heater near the water tap to keep the water from freezing. That is a huge bonus I think!

 

[fishnet1971]

OMG, your blog is so awesome!!!!!

I just love the Penny... lolol.. i had to laugh when i realized they were ALL named Penny.... to funny.

 

[bruceha2000]

Backup heat is always good if you are feeling lazy too

But I like the idea of wood if the power goes out, though not sure if it would work if ours is a furnace type fire place.

Nope, unless it is a gravity feed furnace. My guess is it is 110V fan powered through ducts. You would need CHARGED deep cycle batteries and an inverter or a generator during a power outage.

With regard to coop heat, as I said, I'm not going to heat mine but the discussion on frozen eggs did get me thinking I should include some insulation in the community nest box design.

I'm going to mount it on the outside of the coop wall (in the indoor run) and cut 2 entrances in the plywood that is the stall/coop wall. I can put rigid foam everywhere but the coop wall, unless I want to sandwich it with another piece of plywood but I'm not sure how I could cover the foam where the holes are cut. Important I think because I've seen the girls pecking at random small pieces of foam board (existing when we bought the place last fall) they find as they explore. I'm pretty sure foam insulation is NOT on the Chicken Treat Chart.

 

[aoxa]

Nope, unless it is a gravity feed furnace. My guess is it is 110V fan powered through ducts. You would need CHARGED deep cycle batteries and an inverter or a generator during a power outage.

With regard to coop heat, as I said, I'm not going to heat mine but the discussion on frozen eggs did get me thinking I should include some insulation in the community nest box design.

I'm going to mount it on the outside of the coop wall (in the indoor run) and cut 2 entrances in the plywood that is the stall/coop wall. I can put rigid foam everywhere but the coop wall, unless I want to sandwich it with another piece of plywood but I'm not sure how I could cover the foam where the holes are cut. Important I think because I've seen the girls pecking at random small pieces of foam board (existing when we bought the place last fall) they find as they explore.  I'm pretty sure foam insulation is NOT on the Chicken Treat Chart.

My chickens ate an entire Styrofoam piece out in the woods. I caught Twerkie munching away one day, and a few weeks later it was gone. Maybe that is why her growth is stunted

We don't usually get many power outages. Never any that last very long. They usually restore any outages quickly. So many of us would freeze to death if they didn't.

I need to come up with something regarding the eggs as well. I wonder if there is a way to have a huge communal nesting box with a heating pad or something.. I don't want frozen eggs. Last year they froze within 2 hours in January and were cracking. That really irritates me, because the eggs help me pay for feed.

 

[12321]

How do you keep the eggs from freezing if you don't heat? I live near North and we have a few nights when it gets down to -35c or -30f without the wind, and a lot of the winter is around -20c (-5f) during the day.

This is our first year for chickens. We have 10 pullets that should be starting to lay in the next couple of weeks so I'm hoping they'll lay some through the winter. We've got a couple older Welsummer hens that have stopped laying 2 weeks ago and are going through a heavy moult. Will also be wintering over 4 or 5 roosters, depending how good they taste. So less than 20 birds in the coop.

The coop is 11' x 15' x 7' high with 2" styrofoam in the floor and 6" thick walls and ceiling that I'm in the process of insulating. Will also be storing straw bales in the "attic" for litter. It has a 1'x30" vent on 1 side at the top and 2 vents on the other. The door is not sealed either. I was hoping to keep it just above freezing with a small heater so that the water and eggs don't freeze, but it seems most people don't heat or don't think it's a good idea. I also was planning on keeping the birds in after it gets below about -5c (20f) consistently . We have welsummers, barred rocks and jersey giants.

So... do you think our birds will keep it above freezing? If not, what does anyone suggest for keeping the eggs from freezing? And at what temps. do you keep your birds inside?

I'm not afraid of the birds freezing to death, but don't want them to get frost bite either. Don't think I've ever seen chickens running around in anyone's yard during the winter, and most of the birds here fly south.

Thanks for any opinions.

 

[aoxa]

How do you keep the eggs from freezing if you don't heat? I live near North and we have a few nights when it gets down to -35c or -30f without the wind, and a lot of the winter is around -20c (-5f) during the day. This is our first year for chickens. We have 10 pullets that should be starting to lay in the next couple of weeks so I'm hoping they'll lay some through the winter. We've got a couple older Welsummer hens that have stopped laying 2 weeks ago and are going through a heavy moult. Will also be wintering over 4 or 5 roosters, depending how good they taste. So less than 20 birds in the coop. The coop is 11' x 15' x 7' high with 2" styrofoam in the floor and 6" thick walls and ceiling that I'm in the process of insulating. Will also be storing straw bales in the "attic" for litter. It has a 1'x30" vent on 1 side at the top and 2 vents on the other. The door is not sealed either. I was hoping to keep it just above freezing with a small heater so that the water and eggs don't freeze, but it seems most people don't heat or don't think it's a good idea. I also was planning on keeping the birds in after it gets below about -5c (20f) consistently . We have welsummers, barred rocks and jersey giants. So... do you think our birds will keep it above freezing? If not, what does anyone suggest for keeping the eggs from freezing? And at what temps. do you keep your birds inside? I'm not afraid of the birds freezing to death, but don't want them to get frost bite either. Don't think I've ever seen chickens running around in anyone's yard during the winter, and most of the birds here fly south. Thanks for any opinions.

I don't bother opening the coop if there is snow. I know they won't go out, and I'd rather not have drifts entering my barn.

This is the door that we open every morning. I won't bother when we have 5 feet of snow on the ground.