How do you heat your coops

[Fred's Hens]

Well, there you see the "different strokes, for different folks" truism. On this preceding page we find a Minnesota large flock keeper who doesn't heat, has large open windows, while someone in mediterranean California, with small coops, provides heating panels. LOL

Yet? The chicken adapts to both situations. Couldn't help but draw the comparison and contrast.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Um... yeah, I'd say that pretty much qualifies you for the "Knows What She's Talking About" category! I do NOT want to move to Minnesota, as beautiful as the pictures are.

Oh, but it is such a nice place, doncha know!

 

[Minniechickmama]

Well, there you see the "different strokes, for different folks" truism. On this preceding page we find a Minnesota large flock keeper who doesn't heat, has large open windows, while someone in mediterranean California, with small coops, provides heating panels. LOL

Yet? The chicken adapts to both situations. Couldn't help but draw the comparison and contrast.

I noticed that too.

Some people will continue to insist on trying to provide their animals comforts based on their own needs.

Here is test... go stick your bare hands under the wings of your chickens in the dead of winter and tell me if you don't feel a bit uncomfortable from the amount of heat they have cranking out of their own built-in heating systems.

Did I forget to mention, that in the middle of the coldest weather we had here last winter, I had a Silkie go broody right next to the window. The dumb thing kept going back every day for about 2-weeks to an empty spot in the corner by the window!

 

[Fred's Hens]

We don't heat. We breed our own lines, out of our own stock. We've bred them now for 4 generations. These birds survive, no thrive, through our long, dark, bitter cold winters. The interior of northern lower Michigan is brutal, colder than most of the UP because we are farther from big lakes moderating effects. -20F is quite common, and even colder on rarer occasions. It's tough, and no one should think that it isn't. The biggest challenge is collecting eggs before they freeze. But, fresh air, deep straw, good feed, and dog dish waterers and the chickens do just fine.

If they didn't? We'd be all out of chickens, LOL. We've never, ever lost a chicken to the cold.

 

[TXchickmum]

Well, there you see the "different strokes, for different folks" truism. On this preceding page we find a Minnesota large flock keeper who doesn't heat, has large open windows, while someone in mediterranean California, with small coops, provides heating panels. LOL

Yet? The chicken adapts to both situations. Couldn't help but draw the comparison and contrast.

Well, here in balmy Texas we do not anticipate heating the coop. The coop is open on two sides (framed with hardware cloth). -just planning to tarp/panel the north side during a brisk wind. -house, fence, and trees serve as a wind break, too. -some good hay for bedding (winter), fresh water and quality feed, and it's all good!

 

[off-grid hen]

I don't heat my coop either. Count me in as part of the woods/transom/monitor style coop crew. I use one of the 25 watt dog bowls as others have mentioned. Got it in Petsmart last year. I watched the humidity with a gge. If it was too humid, I opened all the windows to get the humidity in the coop as low as the humidity outside. Then I'd close the windows except for the open front. (we had a lot of crazy temp fluctuations with high humidity and temps above freezing during the day, then down to zero degrees or below at night.) Humidity was easy enough to check, I just fired up the weather channel app on my phone. Temp shown below is about 10 degrees warmer in the coop than outside. My leghorns longer wattles dipped in the water a bit and froze just the tips, but it was fine. I shoveled out the run, but on the cold days the girls didn't like walking on the snow. That was fine by me. I made them some suet (with scratch, BOSS, and layer pellets) and hung cabbages in the coop. I also kept a plastic box full of dirt from their favorite dust bathing spot in the run. Good dust bathing probably helps keep the feathers in good shape for good insulating properties too. That's just a guess on my part, though. I wonder if anyone can back that up? I also didn't use supplemental lighting. Chickens are not vending machines, so I let them have a break from laying. They slowed down, but didn't stop their first year bc they were still young.

 

[all4him13309]

You all have great ideas about heating your coops throughout the winter months. I am a first time chicken lady that llives in upstate NY and yes our winters do get very cold here. I built my coop last spring pretty much by myself. I have right now 20 chickens out there which includes 5 roosters. I have another 12 chicks in the brooder right now that will be going out there in another couple of weeks. My ideas of heating the coop is to put up enclosed wall in side and stuff/insulate the walls with hardwood shavings from our friends sawmill. I will then put another roost up high close to the exixting one and put two maybe three lights with clamps on them between the two roosts and hopefully that will help prevent the combs on my leghorns, orpingtons, and RIR hen from getting frost bitten.

 

[EpicBlueAcres]

My barn is like that as well

This is from the outside. There are heat lamps on because I have chicks under 5 weeks

What type of chicken is that on the bottom pic? She is just gorgeous!

 

[adgcountrygirl]

We have an open-air coop... Meaning no solid walls. It has a great roof and a commercial grade tarp over the north side for a wind break. We use one red heat lamp to keep the water from freezing and to prevent frost bite on the wattles of the roos. That's it. They did fine last winter even with snow. They even layed every now and then!

 

[Chambertin]

EpicBlueAcres. I'm pretty sure its a Houdan. Looks like mine, with a better comb.
We have a mini flock of them here. The larger combs are desireable, but we just have a little hobby flock so anything is Ok.


As far as Heating, I'm all for not heating.
Lived in Michigan and didnt know anyone who used heat. The chickens lived well, but like everyone in winter they spent less time outside.
Keep the air circulating by having a good air escape route and a small enterance. The natural heat chickens put out will take care of them.

Where I live now the thing I worry about is Heat.
There's no place for humidity and heat to go here, which is a bigger problem than cold to a chicken. You cant really take off your coat in the summer if you're a chicken, but you can find a nice place to hunker down and warm up in the winter.

Good luck to both sides, but I think just keeping them safe and out of the wind is best.