How to prevent frozen eggs

[NorthwoodsChick]

Background: Jan -March is very cold in my area and I need to keep eggs from freezing. Last year we have weeks of -15 to -40 F. I can only collect eggs once a day late evenings because of my schedule. I have 6 layers ATM, 9 potential by Spring with some that are said to lay well through winter. I do not heat the coop, nor do I provide artificial light.

I have an idea to use heat tape to the underside (not in) of the 54 L x 20 D x 20 H 3 nest box unit to prevent eggs from freezing before they can be collected. Nest box unit is wood, 14 inches from floor and I use straw nest material.
I thought about creating a small 2-3 inch closed compartment under the nest box and line it with ceramic tile on all sides, then affix heat tape to the bottom tile. The tape would warm the space and ceiling of the compartment, which is also the floor of the nest box. Is this realistic?
pic #1 is nest unit
pic #2 is underside of unit

TIA

 

[saysfaa]

I think so because I saw someone talking about how they did something similar in Sweden. I think they had roll out nests and heated just the collection trough. I don't know if the roll out part had anything to do with heating it or if they had roll out for entirely different reasons. I'll add a link if I can find it but don't hold your breath, it was a long time ago and search engines aren't as useable these days.

You might insulate the outside of the tile if you can protect it from the dinosaurs.

 

[aart]

I think @DobieLover has heated nests.

 

[Henfla]

I live in Norway, and people who are experienced in keeping chickens in this climate says one should have some heat in your coop so that the temperature stays over 0 degrees celcius (32 fahrenheit). I am myself almost finished building the winter coop for my chickens, and have insulated it with 7 cm glass wool in walls and roof and 7 cm styrofoam under the floor. I also will install ip55 tube heaters like the ones that they use inside boats because it's much safer than heating lamps. Then the eggs won't freeze either and the chickens will be more content.

 

[DobieLover]

I think @DobieLover has heated nests.

Yes. I don't really need them now that everybody's old and doesn't lay over the winter!

But all I use are seedling heating mats with thin slats of wood to pin them down to the bottom of the nest boxes and then covered everything with the nesting material. They can be plugged into a thermo cube to turn on automatically, but because I didn't really want to run them overnight when no one was going to lay eggs in them I wired mine into a switch controlled receptacle and would just flip the switch on in the morning when I went out to do chores and turn it off when I collected eggs in the evening.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I live in Norway, and people who are experienced in keeping chickens in this climate says one should have some heat in your coop so that the temperature stays over 0 degrees celcius (32 fahrenheit). I am myself almost finished building the winter coop for my chickens, and have insulated it with 7 cm glass wool in walls and roof and 7 cm styrofoam under the floor. I also will install ip55 tube heaters like the ones that they use inside boats because it's much safer than heating lamps. Then the eggs won't freeze either and the chickens will be more content.

My coop is a repurposed insulated utility building. I do not provide supplemental heat or light. I just want nest box heat for the daytime until I can grab eggs, so I’ll have the heat tape on a timer.