How warm do chickens like their coop?

[Opa]

Quote:

I found the best deal at www.americanlivestock.com Look under poultry-equipment-deicers $12.50​

 

[Opa]

Alyssa558- Use the ceramic heat bulb and a thermostat. Locate it so that she could roost directly under it. I'm not sure but you might want to set the temperature a little higher than necessary for fully feathered birds. Maybe 45 degrees? Try it and be observant as to how she reacts.

 

[hensonly]

Quote:
Been there, done that! I grew up in a house (upstate NY) with no electricity or indoor plumbing. Soapstones heated in the oven of the woodstove to warm the beds, which had down comforters on them, we slept in thermal underwear in unheated bedrooms. The outhouse on a winter night is no fun - if we'd had chamber pots, we'd have used them happily! Heated and cooked on wood stoves, boiled drinking water from the creek, watched the first man on the moon on a battery-powered tv. Lots of work, downing trees, dragging them off the mountain by jeep, cutting to log length, splitting into stovewood, getting up in the night to keep the home fires burning... My brother and I have a real appreciation for modern conveniences... though my current house does have electiricity and running water, my DH and I still heat with wood and also do not have a tv. We live in an 1837 center hall colonial house - it's big, and our electric bill is about $35 a month, year round. The cooking stove is gas, as is the hot water heater. We fill up the tank for about $500 a year. We have the house on 60 acres, all paid for. We freeze our garden produce and haven't bought a vegetable in years. My 18 week old pullets are giving us 12 eggs a day now - I have five dozen (eggs, not pullets!) in the fridge at present. In our "spare" time, we hike the Adirondack mountains with our dogs. With all that to keep us busy, who needs a tv? Today we saw a barred owl in our "back 40", while walking the dogs.

Electricity is a convenience, a time and labor saver, not a necessity!

 

[Shelbyrayl]

Thanks for all the great replies!!! I think that I am planning on not heating the coop and putting a light in to up production a little bit (7 chickens, 2 eggs a day). Thanks again!!

 

[portwes]

My mother in Spokane had a hen for several years who lived outside her house, who roosted in a pine tree by the house (wouldn't roost anywhere else), and it got down to 10 below zero one winter on a few nights, and she slept fine through it all!

 

[SewingDiva]

Quote:
Not on the grid eh? Right On

How do you get onto the internet? I'm just curious..

~Phyllis

 

[tinkarooni]

I've been wondering the same sort of thing. We have one window in the coop that I can open wide or just crack and the door that the girls go in that has a sliding door I can close. So far I have not closed the door....(their little outside run is completely fenced) At some point should I close the door at night? My coop is pretty tightly built and I am worried about ventilation but I don't want them to freeze either.

 

[Rustywreck]

Quote:
Not on the grid eh? Right On

How do you get onto the internet? I'm just curious..

~Phyllis

I have internet at work.

 

[alyssa558]

What about a heating pad? The chicken I am worried about is a "bench" chicken. I have rafter chickens (they roost in the rafters of the coop) and bench chickens (they roost on a metal bench). There are four bench chickens and they huddle together. Luckily, one of the bench chickens is a cochin, who is very fluffy. The three others get under her to keep warm. I was thinking a heating pad might work for them. I am not as worried about the rafter chickens.