I'm worried about my hens in this weather! -20

[Msbear]

Im not worried about my birds but now that Im seeing how much more comfortable they could be, Im heading out for a some light today. I have electric in my duplex coop and have two heat lights already in there but they're so bright, I've been turning them off at night

because they're crowing at 2am and all discombogulated.

I gotta wire up my tractor coop today. Should I get reg. black light bulbs 75W or get black light heat bulbs ...like 250W How much difference betweent the two?

 

[CityChook]

...booger freez'n cold here in MN.

-21 as I write this. -40 wind chill. I have a 250 watt ceramic heat emitter over the roost and an auxillary 250 watt red bulb on the other side of the coop. 4 birds with an insulated coop. Ambient air temp is 20 degrees warmer than outside. I'm sure it's a little warmer directly under the heat sources - they're likely working on their tans. My girls don't like the red light and don't sleep much, but it's temporary and sure beats freezing their tailfeathers off... I think today/tonight will be the end of this nastiness for us in MN. We're expecting 30's by next week. Shorts weather.

 

[FrontPorchIndiana]

Okay, -11 air temp outside, wind chill of -27. I have two heat lamps, one over each waterer inside a 10'x16' coop. The coop is separated by a wall into a 10x10 and 10x6 area. The door between them is just wire. There are 13 large breed and 10 bantams out there. The temp inside the coop at 8:00 a.m. was 20 degrees. Insulation was well worth the price. Needless to say I'm pleased. The water was frozen but everyone seemed fine. And hopefully the sun will warm it up a little more during the day today and maybe their water will stay liquefied.

We survived the night! Woohoo!

 

[pbjmaker]

-17 here in Iowa, -30 windchill. My coop is uninsulated for the most part and only a 100 watt regular bulb in there to give extra light for egg laying. My chickens are very puffy but fine including my serama hen. The coop is on the overcrowded side so that actually might help as far as warmth goes. I was terrified that I would wake up to at least a couple chickensickles but so far so good!

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Quote:
Update:

Friday, 2:20 A.M.
Outside Temperature -8.5*F
Orpington coop 7.2*F
Silkie coop 2.1*F

Friday, 5:35 A.M.
Outside Temperature -9.4*F
Orpington coop 5.9*F
Silkie coop 0.0*F

Conditions still the same as in my last post:
The Orpington coop still has the 60-watt black reptile heat bulb and a 75-watt black regular bulb.

The silkies are roosting/staying directly under the black 60-watt heat bulb ("Reptile Rays GE Blacklight Nighttime Heat Light") that's clamped on a board at the two-foot height. They should be very warm there. If it gets too warm they move to the perimeter of the heat area.

I'm wondering if maybe there IS a BIG difference between the much more expensive black 60 watt "heat" bulb and the regular 75 watt black bulb. To really compare, later when it's warm enough, I'll put a "heat" 60-watt black bulb in one coop at the five-foot level and a "regular" 60-watt black bulb at the five foot level in the other coop. I can't be doing too much experimenting now in this subzero weather.
I just want to find out the magic combination of bulbs/watts to be sure that the coops never go below 15* F again. I know that the chickens can survive in much colder conditions, but there aren't any reasons for them to be so very uncomfortable if a couple of right-size-wattage light bulbs can be used in the worst of extremely cold conditions.

EDIT: fRIDAY JANUARY 16, 2009 8:00 A.M.
Outside temperature -10.3
Orpington coop 5.7
Silkie coop -0.4

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Lunachick, I'm looking forward to your post with pictures showing what and how you built the box and your account of how it works. Will you be sure to email or message me when you post it? I want to be sure that I don't miss it. Thanks

EDIT: Having a 250 watt red heat bulb fixed as you described and a thermost controlling it so that it goes off when the temp reaches 15*F would be fantastic for me.

EDIT #2: Do you think maybe making the box out of metal might be safer? Maybe one with an a bottom but with an open side facing away from the roost.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

I am sooo worried about my flock. I have some babies and some pretty young guinea fowl out in the barn. I can't bring them back to the nursery because of my strict biosecurity I have with my nursery.

So, I find as many youngins I can and throw them into the "silkie pile" to stay warm.

I have lost a few nice hens in the last week. I realy do not know what happened, they just keeled over and died and they day befoer were healthy.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
Rimshoes, sorry to hear about your losses. Hopefully, the "youngins" will be okay with the silkies if they all cooperate and huddle together. My two silkies, mother and almost grown chick, have always slept on the floor right next to one another. Their not roosting up high makes it easy to keep a heat lamp right over them during extremely cold days/nights. Do you have electricity in your barn?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Rimshoes...so sorry to hear you lost some birds to this cold weather. That is exactly what I'm worried about as well. Even though I had the heat lamp over the waterer it was still froze so It has to be pretty darn cold in there. I have an electric heater in there for them now. Poor things were all crammed up on the bottom rooster under the heat lamp. They were all fighting and pushing towards the warmest spot. I gave in and took the heater out there to warm up the coop. The bantams have a wood stove...it's only fair! My hubby is going to kill me when he sees the electric bill next month! This is both their first winter as well as my own with chickens! It's so sad to watch them all so cold and fluffed up. Today school was cancelled again. It got down to -27 last night and it's up to -19 right now. Wind chill brings it down to -45 degrees!

 

[Skip]

It got down to 18 below here. All my chooks were fine, except for two welsummer roos that got frostbitten combs. They're all right.