Looking for Winter Advice- What do you wish you had known

[Jamie]

Hello. I'm new and I searched out this thread and have a question. We live in Southern Maine.

Our coop will have a few hay bails surrounding it this winter since I did not insulate the coop. I'll also be getting a water heating base.

I'm in the process of preparing to wire an outlet to the top-inside of the coop. Underground grade wire running from the house that will be inside a pvc tube to run up to the outlet.

What I was wondering about was the lighting. It's not only for heat but to also stretch out the winter days to keep them laying a bit more.(so I heard it would work) I was going to get a 100w HPS from Farmtek, but a friend said that would be too much heat and suggested a regular 100w incandescent or even smaller.

From the sounds of these posts he might be right? What size light would people suggest?
You can view a few old pictures of the coop, from last month, here:
http://www.hannahandjamie.net/our_coop.php

Thanks much for any advice.

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
About 100 miles South of Houston.

Oh really . My husband's family lives 50 miles South of Houston . CLUTE texas . Close to Lake Jackson . Where are you ?

We are South of New Gulf and North of Hillie.

 

[wishin4chicken]

Betty R. -- How do you last until October? I'm tired of the heat now. I think this is our fifth day of summer weather over 90 degrees. Today it's supposed to be 101.

For us that's very warm.

I've been reading this thread with great care. We're hoping to start our coop next spring and this is what it looked like here last February.

That's looking from the driveway back toward the house.

All hints appreciated!!

Michele.

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
My family has lived in the South for many generations...if I moved up North I would be so out of my element it wouldn't even be funny. If it gets below 70 degrees I start looking for a sweater...I'd probably die if it got down into the 20s.

 

[lilshadow]

I insulated and sheet rocked my first coop, no heat, now heated waterer( carried buckets of water). It got way down last winter to -20 below with wind chills of -35. My girls survived that. This year my new coop (almost done) will have no insulation no heat. I got to thinking about this, and what did they do 100-150 years ago? I hope this doesn't start an argument. I was just curious. My new coop is draft free. I will just haul water, I like being with my girls. I even sat out in the coop with them last year when it was so cold. I live in Milaca, MN.

 

[cajunlizz]

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YES , ya'll have a DRY COLD and we in South Louisiana we have a WET COLD .

 

[ozark hen]

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Jamie, first let me welcome you to byc

Next, my dh put sixty watt bulbs in the coop but they are the energy saving ones that really put out no heat to speak of. Your chickens will be healthier if you provide no heat as long as they are in a secure coop. God provided them with their own "down". We put a reg. sixty watt bulb down over the waterer if the temps get into the very low teens and below. Otherwise, the lights in the coop are for my convenience only. It seems possible that by running the lights longer for the short winter days can cause internal laying and an early death for your hens. I don't know that it is proven yet but I remember reading from those who kept the lights burning to make longer days ended up losing hens due to internal laying? You can do a search on that for yourself and come to your own conclussions. I don't mind that the egg laying slows down during the winter months as I have winter layers and don't want to cause their deaths. Read everyone's advice and then make your own choice.

 

[nnbreeder]

Most of the time 100 years ago fall was butchering time to hold over just as few animals through winter as they could and to provide meat through the winter months.

 

[SterlingAcres]

My birds will be feathered out before it snows here. We didn't insulate, but the barn is draft free and has vinyl siding. I'll be getting them a heated water dish, for VERY cold days... other than that, I'll haul fresh water out during the day. No problem.

 

[MagsC]

We never had heat in our coops, just tried to keep them free of drafts, same thing as my grandparents did. Hauled water, etc. etc.
I like the idea of putting hay bales around the coop. One thing we DID do was put bags of leaves raked up in the fall around the animal outbuildings.(Then pull them out, dump, burn in the spring.)