My coop caught on fire!! *Pics added in Post 15*

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Wow!

That is so scary , glad your chickens weren't harmed and it hadn't spread any farther. You were lucky your neighbor was home and call fire dept.
We'll think twice about putting a heat lamp in our coop. We will just have to hope our 6 w/o's will be grown enough to prepare them for cold weather when it comes.
We were considering getting a kerosene heater and putting it in a metal dog cage so chicks couldn't get close to it, but now I'm wondering if it'll even be safe.

Thank you for warning us and hope you can get your coop rebuilt in time for winter,

 

[Siler]

Quote:
Thank you for posting this info. When I saw the title of the post I yelled out. The dog ran to the window and started to bark. I'm so glad that the chickens are ok. This is such a good lesson to all of us who haven't been around the block several times. This will be my second winter with chickens so I'm still such a noob.

 

[redtree57]

Surely made up my mind. I have never heated the coop, but I do provide extra light. There is no timer, I set different alarms on my cell phone and plug and unplug myself, so I am out there pretty often to check the light. The bulb is a small flouresant.

Very scary. From where the coop is, the brush would catch immediatly, and straight after our neighbor' and our houses. It is dry here alot and we seem to be in fire bans more often than not. We also live so far out, the volunteer fire department takes too long to save things.

 

[JustMandy]

Thanks, everyone, for your support. I'm so glad my experiance can maybe save some of you from going through the same thing...or worse. I really am very blessed.

So glad the pictures are helpful.

The christmas lights are a good idea but I'm too nervous to do anything that's not hardwired and REALLY sturdy now. I'll just deal with lowered production a few more days.

 

[speckledhen]

A brooder lamp with a guard, secured tightly with an extra insurance of a second attachment to something would have prevented that. The light bulb on the extension cord with no guard is scary! Glad it didn't turn out worse!

 

[PatS]

Last year I used a battery powered LED camping lantern. It was bright enough to keep egg production going full blast. And no danger of fire. Since I only had it on about three hours a day, the batteries lasted pretty well. There might be battery powered Christmas lights, as well. It really doesn't take much light..

 

[chicmom]

Thanks for sharing your story! Very important for people to know.....Glad to hear your chickens are ok!

 

[CMV]

So glad you didn't lose any birds. I've heard too many stories about people losing whole barns full of livestock because of heat lamps. I will never use them in my coop as a result.

 

[JustMandy]

Quote:
Oh, I know. I take full responsibility. I knew it wasn't a safe thing to do but it was convenient and in my mind just for a couple days so not a big risk. That's why I'm telling everyone and not hiding the fact that I did a stupid, dangerous thing for the sake of saving time.

I know a lot of us on BYC use what we have around for our coops/incubators/brooders. We love to improvise and save money. I want to remind people that safety should come before all of that.

It's not so much that lights are the problem, it was my decision to use what I had around instead of waiting for my husband to install the light the right way.

I actually had second thoughts about posting the pic of the light since it was obvious how negligent I was. I decided that full disclosure was more important then my pride.

 

[dirtsaver]

Kat's Silly Chickens :

Wow!

That is so scary , glad your chickens weren't harmed and it hadn't spread any farther. You were lucky your neighbor was home and call fire dept.
We'll think twice about putting a heat lamp in our coop. We will just have to hope our 6 w/o's will be grown enough to prepare them for cold weather when it comes.
We were considering getting a kerosene heater and putting it in a metal dog cage so chicks couldn't get close to it, but now I'm wondering if it'll even be safe.

Thank you for warning us and hope you can get your coop rebuilt in time for winter,

Kat the kerosene heater would be a disaster in the making! All the chicks would have to do is kick shavings or straw into the dog crate when they were scratching around and you've got a fire! Also, I'm thinking a kerosene heater would make the coop way too warm for the chicks. I am a regular user of the kerosene heaters in both my workshop and the house but I'd never put one where I could not keep an eye on it at all times or where animals could kick or push bedding close to it.

Just some thoughts from a long-time(30+ years) kerosene heater user.

Larry​