My story of finding and building the best heater

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TwoCrows said:
If I lived in your climate, I would probably insulate my coop, use venting such as I posted above. If my birds started to have trouble with the cold, I probably would use low heat, maybe keeping temps 10 degrees warmer than the outside temps. This adds heat however it's not enough heat that if the power went out it would harm the birds. They would still be able to go outside on nicer days.
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I like it, so not actually warm temperatures ,but just to keep it as safe levels, right?
 
Dim2000 said:
I like it, so not actually warm temperatures ,but just to keep it as safe levels, right?
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Yes. Birds are designed to adapt to their environment and can tolerate some pretty cold temps. But I personally wouldn't want to stress my birds with temps below -20F. We had -30F here for 3 days a couple decades ago, (I'm up in the mountains at 7,000 ft, Southern Rockies). Granted, this isn't normal temps, rarely getting below -5 F. But I had the heat lamps and oil heaters running! They barely got the temp to zero, but it did keep thr birds bodies from working overtime. The thing you have to be careful with is, adding heat to cold can produce drafts and condensation. A low amount of heat won't cause cold air to be sucked in or condense the air making it fall back down as frost on combs. Your birds will adapt to your temps as fall becomes winter. If you use plenty of ventilation, they will adapt to -20F just fine. They are designed this way. If it is supposed to get down to -30 or -40F, you might add just enough heat to bring it back up to -20 or -10. Generally properly adapted birds can tolerate up to a 20 degree drop in temp at night and survive well. Any bigger temp change and it can negatively affect their lives.
 
TwoCrows said:
Yes. Birds are designed to adapt to their environment and can tolerate some pretty cold temps. But I personally wouldn't want to stress my birds with temps below -20F. We had -30F here for 3 days a couple decades ago, (I'm up in the mountains at 7,000 ft, Southern Rockies). Granted, this isn't normal temps, rarely getting below -5 F. But I had the heat lamps and oil heaters running! They barely got the temp to zero, but it did keep thr birds bodies from working overtime. The thing you have to be careful with is, adding heat to cold can produce drafts and condensation. A low amount of heat won't cause cold air to be sucked in or condense the air making it fall back down as frost on combs. Your birds will adapt to your temps as fall becomes winter. If you use plenty of ventilation, they will adapt to -20F just fine. They are designed this way. If it is supposed to get down to -30 or -40F, you might add just enough heat to bring it back up to -20 or -10. Generally properly adapted birds can tolerate up to a 20 degree drop in temp at night and survive well. Any bigger temp change and it can negatively affect their lives.
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Thanks this clarifies the picture. So the temperature plays pretty essential role here, and needs to be in a narrow range. And how is the temperature control is done? Is it manually switching off/on according to temperature? Or there are other ways?
 
Dim2000 said:
Thanks this clarifies the picture. So the temperature plays pretty essential role here, and needs to be in a narrow range. And how is the temperature control is done? Is it manually switching off/on according to temperature? Or there are other ways?
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It doesn't need to be all that technical. Depends on how you want to heat the coop. There are oil heaters thst are thermostatically controlled which are safe to use, they are heavy and aren't easily tipped over. You can use panel heaters that are 150 watts, they are either stand alone or attached to a wall. They are also coop safe. Then there are 250 watt heat lamps. You need to be very careful with lamps, if they fall to the floor or touch something, they can burn your coop to the ground. Mine are bolted, chained and tied to the wall, they can't cause trouble. Infra red lamps are an excellent heat source for sick and senior birds. It's penetrating, healing and the infra red doesn't disturb their sleep cycle like white lighting.

As for temp, keep thermometers at roosting or bird head height, offset from walls so you get accurate temps. Once you have used your set up of heat sources according to your temps, you will know how to gauge a head of time what you need to turn on to get a desired temp.

You are not looking to keep it comfortable for you, you will always feel it's cold in the coop. You are only going to bring up the temp to a level the birds bodies have learned to deal with. You don't want to damage their normal body processes by over heating them, they are created to tolerate winter and cold. Many people keep poultry up in your territory. So if you find them shivering, huddling and not moving much, not eating, sitting on feet too much, it's time to start bringing the temp up to the degree they were doing ok in before it got too cold. Watch them and see what that temp is. If thats -20F, then you should try and keep the temp around -10. You will figure all this out as you go. Ventilation is SO important to remove all the moisture from the pooping and breathing. If the moisture can't escape out the eaves, it will fall back down as frost on the combs. Frost bite is very painful. Make sure to use 2x4s with the 4 side up for roosting bars. It's very important in your climate for the birds to be able to cover their feet and toes with their breast feathers. Chickens can and do lose all their toes to frost bite, rendering the bird completely lame. Have them roost low to the floor, out of the upper moving air, roosting high is colder and wetter. Ventilation also helps to remove the ammonia that is released in their poop. Ammonia can burn their eyes and cause respiratory disease. Lastly, I suggest you obtain birds locally from a preputable breeder, someone with healthy, well acclimated birds to your climate.
 
TwoCrows said:
It doesn't need to be all that technical. Depends on how you want to heat the coop. There are oil heaters thst are thermostatically controlled which are safe to use, they are heavy and aren't easily tipped over. You can use panel heaters that are 150 watts, they are either stand alone or attached to a wall. They are also coop safe. Then there are 250 watt heat lamps. You need to be very careful with lamps, if they fall to the floor or touch something, they can burn your coop to the ground. Mine are bolted, chained and tied to the wall, they can't cause trouble. Infra red lamps are an excellent heat source for sick and senior birds. It's penetrating, healing and the infra red doesn't disturb their sleep cycle like white lighting.

As for temp, keep thermometers at roosting or bird head height, offset from walls so you get accurate temps. Once you have used your set up of heat sources according to your temps, you will know how to gauge a head of time what you need to turn on to get a desired temp.

You are not looking to keep it comfortable for you, you will always feel it's cold in the coop. You are only going to bring up the temp to a level the birds bodies have learned to deal with. You don't want to damage their normal body processes by over heating them, they are created to tolerate winter and cold. Many people keep poultry up in your territory. So if you find them shivering, huddling and not moving much, not eating, sitting on feet too much, it's time to start bringing the temp up to the degree they were doing ok in before it got too cold. Watch them and see what that temp is. If thats -20F, then you should try and keep the temp around -10. You will figure all this out as you go. Ventilation is SO important to remove all the moisture from the pooping and breathing. If the moisture can't escape out the eaves, it will fall back down as frost on the combs. Frost bite is very painful. Make sure to use 2x4s with the 4 side up for roosting bars. It's very important in your climate for the birds to be able to cover their feet and toes with their breast feathers. Chickens can and do lose all their toes to frost bite, rendering the bird completely lame. Have them roost low to the floor, out of the upper moving air, roosting high is colder and wetter. Ventilation also helps to remove the ammonia that is released in their poop. Ammonia can burn their eyes and cause respiratory disease. Lastly, I suggest you obtain birds locally from a preputable breeder, someone with healthy, well acclimated birds to your climate.
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Hi TwoCrows, big thanks for the detailed explanation: About the rooster bars: I saw many use just branches or round type bars - but I see now, that actually using the 2x4s as you say is actually much better to help keep them warm. I was thinking about shelves first, but I think it might slow the air circulation near the walls (make the air stagnant) ? Will it help to install a ventilation fan and operate it in high moisture content? Additionally, I have researched the heater types some time ago: the IR lamp is not allowed in our urban area, due to the risk of fire as you said, and additionally I am personally very suspicious about the health impact from IR lamp: I dealt with IR saunas for some time, and know that IR heats up living flesh and penetrating it, rather than heating the air, so I am not sure about chickens but for humans - there is Far IR and Near IR, which are used in a very dosed way - for example - usually the IR sauna is only about half an hour. So I am not sure about the common use of IR for chickens. However, between the other types of heaters - oil heater seems to be the one, many people use. I could not find one with low thermostat setting - all heaters out there are about +16C (60F), and will constantly heat , till you shut them down - which is tricky for me - got to watch the overheating (like you mentioned - not a good thing), and the bill can go up. Same problem actually exists with the wall (ceramic) heaters and forced air heaters. Maybe I don't know something?
 
Dim2000 said:
Hi TwoCrows, big thanks for the detailed explanation: About the rooster bars: I saw many use just branches or round type bars - but I see now, that actually using the 2x4s as you say is actually much better to help keep them warm. I was thinking about shelves first, but I think it might slow the air circulation near the walls (make the air stagnant) ? Will it help to install a ventilation fan and operate it in high moisture content? Additionally, I have researched the heater types some time ago: the IR lamp is not allowed in our urban area, due to the risk of fire as you said, and additionally I am personally very suspicious about the health impact from IR lamp: I dealt with IR saunas for some time, and know that IR heats up living flesh and penetrating it, rather than heating the air, so I am not sure about chickens but for humans - there is Far IR and Near IR, which are used in a very dosed way - for example - usually the IR sauna is only about half an hour. So I am not sure about the common use of IR for chickens. However, between the other types of heaters - oil heater seems to be the one, many people use. I could not find one with low thermostat setting - all heaters out there are about +16C (60F), and will constantly heat , till you shut them down - which is tricky for me - got to watch the overheating (like you mentioned - not a good thing), and the bill can go up. Same problem actually exists with the wall (ceramic) heaters and forced air heaters. Maybe I don't know something?
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Lamps of any kind don't necessarily heat up the air, yes they are a bit more directional. I have used them on very young and very old birds with great success. Because they are penetrating, unlike white bulbs, they increase circulation rather than burn the top skin of the bird. If a bird is really cold, hunkering down under an IR lamp warms them to the core quite well. Placed properly, birds can choose how close or not at all to use them.

Here is my wall panel heater, the grey square behind the roost bar. 150 watts. Some you can purchase stand by themselves.
20170814_085934.jpg


Here an oil heater, it's a DeLonghi, has a thermostat. It does a wonderful job heating the coop...
20240302_114709.jpg


As for roost bars, I wouldn't use shelving, birds should roost so poop falls to the floor. See my roost bar was cloth on it? In the winter I wrap it with an old towel, I use a staple gun to staple it to the bar. My bar is a 4x4. Wrapping your bar will really help your birds to stay warm, warm feet mean warm birds.

Any heater will work as long as it doesn't emit noxious gas, birds can't hurt themselves on it, it can't tip over and if it's powerful it should have a thermostat. If your temps usually linger between 10 above F and -10 below F, you probably won't need heat at all unless it starts to get colder.
 
Dim2000 said:
Thanks for sharing the knowledge! I still struggle about the switching ON/OFF the heater - like it is always ON - the thermostat setting cannot be lowered. So I need to do it manually. Anyone does it differently?
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I use a 35-45°F Thermo Cube in the coop for my heated waterer.
The heater itself(aquarium heater) also has a thermostat.
Lots of options
 
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Dim2000 said:
In nature, yes, however couple of my friends had their chicken frostbites in colder temperatures and some were suffocated while coping together in cold , I heard that laying eggs was also reduced due to surviving factor. Might depend on a breed, age or health condition?
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The older, and hopefully wiser I get, I don't take the "hard-line" on most issues. Just about everyone on this site has captive and to some extent domesticated birds. I don't think we can compare ourselves to birds that are wild. With that said, as I have previously stated, there is a place for heat. There is no way I am going to let my chickens use their energy needed to fight this respiratory battle - to keep themselves warm. It is difficult enough to treat - the least I can do is do the things I have control over. Our elderly birds have a difficult time with heat regulation as well.
 

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