post your chicken coop pictures here!

[TJordan]

So sorry TJ for your losses... You should have known better... It's been repeated over and over on here to never use heat lamps inside coops. Man, that just sucks. It took you what, three years for hubby to finally build that coop? (I don't have imojis or would put the one with me hiding under the chair here). Hope you don't have to wait another 3 for the replacement coop for the survivors/replacements.

I do. I put it in there for the night because the temp was going to drop below 40.... I can't afford a brooder pad. I had to do something. Now I wish I never did.

You never think this will happen. It had an emergency shut off if it flipped, it was well away from the hay and walls. I had it on a cement block for safety.

The fireman says it was probable knocked over and still hot causing the fire.

 

[junebuggena]

I do. I put it in there for the night because the temp was going to drop below 40.... I can't afford a brooder pad. I had to do something. Now I wish I never did.

You never think this will happen. It had an emergency shut off if it flipped, it was well away from the hay and walls. I had it on a cement block for safety.

The fireman says it was probable knocked over and still hot causing the fire.

Get a heating pad. So much safer.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I do. I put it in there for the night because the temp was going to drop below 40.... I can't afford a brooder pad. I had to do something. Now I wish I never did.

You never think this will happen. It had an emergency shut off if it flipped, it was well away from the hay and walls. I had it on a cement block for safety.

The fireman says it was probable knocked over and still hot causing the fire.

When I use a heat lamp in he coop I put a sheet of tin foil on the wall with thumb tacks and hang it above their roost so they stay warm and tie the cord in a not up in the raptors so it can't fall and run the end of the cord through the gap of the roof and the raptors and send the east entire cord over to the telephone pole or through the window of the garage

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

So sorry for ur losses I wish u luck with ur next coop

 

[bruceha2000]

I do. I put it in there for the night because the temp was going to drop below 40.... I can't afford a brooder pad. I had to do something. Now I wish I never did.

You never think this will happen. It had an emergency shut off if it flipped, it was well away from the hay and walls. I had it on a cement block for safety.

The fireman says it was probable knocked over and still hot causing the fire.

I can't imagine losing my coop and flock.


I'm trying to understand this, you had the heat lamp ON a cement block? Why did you not hang it with at least 2 wires to make sure it one failed the other would keep it from falling? But you said it had an emergency shut off if it flipped. That doesn't sound like a heat lamp but a standalone heater.

I think the 3 temp pads that don't ever shut off are CHEAP! Amazon:
$10.44 12x15: http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-756-500-Heating-Pad-UltraHeatTechnology/dp/B00006IV4N/
$17.85 12x24: http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-732-500-King-Heating-UltraHeatTechnology/dp/B000FGDDI0/

 

[TJordan]

I can't imagine losing my coop and flock. 


 I'm trying to understand this, you had the heat lamp ON a cement block? Why did you not hang it with at least 2 wires to make sure it one failed the other would keep it from falling? But you said it had an emergency shut off if it flipped. That doesn't sound like a heat lamp but a standalone heater. 



I think the 3 temp pads that don't ever shut off are CHEAP! Amazon:
$10.44 12x15: http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-756-500-Heating-Pad-UltraHeatTechnology/dp/B00006IV4N/ 
$17.85 12x24: http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeam-732-500-King-Heating-UltraHeatTechnology/dp/B000FGDDI0/

It's something my husband found when we put the babies outside. It was a heat lamp enclosed in a aluminum box tho focus the heat. It didn't have a hang setup. I was thinking of making one. What I did was section off a corner of the coop near the baby area with hardware cloth to keep the birds away. Or so I thought. I placed it on the cement slab to keep it free of hay and had the cord ran through the top of the coop so nothing could snag it. It might of been a heater type setup but it used heat lamp bulbs that's why I said heat lamp.

 

[gpeters3]

Oh my goodness... I'm so sorry for your loss

My first attempt with a clamp lamp like they sell at Family Farm for chickens didn't work well due to the fact that I had 3 roosters in there riling everyone up and the chickens flew pretty high to get away and hit the lamp. Now I install an IC Lamp enclosure permanently between the joists or rafters and protect it with wire cover. In my brooder (where they can't get up that high yet) I use the clamp lamp with wire stretched and stapled to the nailers so it can only fall a few inches. When the chicks are large enough to cause trouble it will be warm enough that the lamps will come out.

Any lamp you use in a chicken coop must be secured and protected against them jumping or flying into it. Next winter I am going to add a second red lamp (not heat lamp) in the extension I'm building shortly. My coop is hard wired to residential code but my coop will be 9 x 24 x 12' high and pole barn construction with concrete floor. Remember, any outlet you can reach from a concrete (or dirt) floor must be Ground fault protected.

I also feel your loss but, on a positive note, we learn from our mistakes. One thing we learn is to ask knowledgeable people before we do something we have no experience with. The reason I know so much about it is because I have made every mistake in the book and lived to learn from it. (you know what 110 feels like on a rainy day when standing in a puddle of water.......????)

 

[TJordan]

My first attempt with a clamp lamp like they sell at Family Farm for chickens didn't work well due to the fact that I had 3 roosters in there riling everyone up and the chickens flew pretty high to get away and hit the lamp. Now I install an IC Lamp enclosure permanently between the joists or rafters and protect it with wire cover. In my brooder (where they can't get up that high yet) I use the clamp lamp with wire stretched and stapled to the nailers so it can only fall a few inches. When the chicks are large enough to cause trouble it will be warm enough that the lamps will come out.

Any lamp you use in a chicken coop must be secured and protected against them jumping or flying into it. Next winter I am going to add a second red lamp (not heat lamp) in the extension I'm building shortly. My coop is hard wired to residential code but my coop will be 9 x 24 x 12' high and pole barn construction with concrete floor. Remember, any outlet you can reach from a concrete (or dirt) floor must be Ground fault protected.

I also feel your loss but, on a positive note, we learn from our mistakes. One thing we learn is to ask knowledgeable people before we do something we have no experience with. The reason I know so much about it is because I have made every mistake in the book and lived to learn from it. (you know what 110 feels like on a rainy day when standing in a puddle of water.......????)

I would love some pictures for ideas for my husband when he builds this next one. I've got orders to go buy some chicks tomorrow and I've got eggs going in the incubator as well. This will never happen again if I have to keep them inside for the first 5-6 weeks.

 

[urbanabanana]

I would love some pictures for ideas for my husband when he builds this next one. I've got orders to go buy some chicks tomorrow and I've got eggs going in the incubator as well. This will never happen again if I have to keep them inside for the first 5-6 weeks.

I found this great DIY brooder on Pinterest!

And here's a link http://pin.it/CIEkwe5 to an online DIY manual for what looks like a very nice coop! I don't quite know how big you need it to be, but it gives you all the dimensions and material requirements so you could probably modify it fairly easily!

 

[Latestarter]

Again TJ... I'm truly sorry. I know you were just trying to keep your young flock warm, but what a price to pay. It's so sad. I'm sure they would have come through just fine, even at below 40. You'd be amazed how they'd just all pile up and keep each other warm if they have any feathers at all. I'm also sad that it took you so long to FINALLY get that coop, and now you're put right back to waiting again. I'm truly THANKFUL that the fire didn't spread and do damage to other structures of yours or your neighbors. That would have been horrendous!