Red Heat Light

[Pidgey104]

Just be careful and make sure it is in a place that it can;t be knocked to the ground. I had one of those red lamps my brodder. I was out there and not even 10 min later I come back to a blazing fire and dead chicks.

 

[KCNC06]

The girls definitely aren't acting aggressive, or grumpy at any point during the day or evening. In the evening when they go to roost, they actually seem more friendly with each other. Girls who used to refuse to sit on the same roost together are now sitting side by side perfectly happy. It's hard to tell if the it has anything to do with the light, or if it's just that everyone is just so much more comfortable and at ease now that the big, bad guineas have moved. Our guineas used to chase/beat up the chickens fairly regularly. They've been gone a week now and everyone just seems so much more relaxed.

Our chicken house is designed with two wooden rods for roosting, one on either end of the house, one perch up above (our Leghorn used to refuse to roost near or below anyone else) and one nest loft. The Seabrights tend to prefer to sleep in the nest loft at night. There are 2 foot tall wire "windows" on all sides of the house, and we have a light-colored metal roof. This set up was great in the summer, very well ventilated and it even stayed quite "cool" (as cool as any building stays in NC in the summer!). I clean their house out regularly, but never noticed any odor. They're really only in the house during the night, the rest of the time they have a huge fenced area (probably close to 5,600 sq feet) to run around in and the ones who have figured out how to jump the gate are free to do so.

The red light doesn't seem to heat the house up too terribly warm, probably since the house isn't insulated, but definitely keeps it above freezing. The light is also far enough from anything that I don't think it should cause a problem. Of course, now I'm feeling a little paranoid and want to leave work to go check on them. The light's been up for over two weeks with no incident, but just when you think you're safe..... Great.

I tend to be a worrier, so I feel the areas all around the light on a regular basis (daily) to make sure nothing is getting too warm.

Anyway. Like I said before, I don't know that the cold was bothering the chickens. It was probably more me being bothered by the idea of something being out in the cold. If I had my way they'd come stay in the house with us on the particularly cold nights. Though I'm sure no one would like that, so it's a good thing my husband says no way to that one.

 

[Intheswamp]

KCNC06, I don't think it's been mentioned how you're supporting your lamp, but don't just use the clamp to support it...it could lose it's grip, a chicken could fly into it and knock it down, etc.,. Secure it to it's support with some heavy wire.

Also you might want to make a cage/guard out of some 1/2" or 1" fence/hardware material to give the lamp a bit more protection that the 2-wire guard does.

I like your ventilation...2' windows down each side. How big is your coop? Do you have something designed to cover the windows during bad weather?

The white roof is excellent. I agree, building for summer heat is important. I'm down below Montgomery, Alabama and it gets mighty hot and humid down here, thus I'm looking at building for lots of fresh air.

Sounds like you've got a good setup!

Ed

 

[KCNC06]

I can't remember the exact size of the coop, I came up with my suggested design and my husband "corrected" it for me. Apparently that's what happens when you marry a design school grad.

I think it's 4' wide, 8' long, 6' tall in the front and 4' tall in the back. I could be a little off though. The nest loft on the one end is 4' long and 2' deep (if my measurement guesses for the width and length are right on the overall building). We only have 5 1/2 chickens, so they seem to have plenty of room....two of our hens are Seabrights, bantams so really I have a hard time giving them credit for being a whole chicken each. I'm guessing that the one who's started laying already has to be close to full grown if she's not full grown already and she's really no bigger than a dove. My husband built the house to withstand practically anything, both because of his design school years and to compete with my father. My dad is the kind of guy who can literally make and/or build just about anything (literally, my dad and brother built an electric truck last year, bought an old truck, tore it apart, ta-da - electric truck!), and my husband feels the need to keep up. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to feel pretty bad in the next year or so when I tell him we need to build a bigger coop because I need to add more chickens to the flock.

Anyway. The light is suspended from heavy gauge wire...the wire is heavy to begin with, but it's also doubled over on itself a couple times, and is attached to the roof rafters by two big eye hooks. The wire is also looped (knotted? tied?...wrapped around so it doesn't slide) through the hangy part of the light, it's pretty secure. I think we thought about the additional wire/mesh to guard the bulb from the chickens/chickens from the bulb...apparently our ADHD got the better of us and we wondered off to something else. Thanks for the reminder on that! I'll add it to our to-do list for this weekend. In a household of two ADHD humans, two pit bulls, and these silly chickens, I'm surprised we remember to do anything some days.

 

[valentinebaby]

We had record lows here in North Texas during December and in order for ME to get any sleep, I suspended a red heat lamp on a timer that would come on around sundown and off at sunrise. Not only did my egg production pick back up, but those girls who had gone into an early molt (we went from the 80's down to the teens over night), perked up and got over their molt quicker. Plus the water in the coop didn't freeze as fast. Follow your own instincts! Gail

 

[Andi]

I don't think you need to worry about adverse effects of the red heat lamps on the chickens (other than the potential fire hazard). I could see it maybe not being so great if they are inside without windows 24/7, but if they have access to daylight it shouldn't be a big deal. If they are inside 24/7 without windows I'd recommend getting a white light bulb to take the place of sunlight. During that nasty cold snap when the daytime high temp wasn't even getting above 0°F (without windchill) for several days in a row, that's what I did. My coop won't have windows until Spring and I need to supplement the light for them. They laid all the way through that cold snap.

I use one at night and in the morning to prevent eggs from splitting from freezing. By the time I turn it off in the late morning there's enough residual heat to keep the water from freezing for the rest of the day. I do have an insulated coop and am using the deep litter method, which insulates the floor of the coop.