This is the first year I've put a hundred year old poultry house to work in my backyard. I have six chickens. The barn doesn't have any working electricity and I want to prepare for winter with a heat lamp etc. Should I get a small solar panel? Any suggestions? I'd like them to lay all winter and i don't want the water and food to freeze.
No way a small solar panel will run a heatlamp. You don't need a heatlamp anyway, and the chickens sure don't need it. They are more than capable of handling the cold, and don't need any help from us. As far as water goes. How far from the house is the coop? Until I ran electric out to my coop, I had two 100' extension cords hooked together and run out there to power up my cookie tin water fount warmer. You can do a search, and check out the cookie tin heater. It's a cheap way to keep the water fount from freezing, and it really works. Jack