South-East Virgina & North-East North Carolina - I need yer advice!!

[MissAbbyStreet]

Hey all,
I'm located in South-Eastern VA and am experiencing the onset of the first winter with my hens!
So I was wondering, what do ya'll do for heating your coops?? I know this varies by location and climate, so I'd like some more area-specific responses!
Thanks

 

[Marlinchaser]

I am north of you, and use no heat, provided that your birds are fully feathered and have a spot to get in out of the weather they will do fine.

 

[rainbowgardens]

I'm northwest of Roanoke and I don't heat my coop.
This will be my second winter. They were fine last year, no frostbite. I wasn't able to get extra straw to put around the coop for insulating and my coop isn't insulated, just the outer layer of OSB board I built it with.
The water froze alot, but I was able to replace it with warmer as needed.
I worried about them the night it got down to 5 degrees, but they were fine.

 

[chickenpluckeroo7]

I'm south of you in the Greenville, NC area. I did heat a coop to two last year but I believe was more to ease my conscious than anything else. Dont plan on using heatlamps this year. Main thing to do is keep the wind off them and they will do fine. Chickenplucker

 

[Kim_NC]

We're in Mt Airy, NC about 15 miles below the VA stateline. We only use heat if we have chicks under 6 weeks old. For example, we currently have 51 at 3 weeks old. We're using 2 heat lamps for them in a draft free coop.

All of our adult birds have draft free coops and no heat source for Winter. The coops have windows covered with heavy guage wire for extra Summer ventilation. We cover these windows with heavy gauge plastic for Winter. All of our adults and pullets over 6 weeks old free range during the day.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

We don't use anything and they do fine. We do have windows on the south side of our coops so during the day it's nice and warm inside, at night there are enough birds that they put off quite a bit of heat.

Steve in NC

 

[MissAbbyStreet]

Awesome! Thanks for the advice ya'll.
I got a very small heat lamp for inside the coop, just for the 1 or 2 "super cold" nights we get here. Other than that I laid down plenty of extra beddin for them to curl up in