The first WINTER - ventilation, heating?

[Mrs. K]

They are your chickens, do what you want. Be ware of the hazards of extension cords, and possible fires.

It is not black and white, however, many people are adding heat, when it is not necessary. They feel guilty if they don't..... and they really don't need too. Often times, adding heat is the problem.

As people, we think of adding heat because we get cold, so we should add heat to our chickens so they don't get cold. When I started, I too thought this way. The next thing we do in our house, is seal it up tight, to keep that heat in so as not to heat the great out doors. So again, we are tempted to do the same with our birds.

It took me a while, and truthfully, I think it is the common statement, "One needs good ventilation, but no drafts" which confused me. No drafts, meant sealed tight to me, ventilation meant a window open.....totally contradictory.

Now I have if figured out. What chickens need, is not heat, chickens need to be DRY. Often times, heating the air causes it to hold more moisture, and while your chickens are warm, they are damp..... going out into the world damp, is COLD and hard on your chickens. If your coop is sealed up, then it is really damp, if the manure is piled up and thawed, that adds to the dampness. If you have a small coop and your chickens are close to the walls or to the ceiling, the moisture in the air condenses and that increases the dampness.

Quit worrying about being warm, start worrying about the humidity and the dampness of your coop. This time of year, with the shortened days, my birds are spending close to 14 hours on the roost. That is a lot of breathing and pooping which releases moisture into the coop. What the coop needs is not added heat, but open space above the birds that can be vented out so that the moisture leaves the coop. Plenty, as in deep absorbent material that can absorb the moisture of the poop.

They do need to be out of the wind, wind can really steal the heat, so what is needed is a large opening well above their heads. Warm moist air rises and will escape the coop, if there is enough ventilation, which will keep them dry and comfortable.

Dry chickens equal warm chickens...... it is not about the temperature. It is about the humidity. In your scenario, it does not matter about the 35 degrees, you are right, heat is heat, it does not matter where it comes from. If you consider 3 coups, 35 degrees from heat lamp + high humidity, 35 degrees from many chickens + high humidity, both of these coop set ups are considerably less healthy, less comfortable for the birds, than a coup that is 0 degrees but dry.

It is not about heat...... that is the mistake.

Mrs K

 

[ChickenCanoe]

So riddle me this, if you have a high chicken to cubic footage ratio in a small coop and their own 'body' heat, heats that small coop at say 35° overnight, what is the difference if you heat a larger coop that isn't as densely populated to 35°?

Chickens did not evolve to live in tiny caves. High stocking density is a problem from a fresh air and pathogen point of view.

Do you monitor the temp in your coop? Is there some hypothetical temperature during the winter where you open more doors and windows because your chickens are giving off 'too much' heat overnight and you dont' want them to get 'stressed' in the morning when the coop is openned?

Or consider this, a chicken gives off about 15W of heat... So riddle me this, what is the amount of heat introduced in a coop containing 10+1 chickens vs a coop containing 1 chicken + a 150W heat source? Please explain the logic that concludes that the 150W of heat given off by the 10 chickens and enjoyed by the +1 chicken in the first coop is somehow different then 150W of heat given off by another heat source and enjoyed by the 1 chicken in the second coop?

To be blunt when you argue black and white logic against heat in a coop you start to dig yourself into a hole of contradictory logic and fact about heating as chickens themselves are factually heating the coop... Depending on chicken density in a coop their own heat could realistically be more heat than an artificial heat source in another coop, and that alone puts a big illogical and contradicting twist on many of the arguments used against heating...
Because, never in nature does the temp drop suddenly from day to day? Can't say what happens in your area but going from say 40° or 50° one day (or even during the day) to freezing temps the next (or night) is far from uncommon where I live, in fact it happens quite regularly this time of year... In fact it happened this last weekend, both days were near 60° during the day and fell to below freezing at night... Same could be said for it going from moderate freezing temps to extreme negatives within hours, again not an uncommon occurrence, it happened several times last year... I know this first hand as I was out there moving snow that had fallen a few hours earlier when it was about 30° all the while within that few hours time it had dropped to -10° with 40MPH winds because a 'polar vortex' plunged into our area...

We have huge temperature swings, but healthy chickens constantly exposed to those swings can handle what comes their way. Fresh air is the largest contributor to health.

I continue to see lots of hyperbole and scare 'what ifs' against heating... And although there might be some factual basis in those claims it's far from the black and white serious threat many would like to claim or believe...

Also there is a world of difference from mildly heating a coop and taking out the nip from the air and heating it to some 'warm' temp, as shown above mild and moderate heat is honestly no different than raising the bird density in many cases...

If one chooses not to heat (or heat) that is certainly your choice to make, but again to be blunt there are pros and cons to both choices and one should make an educated decision weighing in their unique circumstance... The answer is far from black and white even though many insist it is...

In general with healthy, cold hearty breeds, in your backyard coop heating is not advised as the cons generally out weigh the pros, but that is only a generalization there are many instances where that generalization simply does not apply and the pros weigh heavy towards heating...

If you want to heat your coop, I recommend you do so.
In fact, I highly recommend you do so. Stock densely, close off openings and see how healthy your flock is in the long run.

In over 60 years, there has been no coop or hen house heating here, no dense stocking, anywhere from 10 to well over 100 birds. Wide open ventilation and never lost a bird to respiratory disease or freezing to death. The only environmental problem I've lost a bird to was heat.

During the infancy of the commercial poultry market in the early 1900s. Chickens were kept in closed housing during the winters and it was accepted that 40-60% of the birds would be lost. Eventually they considered that the problem was bad air.
One large producer decided to give open sided housing a try. He took one entire wall off of his buildings. During the night snow would drift into the buildings but he never lost a single bird to illness after that.

http://archive.org/stream/openairpoultryho00wood/openairpoultryho00wood_djvu.txt

 

[EagleEyes]

In fact, this morning I opened up my 2'X4' window which is on the opposite side as their roost, (had it propped open about a foot when it got into the single digits) because our temps are going to be a bit warmer for a while, teens to 20s at night and 20s and 30s during the day.
As far as my coop being dry, ain't gonna happen. here in Wisconsin our humidity, as an example right now is 62% and my coop is within a couple % of that, day or night, which by the way is always higher at night.(that is outside, and my coop is again, within a couple %.
Just sayin,
and no heat.

 

[Mrs. K]

Coming from the practical desert like dryness of SD, I just can hardly imagine 62% humidity, do thing mold? Your need for ventilation is greater than mine, wow....

Mrs K

 

[EagleEyes]

That just shows how different it is everywhere. 62% is actually low for here. It is mostly in the 70-80% range outside, and of course inside the coop about the same, and NO it does not mold. It's just the way it is.

It is now 6:30 am and the coop humidity is 84%, and the humidity outside is also 84%, and the temp in the coop is 6 deg warmer than outside.

 

[Mrs. K]

Out of curiosity, how many chickens do you keep in what size coop? I am thinking that you must have a larger coop, with a great deal of air space. With that kind of humidity, without a great deal of air space, your walls and ceilings would be running water?

Mrs K

 

[EagleEyes]

My coop is 6'X6' inside and I have 7 hens.
You can look at the pic of my setup where it says "My Coop" to the left. and my chickens are in my signature.
And my deep liter seems dry to me when I kick or rake it around.

 

[Mrs. K]

yes I see, it would be dry that much fresh air.

 

[lazy gardener]

Let your chickens tell you what they need. If they are acting like chickens, they are fine. If they are huddled in the corner, not moving about, not eating, they are NOT doing fine. A little bit of heat can make a huge difference in how well a flock makes it through the winter. If the temp stays below zero for extended days, your flock may benefit from a little heat, if it is added in a safe manner. Not much sense arguing about it, except for the point of safety.