The first WINTER - ventilation, heating?

[donrae]

Apples to Oranges......
......chickens aren't humans....and humans don't wear custom grown down coats 24/7.
But every keeper must do what ever makes them feel comfortable in their minds.

x2 I considered the heat/no heat situation quite seriously. The deciding factor for me was that chickens have been arround 5, 10, 30, whatever, thousand years without any
external heat source. They are doing better than me. And who hasn't jumped a grouse or pheasant @ 0 degrees?

How about while riding a horse that's already feeling skittery cause of the crisp cold, then a pheasant breaks right out from under you? Impromptu rodeo

 

[MeepBeep]

Coddled, they'll never be able to acclimate to the winter climate. Kept warm at night and turned out into a cold frigid wind is very stressful.

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°?

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...

Heaven forbid, one has a power outage.

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...

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...

 

[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.