Think it's too cold for your chickens? Think again...

[vmdanielsen]

If there is a storm coming, I often fill up my bath tub with water. Also 5 gallon buckets....as many as I can find!

 

[TheyThinkI'mTheirMom]

Quote:
yep, me too

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
We're the last house on a major power line so if it is out any place it is out here. 10 years ago we put in an a gasoline generator(not exactly sure of the output and am not going to go out in the snow now to check) that will run the pump, oil fired furnace/hot air system, oil water heater, all refrigeration units (two freezers and 2 refrigerators) our tv/satellite system, kitchen counter outlets, one burner on the stove and various lights in the house--this includes the circuit to the "hen house". I keep a constant 10 gallons of gas on hand, at the minimum, and the generator runs for 5 hrs per gallon, depending on load. Depending on the outside temperature and day length we run the generator as needed. Has worked for us.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
They just do without the light and I have to haul water anyway so it's no big deal. I also have a light on a timer in the layer coop, but again, it's more for my own convenience so I can see in the dark (it starts getting dark at about 2:30pm now) and don't trip over a chicken. They don't NEED the light. If the power goes out, I have a head-lamp and other flashlights, and I just melt some snow/ice on the gas stove for wwter. We lose our water pump when the power goes out so we keep a backup of water in 1 gallon jugs. For extremely long periods of outages, we have a Honda generator, but it won't be used on the chickens.

Seriously... if you don't coddle them, there's no reason to panic when stuff like that happens. It's kinda nice.

Never meant to sound like I was in a panic.Have had many critters over my 65 yrs.

Just was interested how and what the reasons behind how things are done. We are on a well so if electricity goes so does the well pump what generators do you all us?? and yes I've hauled enough water thru frozen times to fill a large lake! Not my favorite thing to do.

Sorry...

Didn't mean you specifically... that was a general "you". I read it again, and I should have re-worded it.

Did not mean to imply you were panicking. (but I'm guessing there are a lot of chicken owners out there that are...)

 

[ellieroo]

Quote:
We're the last house on a major power line so if it is out any place it is out here. 10 years ago we put in an a gasoline generator(not exactly sure of the output and am not going to go out in the snow now to check) that will run the pump, oil fired furnace/hot air system, oil water heater, all refrigeration units (two freezers and 2 refrigerators) our tv/satellite system, kitchen counter outlets, one burner on the stove and various lights in the house--this includes the circuit to the "hen house". I keep a constant 10 gallons of gas on hand, at the minimum, and the generator runs for 5 hrs per gallon, depending on load. Depending on the outside temperature and day length we run the generator as needed. Has worked for us.

OK when spring comes can you please remember to look!!

 

[ellieroo]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Quote:
Never meant to sound like I was in a panic.Have had many critters over my 65 yrs.

Just was interested how and what the reasons behind how things are done. We are on a well so if electricity goes so does the well pump what generators do you all us?? and yes I've hauled enough water thru frozen times to fill a large lake! Not my favorite thing to do.

Sorry...

Didn't mean you specifically... that was a general "you". I read it again, and I should have re-worded it.

Did not mean to imply you were panicking. (but I'm guessing there are a lot of chicken owners out there that are...)​

Thats fine! I am in a slight panic over my old horse he is no longer king and is not allowed in the shelter so I broke down and ordered him a raincoat!

 

[LeezyBeezy]

Mrs. K :

LeesyBeesy - use cardboard, it is cheap, and actually a good insulator. The barn itself should keep it fairly dry. I have read that you can make a coop much smaller, and therefore warmer, but just putting in empty boxes. And cardboard is pretty light weight, so depending on what is supporting your wire "roof", you could put a layer up there and that would warm things up easily and pretty darn cheaply, without a carpenter.

Mrs.K

so, just make the "roof" out of cardboard for more insulation? I could make walls out of it too, it just seems like such a large space for any warm building up from their bodies.​

 

[minihorse927]

I never provide heat for the chickens out in the pen and they do fine. I do not get anywhere near as cold as some do but I regularly hit 10degrees here right now at night and sometimes I get as alow as -20degrees. The only ones who get heat are chicks that are not feathered out. It is only 25degree right now at the house and all the chickens are running around in the snow that is falling and playing by by the creek! I do have a deicer in their waterer that only gets turned on at night when it gets down to 10degrees or lower. That is just for my convienence.

RSL'S and NH red playing in the snow.

Silkie Roo enjoying the snow.

At 10am this morning

If they were wild no one would provide them heat!

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

My issue is humidity. The 16 X 20 insulated coop room is in a much larger pole shed and is divided into several pens for different groups. There are 30-40 well-feathered adult standard size birds in this coop room.

I am still seeing frost on the inside of windows.

Temps in the coop room have not gone below 24F, but it has only gotten down to about 13F outside. We will get down to -30F at some point this winter. The pole shed is often colder than outside air, as the concrete floor is shaded by the roof and does not warm up very quickly.

Incoming air vents come from inside the pole shed (about 2ft X 2 ft and can easily be made bigger) and out going is a 3 in bathroom fan that runs 30 min out of every hour. The specs on the fan state this should change the air in the coop room twice a day. When the fan is running you can feel a small amount of air flow coming in from the shed, but it isn't strong enough to feel like a draft. The coop smells fine and the air seems fairly dust free.

2 100-watt lights are on timers for 12 hours of light.

The eggs are not freezing, and the occassional bucket of water that gets left in a corner of the room does not even have a skim on it in the coldest mornings.

We try to clear poop out when we can, but do not have poop boards under every roost yet.

Floor in coop room is covered with a layer of cardboard and then 4 in of pine shavings.

Each pen has a heated gallon-sized dog dish for water or a 5-gallon poultry waterer with a red heat lamp on it. Each morning we carefully dump dirty water in a tub and take it out to the field to dump.

My soft-hearted (bless him!) DH has made me istall an additional red heat lamp that isn't even on a waterer. He is very worried about frostbite. We had some last year. He wants the temps above 32F at all times. We have a couple of birds who insist on sleeping on the floor.

I do not think all this heat is needed, I am more concerned about humidity. I also do not like how the heat lamps add a lot of light when the birds should be sleeping. It does allow the Buckeye rooster to hunt mice all night.

I'm planning to put thermocubes on the heat lamps. Anything else I can do to reassure him about reducing artificial heat in the coop room?

 

[GAGE]

It is supposed to get down in the mid to upper 20's the next few nights, which is real cold for middle GA. I thought about putting the heat lamp in the coop for a few nights. It has a red bulb so I do not know if it will mess with them up while sleeping.