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You can accomplish the same thing without adding heat. It's the 14+ hours of daylight that stimulates laying as if it was springtime. If you have electricity to your coop, add an LED light strip to the area above the roosts (mine's in the roof peak). Put it on a timer to increase the illuminated hours in both the morning and late afternoon/evening. LEDs are awesome; they give off a lot of light, almost no heat, and use minimal watts. My timer uses more power than the LED strip.
Chickens should give off enough heat on their own to do ok. I think it's a terrible idea to use an unprotected heat source around flammables and animals. Added heat just helps the chickens metabolize their feed better so they're not using so much energy to keep warm.
I think the biggest problem with using a heat lamp for both heat and light (or a big wattage light bulb) is when you turn it off to give the chickens night time sleep, it gets cold in the coop. Better to separate the heat and light issues.
Someone else posted (in another thread) about using an electric oil-filled heater in their coop. No source of flames, though the ones I've seen gobble a lot of energy. If your coop's big enough to hold one of these units, it might be a good idea.
I'm not going to supplement for heat until the temps get really cold at night. We're going to use a Dampp-Chaser humidity control system heating rod (used in pianos) encased in a slightly larger PVC tube. The Dampp-Chaser company is in North Carolina. I don't know if they sell the components to the general public, but you can find a piano technician and get one there. If you have a retail tax license you can order from a piano supply company or from Dampp-Chaser.
You can accomplish the same thing without adding heat. It's the 14+ hours of daylight that stimulates laying as if it was springtime. If you have electricity to your coop, add an LED light strip to the area above the roosts (mine's in the roof peak). Put it on a timer to increase the illuminated hours in both the morning and late afternoon/evening. LEDs are awesome; they give off a lot of light, almost no heat, and use minimal watts. My timer uses more power than the LED strip.
Chickens should give off enough heat on their own to do ok. I think it's a terrible idea to use an unprotected heat source around flammables and animals. Added heat just helps the chickens metabolize their feed better so they're not using so much energy to keep warm.
I think the biggest problem with using a heat lamp for both heat and light (or a big wattage light bulb) is when you turn it off to give the chickens night time sleep, it gets cold in the coop. Better to separate the heat and light issues.
Someone else posted (in another thread) about using an electric oil-filled heater in their coop. No source of flames, though the ones I've seen gobble a lot of energy. If your coop's big enough to hold one of these units, it might be a good idea.
I'm not going to supplement for heat until the temps get really cold at night. We're going to use a Dampp-Chaser humidity control system heating rod (used in pianos) encased in a slightly larger PVC tube. The Dampp-Chaser company is in North Carolina. I don't know if they sell the components to the general public, but you can find a piano technician and get one there. If you have a retail tax license you can order from a piano supply company or from Dampp-Chaser.
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