Hi all. Thanks for all the great advice!! I will be biting the bullet this year and not provide heat to my girls. I have in the past on really bitter cold nights but will not any more after watching my neighbors coop burn to the ground just a few weeks ago. They had a heat lamp in their coop which caught the coop on fire. All eight hens perished in the fire. It was horrible!! I would rather deal with frost bite than the horror of something like that.
So, I have reinsulated the coop, checked for good ventilation and will be adding tarps to the north facing side of their run. The hanging water containers in their run are heated at the base and work pretty well most of the winter. I provide them fresh water in their coop when it freezes.
After all, God made these creatures to survive in cold temperatures. I constantly see wild turkeys at 10,000+ feet in elevation when hunting. It is bitter cold in the Rocky Mountains and they do just fine. And, so will my girls, especially since they have a coop to protect them from the wind and snow.
So, I have reinsulated the coop, checked for good ventilation and will be adding tarps to the north facing side of their run. The hanging water containers in their run are heated at the base and work pretty well most of the winter. I provide them fresh water in their coop when it freezes.
After all, God made these creatures to survive in cold temperatures. I constantly see wild turkeys at 10,000+ feet in elevation when hunting. It is bitter cold in the Rocky Mountains and they do just fine. And, so will my girls, especially since they have a coop to protect them from the wind and snow.
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