Winter is Coming! Checklists, tips, advice for a newbie

[jburts]

ok thanks for the advice I will look into the infrared ones,
we have been using a heat lamp for several years.
I have heard that some heat lamps people do not have them secured very well,
or just hanging and then they fall
I will take a pic of mine,
it just keeps the coup above freezing when it is really cold out
and it is not on all the time,
just for a couple of hrs.
so we will see, what kind of light bulb would you use cause the reg light bulbs are too bright, and they get hot too.
cfL's I don't fully trust we had some in our garage and they were started to turn black at the base we got those out of there.
thanks

 

[jburts]

I have been looking at different kind of heated lights on line,
which kind were you thinking of? I do have a red flood light that is 100 watts.
don't know if that would be safer or not what do you think?

 

[Alaskan]

I think the safest heaters are the flat panel heaters...

Something like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Products-CL-Panel-Heater/dp/B00FRFFC4W

Here is another one:

http://www.matsmatsmats.com/commercial-industrial/heated/flat-panel-radiant-heater.html


As to lights, I like the super cool, no heat emitted Christmas lights.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I think the safest heaters are the flat panel heaters...

That being said for the most part I think the safest heaters are the ones that are turned OFF.

 

[aart]

......
I have a timer set to a heat lamp which is bolted into the coup timer is set to come on at 5:30 right now, mostly to give chickens some more daylight for eggs.
........

Red light from heat lamp will not give them the kind of light they need to keep laying.
They need 12-15 hours of white light bright enough to see to get around and eat and drink.

 

[jburts]

ok thanks I looked at these and they are inexpensive on amazon,
on the christmas lights do you put these in the coup or the outside?
if I put them on the inside I could see my chickens pecking at them or swinging on the cords
and thanks for the links
Julanne

 

[jburts]

looked at reviews and lots of people use these for thier chickens,that is the flat heater.
I have a socket where the heat lamp goes should I just install a reg soft light bulb for light? since I already have that.
or a red light bulb?
thanks

 

[jburts]

ok I have decided to not heat the coup, with a heat lamp I only have been using to provide light anyway
so I will try to hook up some christmas lights for the light and then if it gets really cold like down to 0 or single digits I can always put the heat lamp back in for a limited time in morning
or maybe a reg light bulb would be enough.
so I'll play around with it and see what works
any other advice would be helpful

 

[Alaskan]

I used cup hooks to hold the Christmas lights up against the walls so there is no risk of chickens getting tangled or pulling them down.

Exterior rated lights are safest for the run, and interior lights work well in a coop (but you could use the exterior ones there too).

The ones I bought have very strong plastic covers over the lights, and there are a few spots where the chickens could peck at them if they wanted. I have had them up for two years now, and they show no sign of wear.

I know some people use the light strings (looks like a plastic tube with tiny lights inside the long plastic tube), and they haven't mentioned the chickens danaging those either.


I like the new Christmas lights over regular light bulbs, because they truly produce NO heat. That makes me sleep better at night, since the fire risk is so much lower.

 

[tinaschiks]

I live in Michigan and as we don't get as much snow as people out east do but we do get cold.I only have a few birds so I was able to build a small coop that can be picked up and moved.so in the winter I move my girls into what I call their winter home which is a green house with raised garden beds.I put their coop in the green house which helps with the wind and then I use a heated bowl for water its great they get to enjoy dust bathing all winter and they can wander outside the green house any time they want.I like to spoil my girls because they give me such joy