Would this work?? Ya think??

[justusnak]

OK, I was brainstorming....I have read several posts about "cold feet" .... "roost questions" ie: flat or round....etc. Here is my thought. Could a person get say some PVC pipe...cover it with indoor/outdoor carpet..and run heat tape through the middle....for those really cold nights? I think I am going to try to make one...for my breeder pens...and see how it works. Whatcha think!???

 

[HobbyChickener]

Before you try it on your birds you should try it on your hand. Heat tape will get pretty hot, but if it is really cold out then that might keep it from getting to hot. However if you get some of our 20 one day and 70 the next it would get very hot.

 

[seedcorn]

Sounds like a good idea, if you can find one that is just keeping temp above 40 degrees. I'll have to look as well to see if I can find some.

 

[HobbyChickener]

I can remember using them on pipe in the house I grew up in and they got warm enough to make the water coming out "very warm" but only on warmer winter days. I wonder if in an enclosed coop it would help keep the whole thing warmer?

 

[mdbucks]

Read the instruction on the heat tape before you do this, some will warn you not to heat empty pipe, because it needs the water in the pipe to disipate the heat, so if heat is not bing transfered to water the sensor will not sense when pipe is warm, thus staying on possibly overheating/melting PVC pipe.

 

[Jayare's Chicks]

I am new to this chicken stuff but would there be a possibility of the chickens getting a toenail caught in the carpet?

Jayare

 

[pattycake]

I know my chickens poop on their roosts -- carpet would get awfully poopy in my coop.

 

[patandchickens]

Eeeep. Heat tapes are sort of notorious for causing barn fires. They may still be worthwhile to use on plumbing when installed exactly as per manufacturers instructions and when you feel that the 'cost' of waterlines freezing up is higher than the 'cost' if a fire breaks out. But, really, I think it would be nuts to try to do what you are suggesting, sorry. Even if it did not melt down or catch fire right away, you would be only a whisker away from disaster, like when the tape gets damaged by gripping toenails or when liquid from acidic droppings leaches in...

OTOH you might be able to design a heated roost in some other way, if you think they really need it. (I thought that chickens hunkered down so that their tummy fluff covered their toes when they roost in the winter, though?)


Pat

 

[seminolewind]

IMO, I think you'd be better off with a heat lamp overhead.

 

[rooster-red]

Quote:
If its indoor/outdoor you can wash it off.