heating the coop

[myahere]

hey everyone, i live in maine and it’s been especially cold recently. i was wondering what the best way is to further insulate and heat the coop. right now there’s only 2 small hens in there, i had to bring in my mother hen along with her babies and the father because our other rooster was very aggressive. we rehomed him today and now want to move the rooster who’s inside back out, hopefully along with the hen and chicks once it’s warm enough. the chicks are silkie frizzles mixes, a little over a month old- so they’re quite fluffy but i’d hate for them to get chilly out there. my other concern is that there simply isn’t enough chickens for the space, i can attach pictures if that’d be helpful. if anyone has any advice please don’t hesitate, thanks

 

[azygous]

This is a contested topic here. Some of us believe in heating our coops to keep the temp hovering just above freezing while others believe fervently in not providing any heat even in the coldest of circumstances. So that is your first choice.

Second choice if you decide to use supplemental heat is type of heater. Many of us use radiant heat from small heaters with unexposed elements and avoid heat lamps all together inside coops due to potential for fire. I use a small flat Cozy coop heater hung on the wall just behind the roost in my smaller coop, and a larger oil filled electric heater in the larger coop. On nights where it gets down into the teens or lower, these both do a good job of keeping the coop temp riding at just above 32F and usually not much higher than 40F.

I've tried not heating my coops. The result was severe frost bite on the combs of both of my roosters when the temp took a dive into the single digits one night. The coop has more than adequate ventilation and air circulation without drafts. When the coops have been heated to just above freezing, I've had zero cases of frost bite.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I haven’t needed to heat my coop yet this year. I will heat it for the weeks we are about -30F. We were down to -3F one morning last week and my flock was all content.

 

[linguini]

This is a contested topic here. Some of us believe in heating our coops to keep the temp hovering just above freezing while others believe fervently in not providing any heat even in the coldest of circumstances. So that is your first choice.

Second choice if you decide to use supplemental heat is type of heater. Many of us use radiant heat from small heaters with unexposed elements and avoid heat lamps all together inside coops due to potential for fire. I use a small flat Cozy coop heater hung on the wall just behind the roost in my smaller coop, and a larger oil filled electric heater in the larger coop. On nights where it gets down into the teens or lower, these both do a good job of keeping the coop temp riding at just above 32F and usually not much higher than 40F.

I've tried not heating my coops. The result was severe frost bite on the combs of both of my roosters when the temp took a dive into the single digits one night. The coop has more than adequate ventilation and air circulation without drafts. When the coops have been heated to just above freezing, I've had zero cases of frost bite.

First I have to confess that we are one of those first time chooks parents - started with wrong purchase of a ready made coop
- coop is too small (bought before we got the chicks!)
- coop has no proper ventilation (only ventilation is the main entrance, relatively large for the size of the coop)
- coop leaks when rains

But since we also built a big run/cube attached to the coop, our chooks only go into the coop to sleep. I built an additional chamber to double the floor space, keep an entrance door same size and added two more roosting bars. The chooks still always squeeze themselves into one bar, and recently just started to spread into a second bar. None of them would use the additional chamber, but it does work as an additional insulation, and keep the rain out of the main chamber.

Due to the many leaking spots along the frame, I had no choice but to cover the coop with tarp. Since I have to cover it up, I thought we might as well insulate the walls/roof. I piled up all kins of material on the roof for additional insulation - styrofoam box tops, bubble wrap sheets from shipping material, and used some old pillows wrapped around the side walls). I did leave the bottom half mesh part of the coop open for airflow.

Whatever we did, it seems to work quite well for our chooks - there is no condensation since we added the roof insulation. Inside the coop is dry, at leas 20F higher than outside. So far, even with single digit temperature outside, there has been no frostbites. And we do have a monitor inside the coop that gives us the reading of the temperature.

 

[mowin]

-14 this morning. I have no heat in my coops. Lady's were waiting for me to open the coop door this morning.

 

[Alaskan]

my other concern is that there simply isn’t enough chickens for the space

I know some people say that you need a bunch of chickens in a small space to help increase the temperature....

But if you are increasing the temperature by a higher bird count, then you do NOT have enough ventilation.

Also, a small coop in the winter will often result in the chickens eating each other and their eggs.

I try to aim for 9 square feet per bird of inside covered space in the winter... makes for happy birds.

I do find insulation (even with a well ventilated coop) helpful if you either have lots of strong wind, or have a coop that is extremely drafty.

However, if you have a well built coop in a sheltered location, it isn't that helpful (and tends to be a great house for rodents).

HOWEVER, you said you have young fizzle silkie mixes... those worry me since they do not have standard feathers with barbs to properly trap warmth against the body.

I know some people in cold climates (including Maine) have successfully kept Silkies in unheated coops...

But... well.... I have never had any.

Heat is difficult to do safely in a tiny coop... no idea how big your coop is...

I do go over different coop heating choices in my Cold Weather Coop article (link below in my signature line... if on your phone, turn it sideways to see it).

 

[linguini]

I know some people say that you need a bunch of chickens in a small space to help increase the temperature....

But if you are increasing the temperature by a higher bird count, then you do NOT have enough ventilation.

Also, a small coop in the winter will often result in the chickens eating each other and their eggs.

I try to aim for 9 square feet per bird of inside covered space in the winter... makes for happy birds.

I do find insulation (even with a well ventilated coop) helpful if you either have lots of strong wind, or have a coop that is extremely drafty.

However, if you have a well built coop in a sheltered location, it isn't that helpful (and tends to be a great house for rodents).

HOWEVER, you said you have young fizzle silkie mixes... those worry me since they do not have standard feathers with barbs to properly trap warmth against the body.

I know some people in cold climates (including Maine) have successfully kept Silkies in unheated coops...

But... well.... I have never had any.

Heat is difficult to do safely in a tiny coop... no idea how big your coop is...

I do go over different coop heating choices in my Cold Weather Coop article (link below in my signature line... if on your phone, turn it sideways to see it).

The article is an excellent read! Thanks!!

 

[MissE]

I tried to keep my coop above 0 last year hopes of not having frozen eggs or waterer by the time I got home from work. Waterer is heated but only rated to 0.

Now I work from home and decided to not add any heat. I gather eggs several times a day. We had a couple nights of -30 last week. I did lose a couple eggs and the waterer was iced over in the morning, but the chickens were fine and even hanging out in their run when it was still -20 something.