Chicken Coops

Have a few questions on our new chicken coop. Internet is back and forth on a few topics so I thought I’d get your opinion.
Do you run heat lamps 24 hrs on your full grown chickens in the freezing months? Do you only simulate a 12-14 hr day in the winter months using heat lamps? We’ve got a watering device with a deicer so keeping fresh water won’t be an issue. How often do you open the coop door to allow them in the run during winter?

Hope there is a few people on here who have chickens, ours are about ready to hit the coop and get out of the garage.

we have had chickens for a decade or so with as many as 9 to as little as 2 now. we leave our heat lamp on in the coop whenever the water starts forming ice. we don’t have a heated water dish. if it gets really frigid we have had 2 lamps going but we have a good sized coop.
we let our chickens out in the morning and they basically free range all over the yard. they have never really wandered off this entire time which is weird. once the light starts to fade they head in and we lock them up for the night. never had any predators trying for an easy meal except a couple labs trying to play with them which left the dogs with a mouth full of feathers.

Chickens are pretty tough and don’t need a lot of heat, especially if your coop is insulated. We run a heated water dish, chicken heating pad, and an incandescent light for 14 hours a day in winter. They are dumb though, and don’t have enough sense to go warm up when it’s really cold out. If it’s going to be really nasty we’ll lock them up all day, but only when it’s really really cold, like never out of single digits type of cold. Otherwise, the coop is always open to the run. Our birds do get a little beat up in winter and some will end up losing parts of their combs or toes, but they don’t seem to mind. They keep laying.

Keeping them cooped for long periods brings its own issues. They get sickly from stewing in their waste unless you’re really on top of cleaning and have really good ventilation. They will also beat the hell out of each other out of boredom, and will even go so far as killing the weaker birds. They are nasty creatures.

Finally, if you run a heat lamp you have to be super careful it won’t start a fire. Make sure it’s up high and in a secure fixture, and check it daily for dust and straw. Chickens get rambunctious in the coop and can easily knock/move things around. I personally wouldn’t put anything in there that gets hot enough to start a fire.

Oddly, we also keep quail in an outside pen. We do very little to protect them other than a thick layer of straw and they do just fine.

We have one heat lamp in are coop but it is only turned on when it gets well below zero. I keep a wireless thermometer in the coop and it is rare it drops much below freezing at the roost. Look up deep litter as a alternative to running heat. The gf started doing it after the first winter and are hens do just fine every winter since. On mild days are small door is open all day and cold days we open it for a little while after work. We have a light on a timer for the winter months.

We only plug additional heat in for the chickens during those extreme cold snaps

We have had chickens for 8 years. the coop is uninsulated and I just have a LED light in there that is on 12hrs a day. Water is heated and the door to the run is always open, the run is covered though. They don’t like to walk around in the snow. Never had an issue with them not laying.

We have a lean to on our barn and our coops are right underneath, so we leave the coop doors open all winter. Chix can get under the lean to and in the sun and out of the snow during the day during the winter. We have our coops in enclosed (fenced) runs also and we lock them up every night (winter and summer). We do keep a chicken warmer in the coops (my gals idea) but I’m deathly afraid of fires since like I said our coops are right next to my pole barn.

Great info everyone one much appreciated!

We layer hay over the winter. the decomposing of their crap keeps the uninsulated coop well heated over the winter months. We do run a lamp at night from 4:30 to 8 to keep laying up.

No additional heat. we run a heated waterer.

I use a timed locking auto door and our chickens free range. they don’t seem to care much about the snow as long as its not too deep.

Our rooster is a game bird and we have some araucanas, buffs, game hens, and a mix of game/other breeds.

No heat lamp for us to worried about starting a fire. First year we lost 4 in the winter just because i didnt have a roost in the coop and they hogpiled each other. Havent lost a single one in five years since. As said ours hate the snow and will only go where I shovel or blow a path.

JEREMY wrote:

No heat lamp for us to worried about starting a fire. First year we lost 4 in the winter just because i didnt have a roost in the coop and they hogpiled each other. Havent lost a single one in five years since. As said ours hate the snow and will only go where I shovel or blow a path.

you got high maintenance chickens Jeremy

I live in town so pretty much a no go to raise chicken, besides with the neighbors I got

I live in town as well and up til about 4 months ago we werent supposed to have them but my neighbors dont care. Last year i snowblowed a path for the kids to run on when the snow got to deep. One day a couple of the chickens got lost on the path like a maze and couldnt find their way back to the coop and just stood there and clucked til the kids went to save them.

We run 6-10 birds using a 4’x4′ coop with insulated walls/roof. Drafts, not the cold are the real killer of hens in the winter, so make sure the coop doesn’t leak air throughout. We put one 60watt rough service incandescent bulb in there for heat and light, controlled with a timer. Never lost a bird to the cold. Only to foxes & weasels.
BTW, my wife insists on having a heater water dish, like you’d use for a dog, available for the birds outside of the coop. The dumb things stand in it more than they drink.