Do your chickens wear sweaters?
Mine don’t, although I have to admit the pictures I’ve seen of sweatered hens are pretty cute. Alas, knitting is one area where my craftiness fails me, so I don’t see myself creating outerwear for my flock anytime soon.
But it brings us to an important topic– how exactly does one keep a chicken warm in the winter? Do chickens need a heat lamp?
When I first got my chickens, I assumed they needed supplemental heat anytime the thermometer dipped below freezing. I mean, I was cold, so they obviously were too, right?;
There’s actually a bit of debate surrounding the whole topic of chickens and heat lamps (not a surprise, because there seems to be debate surrounding everything these days…), so let’s look at this a bit closer.
Why do People Use Heat Lamps for Chickens?
Most people follow the same thought pattern I did: If I’m cold, my chickens must be cold too. Being the kind-hearted homesteaders we are, we want to make our animals as comfortable as possible. This usually means installing a heat lamp or two to provide extra warmth on those chilly days.
I did this for a while, mostly because I assumed it was the “right” thing to do–especially considering we homestead in Wyoming where it’s freeeezing cold during the winter months.
But as I did more research and made more observations, I started to question as to whether this was actually correct…
Do Chickens Need a Heat Lamp? Why Heat Lamps can be a Problem:
First off, thinking an animal must be cold, just because we are cold, is a faulty assumption.
Chickens have feathers. Cows and goats have layers of winter hair. We don’t. Most all animals are designed to withstand weather conditions without any help from us humans. It can be hard for us to accept, but it’s true.
The biggest problem surrounding heat lamps?
They are extreme fire hazards. Like big time.
Anytime you stick a 250-watt heat source in an area with a lot of dry, combustible material (i.e. feathers, dust, wood shavings, etc), you have a potential hazard. And chicken coop fires do happen, with devastating results.
But here’s the interesting part:
(Are you ready for this?)
Most of the time, chickens don’t really need heat lamps anyway.
Shocking, I know.
Most chicken-care experts will agree– your average dual-purpose chicken breed will do just fine without any supplemental heating, as long as they have a way to stay dry and out of the wind.
(If you’re brooding chicks, things are a little bit different, since chicks need supplemental heat until they mature– unless you have a mama hen, of course. Read more about chick brooders here.)
OK– I confess. For a while, I was a bit skeptical of this advice… That is, until I started paying more attention to what was happening in my own coop…
My Heat Lamps Observations
I’ve been gradually weaning myself off heat lamp dependency, but I still felt inclined to turn the lamps on during the coldest nights (especially this winter, as we’ve had several cold snaps of 30 to 40 degrees below zero.)
However, what I observed during the last cold snap has officially changed my mind:
On a particularly cold day (I’m talking 40 below zero here…), I turned on the heat lamps over the roosting areas (the lamps are bolted into the wall and very secure, although still not entirely without fire risk). After it got dark, I popped in to check the chickens once more before we headed to bed. Much to my surprise, they were all crowded in the other section of the coop– as far away from the heat lamps as possible. They also seemed rather annoyed, as they were bedded down on the floor, instead of on their cozy roosts.
The next day, I left the heat lamps off, and once again returned to the coop at dark. All the chickens were happily sitting on their roosts, just like normal. It suspiciously seemed they were avoiding the heat lamps–even on a subzero day.
Also, during our most severe cold snap this year, one chicken went missing. I looked aaaaaalllllll over for her with no luck, and finally assumed she must have ended up being fox food. There was no trace of her, and with the extreme temperatures at night, I figured she was toast anyway. It was way too cold for a chicken to survive outside, right?
Wrong.
Several days after the worse of the cold snap lifted, I found her happily strutting around the barn yard– no frostbite, as happy as she could be.
She had survived several days/nights of -40 degree temperatures without a heat lamp, chicken coop, or any help from me. (I suspect she must have been hiding out in our open equipment shed, but it’s hard to say for sure…)
I’m not saying this is an ideal scenario, but still………
What We’re Doing Instead of Using Heat Lamps
So, do chickens need a heat lamp? I’m officially convinced heat lamps aren’t as vital as I thought they were… However, there are still a few things I’m doing to ensure my flock stays comfortable and safe during the winter months:
- Ventilate it! Ventilation is HUGE. If you want to focus on one thing in regards to chicken-keeping, let it be ventilation. According to expert flockster Harvey Ussery, as long as the chickens are sheltered from direct wind and rain, “a coop cannot have too much ventilation.” Let that sink in for a minute– wow! A damp, moist coop can breed pathogens, cause respiratory issues, and make your birds more susceptible to frostbite. While drafts are bad (a draft equals a direct wind blowing on the birds), there should be plenty of air exchange happening in the coop at all times. For us, this means I leave our coop doors open in all but the most extreme temps. I might shut the doors at night when it reaches 30 to 40 below zero, but otherwise, they stay open. An air-tight coop is NOT a good thing.
- Provide lots of fresh water – Keeping your chicken’s water liquid in the winter can be tough, but it’s vitally important. Either commit to hauling buckets of fresh water to your birds several times per day, or invest in a heated water bucket (that’s what we do).
- Keep food in front of them – The process of digestion creates heat and keeps chickens warm. Make sure your flock has plenty of food to munch on. You can create special treats for winter if you like, (like this homemade flock block), but they aren’t entirely necessary. Just your regular ration is more than sufficient.
- Looking for more winter chicken tips? This post has the full scoop.
To sum it all up? Watch your birds and create a plan that works for your climate and set-up. Remember chickens aren’t human, and have different ways of dealing with temperature shifts than we do. If knitting chicken sweaters is your thing, that’s totally cool by me– just know it’s not a necessity. 😉 Do you use heat lamps for your chickens?
Other Chicken Posts
- Should I Wash My Fresh Eggs?
- Supplemental Lighting in the Chicken Coop
- How to Cook an Old Rooster or Hen
- How to Peel Farm-Fresh Eggs (without making a mess)
- What are the Brown Spots in My Fresh Eggs?
Karen @ On the Banks of Salt Creek says
January 15, 2015 at 7:40 amWe are only eight months into this homesteading lifestyle. We purchased our baby chicks at the end of August. That way we would feed them while they were growing and during the “dark” months and then when they were able to lay eggs the days should be longer. We used a heat lamp when they were wee little. I have been nervous about heat lamps as they are the #1 cause of barn fires.
We put it in there the other night when we had multiple nights of freezing temps. We put it by the water because it froze. Only for one night then the temps went back up.
It is amazing how animals stay warm. God definitely equipped them for being “in the elements”.
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:49 pmYes– they definitely have the tools they need to survive, huh? 🙂
Brian says
December 9, 2016 at 5:56 pmI have bantam chickens that are 2 months old it will get 25 degrees Fahrenheit they have a $400 roost box and pin do they need a heat lamp ?
dave says
February 27, 2018 at 1:46 pmhi i have 4 baby chink and thre in the home i have i do not have a coop for them so i but them in my home and i whet to but them out said but i do not how if it to clod your hot and i have a fox whet do i do with it. and you look cute are you along.
Ann says
November 27, 2018 at 2:32 pmThanks for all the advice, I was just pondering a heat lamp in the 20s in South Alabama! Well if I had thought of last winter I guess I would had my answer, Ok guess its a no to the heat lamp, Just reminded me of a funny story,
my Mother told about my Grandaddy’s chickens feet freezing to the branches, lol! On this same farm. Guess it could happen but I would rather say them poor cold chickens, and if I remember correctly the chickens were fine! (years Years ago).
Melanie says
January 15, 2015 at 8:18 amI live in the city and have a little coop that’s insulated and heated with a little oil filled heater. perfect for my 8 chickens. The run is an open concept area, covered with clear corrugated plastic to protect from rain, snow, and predator birds. The ladies have access to the backyard if they wish, which is fenced in. We have had a few days of -40 degrees Celsius of windchill resulting in the larger comb birds with frostbite, white blisters on the tops of the combs, looks painful. I have since kept them in the protected run on colder days, and further sheltered the area from blistering wind. I feel horrible for the ones with blisters. I used Vaseline, but in 5 minutes they had feathers and hay stuck to their heads. Is there anything else I can do to remedy them, make them more comfortable?
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:48 pmVaseline is definitely one option, but from my research, keeping the coop as free of dampness and moisture as possible is really the key to prevent frostbite. Sorry to hear you are struggling with this, tho.
Kim says
October 31, 2017 at 10:06 amIf they have sores from frost bite the best thing to do is put polysporin on the sores not vaseline, vaselines helps as a preventative for frost bite because it creates a barrier but it doesn’t heal infection. If the sores are severe antibiotics and vitamins/electrolytes in their water for a week will help as well. You can pick them up at a farm store and just follow the directions (usually 1/2 tsp. each in a gallon of water works just fine. Keep your birds locked up at -10*c or colder, they will happily scratch in the yard and not notice their feet are getting frost bite and if it’s bad enough they will need to be put down. We use dryer vents in our sheds to keep them ventilated, it lets the moisture out but doesn’t let in drafts.
Angel says
January 15, 2015 at 9:56 amI used to use a heat lamp in the coop in winter, but not anymore. I don’t think it’s necessary, and I actually think the chickens do better without it. Mine are happy and healthy, despite cold temps. We do use a heated water bowl for winter, just so their water doesn’t freeze, and we have a deep layer of pine bedding/straw on the floor of the coop.
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:47 pmYup– sounds like we have very similar chicken keeping practices Angel!
jk;lj says
December 1, 2018 at 9:13 amWe chicken scratch to ours. It raises their body temp to help deal with the cold. there is a new kind of chick heater that’s a yellow square plate on black legs that is a WHOLE LOT SAFER then a heating lamp. as the chicks grow you raise the heater plate.
Kimberly of KimRidge Farm says
January 16, 2015 at 8:27 amHi Jill,
I agree with everything you say.
We try to impose our human needs onto our farm animals. I have read a lot of advice about keeping chickens. And the prevalent one is to keep drafts away from the coop. Obviously, drafts are bad for us, humans. Drafts are not bad for birds. I agree with what you say about giving your chickens plenty of ventilation.
Another one, is to build nest boxes with slanted rootlets to keep your layers from nesting on top. No, birds don’t need roofs. My chickens have nesting shelves – less building materials for me and happier chickens.
Why is so? OK. Humans are cave animals. We like enclosed spaces to keep us warm and safe. We like roofs. Wolves and dogs are also cave animals and our dogs like dog houses. It’s natural.
But think about chickens. They are birds. Most bird species sleep on tree branches and their nests are in the open air. This means that there are no roofs for them, but a lot of wind, rain, snow, and fresh air.
I never had a heating lamp in my coop. But this year I bought one. The only purpose for my heat lamp was to hang it over their water source to keep it from freezing inside the coop. And it works. Another good outcome from using the heat lamp came about naturally on my farm. The heat lamp is partially above the egg laying nests. The lamp keeps the eggs from freezing and cracking. Now I don’t have to collect eggs every two hours.
I keep the heat lamp only during the day and only for a few hours. I also turn it on in the evening after dark, but not for heat. The lamp is to illuminate the coop so that the chickens can find their way up their roosts more easily. (When I installed the heat lamp I removed all light bulbs to save electricity. I have only one switch in the coop.) The light goes off when the coop doors are locked for the night.
I noticed that my chickens do much better in cold weather than in the heat of the summer. In the summer, they pant, sit in the shade, don’t forage very much, and stop laying eggs. In the winter, they are active, happy, and fully productive of eggs.
As far as sweaters, animals don’t need them. Not only do they have fur and feathers, but also their normal body temperatures are much higher than ours.
Knitting is a very relaxing activity especially when you cuddle up by your wood burning stove in the cold winter months. We have one of those wood stoves, and I made a very simple 100% wool sweater in less than a week. I am not a knitting guru. My design does not require patterns, and only very minimal counting is involved. May be I should post it on my blog. It’s super easy. And it’s the most comfy sweater I’ve had for years 🙂
Thank you for sharing your post.
Kimberly
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:46 pmExcellent points Kimberly– amen!
Macy says
October 27, 2017 at 10:04 amSo this is what I learned about Chicken Sweaters from an expert! I thought they were not only cute but of course they keep the chicken warm…NOT! He explained it this way: Chicken have lots of feathers, and their down feathers keep them warm ONLY if they can fluff up their feathers….it’s like their own blanket. If you put a sweater on a chicken, they are restricted from fluffing up….so they do get cold, very cold with a sweater on! I heard these sweaters were started in the U.K. By a group of ladies, but they were making these sweaters for sick birds….
Evan says
January 16, 2015 at 10:42 amChickens don’t need a heat lamp…they need about an inch of cooking oil in an iron skillet for roughly 35 minutes. That’s how Granny did it.
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:44 pmLOL– yup, that works too. 😉
Angi says
January 16, 2015 at 2:48 pmI totally agree with this! While we don’t have any -30 degree weather here in Virginia, I have never used a heat lamp in all my years of chicken keeping! They are perfectly happy and healthy without them, and it’s one less thing I have to worry about! Our coop is nicely ventilated, and we have only had one bird die from anything other than a predator attack in the last almost 10 years of chicken raising. 🙂 Great article!
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:44 pmThanks Angi!!
olivia says
January 16, 2015 at 4:27 pmI used to nag a relative about not having heat lamps on their chickens. Then I had to catch a hen who had escaped from the pen. She was warm as toast under her feathers. The secret really is to keep them dry and out of the wind.
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:44 pmYes– keeping them dry is key!
Miranda says
January 16, 2015 at 9:24 pmWe also don’t use a heat lamp and our chickens seem very happy. This Winter we have a small covered area that they can scratch in outside and I’m amazed at how often I see them out there – even in -25 C to -30 C weather. They don’t seem all that bothered by the cold, they just don’t like walking on snow.
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:43 pmYeah, mine don’t love the snow either– they go out for short spurts, but that’s it.
Sarah Koontz {Grounded & Surrounded} says
January 17, 2015 at 2:30 pmThank you so much for this article! I have searched high and low for advice on this subject from people who ACTUALLY live where the temperatures drop WAY below zero. It is my first winter with hens, and I just didn’t want to make a mistake so we have been popping on the heat lamp when it is below zero. I have noticed they roost far away from the heat too!
Unfortunately the first cold snap of the year occurred before we had winterized the coop and we think the girls got snowed on. Moisture and below freezing temps gave them frostbite. Talk about a sad chicken mama! I felt terrible. So I have been uber careful with the ladies since then. I will start weaning myself off the heat now (because really, the chickens are fine! ).
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:42 pmYou are very welcome! Yes, that moisture can be the toughest part, and definitely cause frostbite. Glad they are recovered, tho!
Sam says
February 7, 2018 at 4:44 pmThanks this was great for me. I am also new to this.
Justin says
January 17, 2015 at 4:50 pmThat explains why I find them sleeping outside. I live in Texas where it is warm, I wasn’t using a lamp for heat but to increase egg production during the short winter days. I have to say it has worked for sure. Went from one egg a day to four, out of five layers.
Jill Winger says
January 18, 2015 at 10:41 pmYou can also use a low-wattage bulb (with minimal heat) to increase laying– your TX birds might like that better. 😉
Rhett Hall says
December 2, 2016 at 7:55 amSo could you use just a white florescent bulb? I’ve been trying to figure out why I went from 6 eggs a day to maybe one.
Jill Winger says
December 5, 2016 at 8:57 pmYup– a regular ol’ bulb is fine.
Iris says
December 8, 2016 at 6:52 pmI read somewhere that flourescent bulbs are not good for chickens’ eyes. I use a 40W equivalent LED bulb, a bit pricey to start but cheaper to run than incandescent!
Kim says
October 31, 2017 at 10:21 amWhite light that is too bright can make chickens aggressive, I stick to a red tint instead.
farmerkhaiti says
January 20, 2015 at 8:00 amOoooof, I have had 2 horrible heat lamp fires. The second one wasn’t caused by the bulb itself- it was because I overloaded the extension cord with too many heat lamps, then the cord overheated and actually combusted the bedding on the ground, which then spread to the brooder. We lost hundreds of ducklings, it was just devastating, horrible, the worst day of my life. I had never been taught about cords and their electric carrying capacity- I thought if they fit it was good to go. So sad to learn this way.
Jill Winger says
January 24, 2015 at 6:45 amOh no…. how horrible! 🙁 Good reminder about the cords, too.
Heidi @ Rustic Barnyard says
January 20, 2015 at 8:30 pmI also use no heat in my coop and I leave the window wide open. In our first year I had them cooped up tight and we had more issues due to a sweaty coop and frost bite. Since opening the window they are so much healthier.
Cynthia @ The Log Home Kitchen says
January 21, 2015 at 11:04 amHi Jill! The conversations you had going on in your head were identical to mine as we entered into the Winter months. I’m down to 4 aging hens, so in a large coop I thought they might need the extra warmth on sub-zero nights. Like yours, they couldn’t perch far enough away from the heat lamp! You mentioned the ventilation issue, and I’m wondering if I even need to close their pop door at night. It’s a habit for me to “tuck them in”, but after reading this it might not even be necessary. Their covered run is like Fort Knox, so I don’t have to worry about predators coming in.
Thanks for the great info.
Jill Winger says
January 24, 2015 at 6:41 amI agree Cynthia– I still shut my doors on the coldest of nights, but open first thing in the morning… And like you, I wonder how necessary that even is. 🙂
Debra says
January 21, 2015 at 2:38 pmI too thought I was being a good “chick mom” by using heat lamps in my two coops. Until the day I was awakened by the neighbor’s message on my phone telling me that my coops were on fire. Thankfully I got all 27 chickens out but lost everything else. We bought a 8×12 shed, tweeked it, and made it our coop. I fretted the first few cold nights thinking that the “girls” would freeze to death! My son says to me “Mom, how do you think the wild turkey survive the winter!” I see no adverse affects on the chickens being without heat. One positive is that they will venture outside now where before they looked out the window but wouldn’t step foot outside in the snow. I use the deep litter method which adds heat to the roost area. There will be no more heat lamps in my chicken coop ever again.
Jill Winger says
January 24, 2015 at 6:40 amOh no– how scary! I’m so glad you were able to save all the birds!
Bev Hearts says
January 21, 2018 at 1:26 amWhat is the deep litter method
…???
Laura Lyseng Anton says
February 8, 2019 at 9:42 pmBev – Deep litter methods keep adding shavings, straw or whatever you use for bedding on top of the soiled bedding. You clean out in the spring. The bedding will generate heat while breaking down and helps to keep animals warm.
Dan says
January 21, 2015 at 5:22 pmI grew up on a farm in Wisconsin where the only modern elements to our “chicken house” were a heated water unit and a 60 watt bulb on a timer (with another on a switch.) There were years when air temps dropped well below 30 below Fahrenheit. In all the years we had chickens I can only think of two instances where we believed the severe cold was a contributing factor in the death of a bird. If memory serves, both deaths involved Leghorn hens who, by their breeding, tended to be lighter weight and bred to put most of their energies into egg production. I know from my own experience that birds can survive the cold (for the most part) but one thing I also noticed was if our birds spent most of their energies keeping warm, they tended to shut down egg production as a result.
Flash forward 30 years or so and I’ve finally been able to move back to the country on the prarie in Minnesota. My 11 year old daughter wanted to raise chickens and with my builder / remodeler background I set out to build a room inside our barn that was going to stand the test of time. All the walls and the ceiling were heavily insulated, new insulated windows were installed. Knowing that air circulation and air quality are huge with birds, I added a ventilation fan and cold air intake. Much to that stunned amazement of my wife I also picked up a discounted 52″ ceiling fan with lights and installed it to help keep the birds cool and comfortable in the summer months. All the lighting is LED-based so our birds are very 21st century! (The room for my daughter’s flock is arguably better set up than her own room in our 1918 farm house!) I wired the room with metal conduit and plenty of outlets (so I didn’t have to deal with troublesome extension cords we worried about when I was a kid) and part of that wiring included a fixed heat lamp (with metal shade) to provide a source of some minor ambient heat. That was a totally new experiment for me and my observations differ a little bit from others who have shared their experiences. I found that *some* of the birds opted to roost near or under the light on cold days, where others chose to perch some distance from it. While the birds I saw under the lamp differed a bit from time to time, surprisingly it was our buff orpingtons – our biggest and “fluffiest” birds who most often chose to place themselves under the lamp on cold nights.
I’ve also tried an experiment using a traditional milk house heater unit suspended by a set of wires from the ceiling about 6′ off the floor. Its location allows for a temperature to be maintained near the ceiling such that you can’t see your breath but the area near the floor is still relatively cool. When I put that heater in the room and shut off the heat lamp, the birds flocked (pun intended) to the 20″ shelf I built at about 5′ off the floor (mainly to allow the hens a chance to get away from the roosters) and tended to stay there in that warm zone unless they needed food, water or to stretch their legs. Egg production spiked and has stayed at high levels ever since. (Granted, my daughter would need to charge about $17 per dozen to break even on the cost of my investment in electricity and the initial construction.)
It is mere speculation on my part but I believe based on my limited experimentation that the birds who stayed away from the heat lamp did so because of the light (and perhaps other radiation) coming from the bulb and not the heat it produced. To be sure… fire risk is a very real issue with any heat source so the decision to use a heater or heat lamp needs to be carefully considered against the risks involved.
Jill Winger says
January 24, 2015 at 6:40 amYes– my hens greatly reduce egg production in the winter as well– I suspect it’s directly related to the decreased amount of light available as the days shorten. However, I tend to allow them the break, as I feel that mimics their natural cycles. Sounds like you have a wonderful chicken set-up– wow!
Candi says
January 23, 2015 at 10:10 amWOW! We have had chickens about 6 years. I had always been told to not clean the coop in winter. That between the warmth of the chickens themselves & the heat generated from the composting manure in the coop everything will be nice and toasty.
The fire stories are so scary! I am so sad to hear that my fellow homesteaders have had such devastating fires. It makes me approach our spring brooders with caution. We always keep the chicks in the barn in hutches, under heat lamps. Yikes! I can’t imagine looking out and seeing fire.
Jill Winger says
January 24, 2015 at 6:28 amYes– the deep litter method can help to produce additional heat– if you do it correctly. 😉
carol engle says
November 11, 2017 at 7:29 pmWhat is the correct method for deep litter in the winter? And should it be cleaned out and changed during the winter.
Thanks.
Mama Nice says
January 23, 2015 at 2:24 pmI read the local police report today and there was a chicken coop fire. The police officer got most of the birds out, but about 6 died. Very sad. However, I’m still mixed about the heat lamp idea. Last year we had a small coop and the winter here in PA was horrible. All of my chickens ended up with frostbite on their combs. I still feel terrible. Over the spring we built a new coop. This winter I put in a heat lamp which is on a timer. It stays on during the day to warm up the coop and provide extra light on these short days, then turns off abound 9PM and doesn’t go back on until the morning. The chickens seem happy with this arrangements. We only have 6 hens, but none of them molted this year. On the cold days, they don’t even venture out of the coop. The light is up high though, a good 5 feet above them so it’s not roasting them. They seem to like it.
Jill Winger says
January 24, 2015 at 6:27 amDo you have a lot of moisture/humidity where you live? Sometimes that can play the biggest part in frostbite issues!
Mama Nice says
January 24, 2015 at 7:46 amI’m thinking the coop last year was too small and despite the ventilation effort, there may not have been enough. Even if you don’t use a light lamp, do you provide supplemental light during the winter?
Jill Winger says
January 29, 2015 at 7:38 amI haven’t provided supplemental light for several years. I prefer to just let my hens follow the seasonal cycles and allow their bodies to rest for a bit. We just eat fewer eggs. 🙂
Kent says
October 6, 2016 at 3:42 pmHi Jill,
For raising chicks the Brisnea Ecoglow is the best and safest way to go. It completely removes the fire risk. Here is a link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008HVM56Q/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=affilisolut06-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B008HVM56Q&linkId=5136a466fd9e07346b70528ef076b994
Jas Denet says
October 11, 2016 at 5:45 amI wanted to chime in here and say that some poultry absolutely need heat and do NOT do well in cold temps. Chickens are descended from jungle birds and are not meant to live in cold areas. They only live in sub zero places because we put them there. Some breeds do better than others, but certainly not all.
When I first got my chickens many years ago, I listened to all the chicken “experts” who said I didnt need heat, only needed a well ventilated coop, no dampness, etc, etc. I did everything right, supposedly. Well, ALL my birds got frostbite to some degree that first winter and one of my roosters nearly died. His comb and wattles were frozen solid. Like a block of ice. It was a horrible ordeal. (you can see him here – http://sej.deviantart.com/art/Magnus-and-His-Frostbite-26629224 and http://sej.deviantart.com/art/Hes-Improving-27100971?q=sej and after healing – http://sej.deviantart.com/art/Magnus-These-Days-38908572)
Needless to say, I have used heat ever since. Safely, though, because fire is an extreme fear of mine. Using a space heater or lamp in a coop/barn is no different than using one in your home. You just cant be stupid about using them. Im in upstate NY and some nights its well below zero and though my birds could survive those temps with out heat, they would not do so happily or unscathed. My birds are my pets, not food or a product, so their happiness is important to me, just as much as the happiness of my dogs and cats is.
Anyway, this post pops up on the first page of google when searching around for this subject, so I wanted to put my two cents in and share my very different experience.
Jill Winger says
October 11, 2016 at 4:05 pmSorry to hear about your frostbit bird– definitely not fun. It does depend on the climate, humidity, etc. We have very dry winters here, and I’ve never ever had an issue with frostbite. However, it’s very likely that folks who live in damper, more humid climates would need to take other considerations.
Kim says
October 31, 2017 at 12:10 pmI was born and raised in Canada, I was also in the military for seven years so have had survival training and first aid training for cold weather. I’m surprised reading articles like this now every year that a lot of people really don’t seem to have a basic understanding of frostbite and how dangerous it can be, even people here. This is not science, it’s opinion. “Frostbite is damage to skin or tissue caused by freezing temperatures” Sure moisture can make frostbite worse but it doesn’t cause it, if moisture was the cause of frostbite I would be taking my life in my hands every time I had a bath.. No chickens are not humans and they don’t have the same needs, but they do have needs (and people need to educate themselves on what that is or not get them), and humans moved chickens from the Jungle where they came from and brought them here, it was not their brilliant plan. I live in a place where we can get arctic chill warnings where it dips down to -50*c, it is also incredibly dry especially in the winter. People here who have followed blogs coming from the States have let their chickens die painful and senseless deaths, because they have no common sense or they just don’t care. I see it every year the same people arguing against heating their coops are also posting about how many birds they’ve lost each week from the cold, or that survived and have horribly infected combs and offered no treatment. I also hear people saying all the time well there are birds outside and they’re fine so the chickens will be too, for one that is their habitat and some migrate, secondly wild birds especially the little ones have an incredibly short lifespan, and thirdly every time it rains or it’s cold out I can’t keep the darn things out of my coops (I’m going to have to cover the runs with netting), every time I walk in I have to duck until the wild birds have all flown out.. I also hear people talk about the dangers of fire or what if the power goes out, somehow they don’t think it’s too dangerous to have a heat source in their home or worry too much about being acclimatized. You can do everything right and still something will go wrong, but for the most part if we use the same common sense in our coops as we do in our homes it will help lower the risks, and even if our power goes out the thermal mass from the insulation with the heat already produced will keep them safer longer until the power is restored. The worst experience I had with a power outage was when I was brooding chicks. We had a massive summer storm and lost power for three hours, we had to put a kerosene lantern in each brooder, put a chicken wire barrier around them so the chicks wouldn’t get too close and get burned, crack the windows open for fumes and then watch them like a hawk because it was a huge fire risk. Pioneers would have the chicken house beside the barn where the cows were kept for warmth and then put straw bales against the other wall to keep it in, they also had wheat or oats cooking on the wood stove overnight to give them in the morning, they were well cared for because they were important and they couldn’t just buy more in the spring. We insulate, use dryer vents on opposite sides of the coops and turn on our heat lamps at -5*c, we do not let the birds out at -10*c or colder (they don’t notice how cold it is and get their feet frostbitten). The worst times we have found where something can go wrong is when the temperatures start to drop initially and during cold spells, so we have a routine in place. We also raise Partridge Chanteclers, they were one of three breeds of chickens developed in Canada so are more cold hardy, they are also a critically endangered breed. Besides providing heat, heat lamps also help along with ventilation to reduce moisture as well. I am very happy for people who don’t need it but not all locations have the same temps or humidity, we need to make alterations depending on where we live to match the needs of the specific animal we are caring for, they can make some but not all of the adaptations themselves.
broozersnooze says
December 19, 2016 at 2:49 amManuka honey will take the pain away & speeds up wound healing – faster than anything I’ve ever seen with little or no scarring. It is the “mac daddy” of all honeys – the ONLY honey not affected by heat or light & still effective even when diluted 10:1. An old country doctor who specialized in natural healing told me about it years ago when I had bilateral lower leg lymphadema and cellulitis on both my legs. Being diabetic at that time (I’ve since reversed the diabetes) I was fearful of having to have my legs amputated.
Since then I’ve treated many burns with little pain, no blistering or scarring, tooth abscesses (SAVED my tooth, too!), at least one serious open wound which couldn’t even be stitched, two animal bites that resulted in severe swelling, chills, fever and purple marks going up my leg (this honey applied on the bite drew all the poison out) and many others for myself & family & pets. (I forgot to mention the horrible head wounds to a cat that had been attacked by what looked like an alligator bite.)
Here is a link to Dr. Mercola’s web site showing a cat’s leg that had gangrene whose leg was saved with Manuka honey: http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2015/07/23/manuka-honey.aspx
Find many, many more articles on this natural miracle which also helps with cavities, tooth decay & much more by going to: mercola.com & doing a search of health articles on his site. I highly recommend signing up for his newsletters. It’s free & you’ll be so glad you did.
Your Magnus is GORGEOUS! What a magnificent specimen.
Craig Story says
December 1, 2016 at 4:44 amThanks for the low-down on heat lamps, my sister and I were just discussing that today – we were both wrong and were planing on lamping up the coop, can’t wait till she reads this….
Cheryl B. says
December 8, 2016 at 7:46 pmOur chickens roost “outside” year-round in an open-fronted stock shed. They could go inside, but I guess their habits die hard. They haven’t suffered any obvious ill effects, even though the temperature is often below freezing (we live in southeastern Pennsylvania).
joan says
December 10, 2016 at 5:32 pmsilkies will die if they get too cold.their feathers are not like a normal chicken.they need heat….so yes on a heat lamp…we have ours plugged into a thermo cube…turns on at 35 degrees and shuts off at 45 degrees so the heat bulb is not on all the time.
Inge says
December 16, 2016 at 10:47 amThank-you for putting this issue to rest for our household! We made similar observations last year so decided against heat lamps (they completely avoided the coop and hid under the deck instead!). This year we’ve had an unusually long cold snap (weeks of -10 – -20s) and started wondering if we were still doing the right thing… Especially after seeing all the raised eyebrows when people ask how we’ve been keeping our chickens warm. They seem happy, healthy, and we’re still getting a few eggs. With a little validation from your post, that’s good enough for me! Thanks again!
John G says
January 11, 2017 at 7:24 pmI had heat lamps for my chickens for a couple of weeks. I found them aditated, well with research I found that chickens will try to get away from all the light not the heat. I replaced my heat lamp with ceramic heaters and they all crowed under the new ceramic heaters on the roost. When I had the heat lamps they was bidding there heads or sleeping on the coop floor to get away from the light. They can’t see in the dark but they need complete darkness just like us in order to get a good nite sleep.
Melonie says
January 12, 2017 at 2:48 pmWe’ve never used anything for our chickens but how do you keep your rabbits warm when the temp. is in the teens? This is a problem we have every winter.
Jill Winger says
January 16, 2017 at 12:06 pmWe don’t have rabbits, so I can’t help there– sorry.
Elissa says
April 5, 2017 at 9:38 amWe have two chicken houses with only chicken wire on the doors. (In Albuquerque, NM.) Our chickens seem to stop laying when it’s cold. We have been talking about getting heat lamps, but perhaps having real doors during colder weather would do the trick. Your thoughts?
Mark Palmer says
May 23, 2017 at 11:03 pmI knew very little about raising a chicken and i live in Florida and my daughter brought home a chick from school that was hatched from a incubator… so I built a coop for it, it seemed lonely so I bought another one similar in age and we were told to keep a heat lamp on the chicks… but like I said we are in Florida and it never freezes here. It’s in the 80s on Christmas… I just went out there to check on them, one had it’s mouth wide open and the other had it’s wings all spread out and they were as far away from the lamp as they could possibly be.. I felt horrible, and the lamp is now gone and thanks to you all I can sleep well knowing they will be fine..
Phyllis Berry Posey says
December 13, 2017 at 8:31 amGood Morning Mark. I live in the northern part of Florida and you may want to read the post I just made, anyways, we have unexpectedly cold weather – a true Winter thus far. Not sure where in Florida you are, but my Rooster very obviously likes the heat. I was able to find low watt infrared heat bulbs at PetSmart in the reptile section. The box will tell you just how far away in inches you can expect the temperature from the bulb to be. That, so far, has proved to be a good option for my rooster.
Jon says
March 4, 2019 at 10:12 pmA heat lamp in Florida?!?! Wow. You should read some actual fact-based info on raising and caring for poultry from some places like the American Veterinary Medical Association or the 4H or even the university in your state.
Twila Mustain says
October 18, 2017 at 10:30 amI have hens that have feathers pecked off by the roosters. Will they be warm enough without a heat lamp?
Joseph Nsamba says
November 8, 2017 at 9:33 pmThank you , I have learnt more about ventilation in my chicken houses.
Sarah says
November 8, 2017 at 10:40 pmThanks so much for this! This is my first year with chickens and I was hoping to not have to use a heat lamp, mostly for fire danger and partly because we would have to run multiple extension cords to get there….Now I’m just hoping that using a 5 gallon cooler that I fill with warm water will keep me from having to break ice too often. We have dry winters in Pendleton too and not as cold as Wyoming, so here is to hoping it works! We have had all their food outside the coop but I will bring it in for the winter, hopefully that will help.
Lyn says
November 9, 2017 at 12:48 pmThis is my first winter keeping Chickens (6 hens and 1 rooster) I got them the end of July 2017.
I have read several places that you are not supposed to keep the water in the coop in the winter because it causes there to be too much moisture in the coop, which then causes frostbite. I live in Tucumcari, NM (between Albuquerque, NM and Amarillo, TX).
Any help with this or any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Have a Blessed day!
Phyllis Berry Posey says
December 13, 2017 at 8:24 amGood Morning. I have a pet Rooster named Pixie. I live in the northern part of Florida. When it first began getting cooler here, Pixie was fussy, not happy about the situation. I bought hay and layered that in his coop, then, as the temps began plunging (at least for Florida weather), I decided he needed a heat lamp. I was able to find various watts of Infrared Heat bulbs at PetSmart in the reptile section. I bought a 50 watt bulb just to try it out. Pixie settled into the area of hay just under the lamp to sleep. I have 4 bulbs in the coop now and whenever I turn off one the bulbs in one area of the pen, he goes to the area of the pen with the heat bulbs LOL It is obvious he likes the heat. He seems quite happy. This is just my experience thus far. I will add, that when I get off work in the evenings and head home, which takes about an hour, whenever I have not left the bulbs on during the day, he fusses at me a lot until I plug them up and then goes straight up under them.
William says
January 10, 2018 at 6:35 amIn Nyack, NY – we just had unbelievable cold snap for 4 weeks, 20 degrees F during the days, -2 F to 5 F at nights. But down around -5 F/-20 C they were visibly weakened, didn’t want to come out, and my birds are 2 years old so they were going through winter molt. So I researched, and there is a product that is a “heat panel” it has two settings, 100w and 200w, and can be used with a Thermo-Cube at 35 degrees F. I mounted it about 16 inches under the roost bar out of reach. IT WORKS, it added exactly what I needed: Last night the high of the day was 40 degrees F but the temps were dropping to 18 degrees F by 3 am So I set the panel on 100w and it kept the coop at 30 degrees all night. I have an Acu-Rite thermometer/transmitter that transmits the temperature and also records the Low/High and it resettable every day. The transmitter is installed about 12 inches above my top roost bar. Anyway here are the items I found useful: AcuRite 00611A3 Wireless Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer and Humidity Sensor, Farm Innovators Model TC-3 Cold Weather Thermo Cube Thermostatically Controlled Outlet – On at 35-Degrees/Off at 45-Degrees, Cozy Products Safe Chicken Coop Pet Heater 200W Flat Panel Technology, One Size, Black