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My neighbor swore by keeping a heat lamp in the coop all winter, and I went along with it for 3 years straight
Honestly, I followed her advice because she had been raising chickens for a decade. Every December I'd set up that 250 watt bulb and run the extension cord out to the coop. Then last February a hen got too close and singed her comb bad, plus my electric bill hit $180 that month. My vet finally told me chickens are fine down to like 20 degrees if they're dry and out of the wind, so now I just seal up drafts and use deep litter. Has anyone else had a close call with heat lamps or switched to no supplemental heat?
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hill.barbara2h ago
My coop is 20 feet from my house and I still managed to trip over that extension cord twice one winter, once in my bathrobe at 6am in the snow. The heat lamp gave me this false sense of security too, like my birds were delicate little divas who couldn't handle a breeze. After I came out to find a singed patch of feathers and a hen that looked like she'd been in a bar fight, I yanked that thing out and never looked back. Deep litter method has been a game changer, my coop stays warmer than my apartment some mornings and I'm not paying for a tiny chicken sauna anymore. Plus now I don't have that constant nagging fear of waking up to a coop fire, which was honestly my biggest worry every single night.
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michael_jones1h ago
I actually wonder if the heat lamp thing messes with their natural winter molting cycle - my girls always molt way later in fall now that I don't use one, and they started laying again earlier in spring.
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