Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Country Living/ Off the Grid › Found that putting a dark red heat buld in my coop kept my hens laying regualrly throw out the winter.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Found that putting a dark red heat buld in my coop kept my hens laying regualrly throw out the...

post #1 of 5
2/7/11 at 5:20pm
Thread Starter 

I use to keep a Broader buld in my coop for some extra heat,   I recently put a Dark red heat bulb in there at night so that when I turned out the other bulb at 9 it still remained warm.  The egg productivity doubled.   I do not have a huge coop but it is big enough to hold 20 birds  ( 6w x 6h x 8l )  so the birds are never in danger of getting to hot.  keeps it around 60 degrees.  Worrked great for me and I was no longer worried about the chickes getting sick from the temp dropping in the singles at night some times

Reply
Reply
post #2 of 5
2/9/11 at 7:28pm

Thanks for sharing! I had to put a heat lamp in my silkie's coop this year, because they were so sensitive. I did not put one in with my Jersey Giants though, and they didn't lay eggs for me all winter. Maybe I should have given them a red heat lamp too!

Reply
Reply
post #3 of 5
2/10/11 at 8:48am
It's the amount of daylight hours that's the issue so you don't need a heat lamp, just a regular one. Mine were laying fine at -16 (with a regular bulb) until they started molting.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 5
2/13/11 at 4:43am

I have my 8 hens in a metal shed.No insulation. I cut 4 smallish square holes in the walls and taped plexi glass to them. First winter my 3 red sex link hens gave me 2-3 eggs a day.Now I have the new 5 (blue egg layers) and the 3 red sex link, and I get about 4-6 eggs a day.

 

I do think the silkies need heat. I get a chicken catalog for Meyers Hatchery,and it will list the cold hardiness for each breed along with egg laying.Very useful to have on hand.

 

Keep warm and safe!!!!

Reply
Reply
post #5 of 5
2/13/11 at 4:09pm

We have 2 red bulbs in our coop...same size coop as OP...We consistently get 5-9 eggs a day from our 11 hens.  Three weeks ago it was -27 F at our house and we still got 5 that day.

Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Country Living/ Off the Grid
Mothering › Forums › Natural Family Living › The Mindful Home › Country Living/ Off the Grid › Found that putting a dark red heat buld in my coop kept my hens laying regualrly throw out the winter.