Do you provide heat in your coop during the winter months?
Last weeks question was. What is your favorite breed? Several breeds like Barred Rock, Jersey Giants, Rhode Island Reds, and Australorps, where suggested, but the one named most often was the Orpington.
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No heat in So Cal either. I get eggs year round except the extreme heat of the Summers.
No heat for the ladies here in SE Pennsylvania. We don't get many eggs in the winter.
No heat here in central Arkansas - even during this unusual winter with several days of single-digit temperatures.
We don't heat ours in KY. We have a few slow weeks, but still get enough for our family through the winter. We do have a solar light in the coop though.
Don't need to supply heat here. I am in the tropics. I save loads on not needing to supply heat!
Yes and no. We have heat lamps in the coop to keep the water open. But not to heat the coop, per se. It is on a Thermo-Cube and that shuts it off and on when temps get above freezing.
It gets down to -25F most years here in New England and this will stay open down to about -20F. The coop is about 20 degrees warmer than outside. So that means it's -5F in the coop vs -25F. So not a warm coop. Used this system for 10 years, has worked for us.
I know all the dire stories about fires, but we use 2 ropes to secure these, and they have the cage which would help keep the bulb from the bedding should it somehow fall. The light is recessed way up in the orange bell part.
Not to mention they are wired to the feed hose and would have to break loose from that too.
We also use lights as these are working hens. I can't afford to feed organic feed for 6 months and get no eggs. As far as it affecting their long life, they only live 18 months and become ground chicken. We tried keeping them 2 years but it just didn't pay. So we turn the lights on in late August/early Sept before the light gets too far from 14 hrs and leave them on until well into the spring. Our Rate of Lay is between 68 - 80% all winter.
We feed them extremely well, lots of supplemental things, they don't have to expend so much energy trying to stay warm, and they thrive over winter, as opposed to survive.
Ours are outside in their run as much as possible as the coop is really too small for so many hens. Some day, a large coop.....
No heat up here in Michigan it seems to make them hate being out of the coop more
We don't heat our coop here in Kentucky. We just deal with less production in the winter.
We don't add heat or light during the winter. The birds have been fine without it.