Desperate times come to desperate measures...

With our extreme cold yesterday , last night and today we have realized that our hen house is Ill suited to -40. In a lack of foresight we also had no back up plan for freezing chickens in a coop either. No space heaters, nothing. So, looked around and found .... Candles. Many many, still from our wedding . All pillars of different heights. Also had tin 5 gallon pails. So you guessed it.
To minimize the obvious risk I suspended the pails from wires like flower planters and had 3 candles in 2 pails. Also had chicken wire across the top secured around with more wire to prevent candles from falling out if tipped. They are keeping the coop quite warm, surprisingly warm ! The lonely heat lamp just could not keep up with the temp. Further, these 4 " candles are lasting 24 hours! A cheap if risky fix!

If you can, run to town and buy one of those $30.00 ceramic style heaters! They are thermostatically controlled and blow a nice, warm air across a room ,or coop in this case. Plus, if they get nocked over, they shut off!
A bit safer than candles!

One thing to keep in mind is that combustion (of candle wax or anything else) uses oxygen. If you house isn't ventilated, your birds will suffer from oxygen deprivation.

I am ticked off. I just spent a while typing a response to this post and then pushed send and it vanished. Even if I pushed preview by mistake I would be able to see my post. I wouldn't be so ticked if I wasn't typing with one finger from each hand which takes some time. I would be careful speaking as a firefighter. If your coop is fairly closed up as in having the windows closed and the doors closed in hopes of preserving what little heat that you have inside then you are putting your birds at great risk. The candles burn oxygen and the birds produce carbon dioxide which will create an environment that is o2 low and co2 rich with can be lethal. I put an extra heat lamp which does not use o2 in every coop that only had one heat lamp in it and I hung one of the heat lamps close to if not touching the metal tip over water pails to keep the water from freezing. Just be careful.

I have 5, 60 watt red bulbs suspended at various chicken heights. The coop is cold, but the chickens just wander under a light when they want to warm up.

Sue

We've been trying to put together a new coop here before it got cold (it was a delayed summer project). We have a bunch of hens outside that could go in with the other hens in the old coop, but not the roosters. They are not entirely without shelter and real cold spells do not last long here. We put the heat lamps in the outside runs which left the inside chickens without heat. We hung a space heater a bit more than a meter above the floor. They get warm water once a day.

Heh! Well my husband is an ex volunteer fire fighter as well and he too thought it was a "far from smart" plan. The building is as drafty as three sided pole shed, almost. This is only a one-time deal, until I drive to town tomorrow and find some kind of heater. Again, once i have the heater, it will only be used in -30 and worse. This summers plans include a whole new building ! Thank you for all the advice and concern.

These cold situations always make me think about how it must have been way back for the first pioneers who moved here and how hard it must have been to survive these brutal winters. What would a farmers wife had done in her chicken coop before electricity on those extremely cold days?

No heat and no insulation here. They all seem fine so far.

My hen house is not insulated but the have a 100 watt light that is on from 4 am to 7 pm. Today they are only comming our for water then go back in. We were minus24 with the wind this afternoon and it was really blowing. When I went in to see if there were any viable eggs still under hens to grab I found one sad polish hen sitting in front of the pop door shivering. I cant say I have ever seen a chicken shiver but she was. I tried to sit her under a heat lamp with some other younger pullets house in my hay barn but she continued to shiver. So needless to say she is now in the house living in a crate in my dog room. I had read that polish are not cold hardy but this was kind of pathetic. But she is my sons fav so I can't let her suffer as he has already lost his number 1 fav this fall.

Everyone else seemed fine so I moved their water in and battened down the hatch so to speak!

KatuskiFarms wrote:These cold situations always make me think about how it must have been way back for the first pioneers who moved here and how hard it must have been to survive these brutal winters. What would a farmers wife had done in her chicken coop before electricity on those extremely cold days?

I am still using the ancient coop that we think was built around the time of the original farmhouse on our property - 1920 or earlier.
I have to say this chicken house was well planned and well built. We have fixed it up a bit replacing windows, adding insulation and new floor boards, but it stays remarkably warm inside. I am now using a heat lamp in these extreme temps, especially because I moved half of the flock to the heated barn and there aren't enough hens left to generate enough heat for themselves. But when there are 30 - 40 chickens in there they do not suffer one bit and need no extra heat, even during the coldest of cold snaps.
I think those early settlers valued their flock, and needed the eggs to feed their family and to sell in town for some extra money. They knew what kind of weather conditions they would be faced with and didnt cheap out on building the chicken coop.

My coop is insulated, but has no lights or lamps and my chickens are doing fine. They have a thick layer of straw on the floor to help insulate them. I think as long as your building is insulated and you have lots of bedding for them they will do just fine!

When I lived in SK, my coop was an old grainary, not insulated. I hung a heat lamp over the water to keep it from freezing. When it was -38 and the windchill hit -51 I put a heater in the coop at the perch height blowing on the chickens. They were fine. My one lone white leghorn got a touch of frost bite on her comb so I put vaseline on it, it was fine too.I had to collect eggs early and often or they would freeze. It was the coolest thing when they cracked around the long way.
There is a book on keeping chickens in the cold. They claim all the chickens need is protection from the wind they are fine with cold, not humidity, which can be a problem with too much heat in a tight building.

do not for get about the moisture the young birds do not like it the ones under a year that is

debbiej wrote:When I lived in SK, my coop was an old grainary, not insulated. I hung a heat lamp over the water to keep it from freezing. When it was -38 and the windchill hit -51 I put a heater in the coop at the perch height blowing on the chickens. They were fine. My one lone white leghorn got a touch of frost bite on her comb so I put vaseline on it, it was fine too.I had to collect eggs early and often or they would freeze. It was the coolest thing when they cracked around the long way.
There is a book on keeping chickens in the cold. They claim all the chickens need is protection from the wind they are fine with cold, not humidity, which can be a problem with too much heat in a tight building.

A piece of plywood a short distance over the roosts also helps them stay warmer. It doesn't seem like much but it can really make a difference in frozen combs.

No risk of high humidity in the little henhouse. It was originally a calf shelter we think . Last owner of the property boxed it in and lined it that sheet styrofoam, then more plywood inside. This is our first winter using the little coop or even keeping chickens for that matter. Anyways, the building seems extremely cold inside. Our 10 gallon hanging waterer freezes solid, even with electrical heat tape wrapped around the base! The chantecler hens seem nonplussed by it, but the orpingtons are not happy. All fluffed up and huddled on the floor, poor gals. So, more heat is necessary I think. And I would hate for the beautiful new combs that the Maran hens have grown to freeze off!

Well on Monday I decided it was necessary to reinsulate the ceiling on henhouse. There were areas of tin showing from years of mice chewing away the foam insulation. This was something I had intended to do In the fall, but why not wait until -40? Anyways, used yellow insulation and builders plastic. Good enough and must make a huge difference. The thing about this little coop is that the highest part of the ceiling is 5', and goes lower to 3' or so. Old calf shelter . The low ceiling should help with heat retention. That's one plus.

"These cold situations always make me think about how it must have been way back for the first pioneers who moved here and how hard it must have been to survive these brutal winters. What would a farmers wife had done in her chicken coop before electricity on those extremely cold days?"
Brought them in and put them to roost near the woodstove I imagine.... of course they probably had a milk cow, maybe a horse or two and some other stock in their barn too to help keep things warmer...

.

Yes Higgins, the chanties are hardy for sure. Very interesting info you dug up there... Chickens on a roost in the living room? Hummmm, maybe my favorites . I have 22 layers right now , 12 are chanties and on Monday thru -40, we still got 18 eggs! Quite happy.