Today, we are going to show you how we protect our farm birds during the cooler temperatures here at the farm. In the chicken coop, we have chickens, ducks and quail and they are all sensitive to colder temperatures. Colder temperatures can decrease egg production, make your chickens more prone to season coughing and little upper respiratory infections and it can also just make them less comfortable. We always want to make sure that we have some added layer of protection for the winter.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Protecting Your Coop During Winter
1:25 Heat Lamps & Safety Tips
4:42 Alternative Heating Units
6:30 Increasing Quality of Life
TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO:
Hi, my name is Lindsey. I’m here in the urban farm chicken coop and today I’m going to show you how we use heat lamps in the cooler temperatures at the farm. In the chicken coop, we have chickens and ducks and quail and they are all sensitive to colder temperatures. Colder temperatures can decrease egg production, make your chickens more prone to season coughing and little upper respiratory infections and it can also just make them less comfortable. So we always want to make sure that we have some added layer of protection for the winter.
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Here in Arizona, it doesn’t get as cold as it does in other places. Our coop is still open, we still get air flow, so they’re still pretty affected by whatever the weather is. But adding heat lamps can be a great way to ensure that they have a warm place to sleep at night and that the ducks have a warm place to come to after they get out of the water, after they’re done swimming.
So the heat lamps we have here are just these small lamps and then we have both red and white bulbs that produce heat and I just have them attached here with some chain. Chain is a great way. It won’t get too hot, which is something we need to make be careful of. The heat lamp bulb itself is very hot, so always be careful. Never handle it when it’s actually plugged in. So if I wanted to move this, I would definitely unplug it first. The outside of the lamp is still warm so we just wanna make sure that it’s not ever touching wood or anything that could possibly get too hot and catch fire. That being said, I definitely take a few extra measures when I hang these just to be certain that they’re not gonna fall. If the glass fell and broke, it could hurt the animals and we just don’t wanna risk anything going wrong with our heat lamps. So I have it chained and then they come with clips. So this clip is attached to the heat lamp, so I always clip the chain and then make sure that the chain is very securely attached and wrap it around. And if you need to use zip ties or metal wiring to attach, anything you can do to make sure that this is gonna move the least amount as possible is just a great security measure you can can take.
We also wanna make sure that it doesn’t swing too far, so that’s something I considered if it was windy. I don’t want it like swinging and hitting and braking just because you never know. So it’s always better to be safe than sorry. And also making sure that you have extension cords and whatever you need to attach your heat lamp to a power outlet. Having these things on hand before the winter is always really helpful. You can find these heat lamps at most hardware stores. You can find them at feed stores and pet stores too. And same with the bulb. The bulb can be found at most hardware stores and you just want something that says heat. So it doesn’t matter if the bulb itself is white or red, they come in both. They also come in black, so it just needs to say heat. And a lot of times they’ll say specifically for small animal enclosures or something like that.
Another important thing to consider is how far you’re gonna hang your heat lamp down. So here you can see I have it about hip level. This is about three feet from the ground and I just do this based on how much heat I want them to have and I don’t want the animals to have the ability to touch or interact with the heat lamp in any way. So from this distance, a chicken flying down or jumping couldn’t reach this heat lamp. And that’s really important. I want it to be warm enough so that when I have my hand under it I can feel that warmth. You can feel that it is radiating off the lamp, but far enough that your animals won’t be able to interact with it or burn themselves.
If you do need something for smaller chicks or smaller animals like our quail, you can get little covered pedestals. They’re basically like a heating pad and it’s a little shelter that they can go under. This is a great way. Those are way less risky in terms of burning your animals and you can set the temperature. Whereas with heat lamps, you set the temperature based on how far it is off the ground. It’s just something to consider. Also, another way, if you are especially dealing with a really cold night, if it ever got below freezing, I would put these in the coop. They’re just outdoor heating units. They’re really sturdy, they’re not gonna not gonna do anything. They’re protected so nobody can get hurt from them. And these are specifically made for outdoor venues and for farms. So this is just a great additional way. It’ll just produce a lot of heat into the area. This is another great way when it gets really cold.
The last thing to remember about heat lamps is quantity. So we wanna think where we place them around. The coop here is where the ducks usually sleep. They like this smaller enclosed area. So I have two in here just to make sure that all the ducks have access to a warm area. When you kind of feel around the bottom, you can tell that the radius of the heat lamp isn’t huge. So when we’re just using these smaller heat lamps, they don’t actually have that large of a radius. So adding multiples to an area can be really helpful if you get a larger one, you just have to consider that the size of your bulb is what produces the heat. So you still may need a few heat lamps in order to produce enough heat for an area.
These are just some of the things to consider. We love having heat lamps in here. It makes me feel a lot safer about the animals in the winter and it just makes them happy. And you can see that in the nighttime they all gather around them. So you can tell that it’s definitely something that they enjoy having in the coop and it increases their quality of life in the winter. So consider using heat lamps in your coop or your small animal enclosure to help your animals get through the winter.
