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With the arrival of truly cold weather, providing warmth and heating chicken coop in winter becomes a condition for the survival of all poultry. Despite its good adaptation to weather changes, the chicken is prone to colds and infectious diseases, like any domestic animal, so heating in the hen house in winter becomes a serious problem.
How to keep warm in a chicken coop
In addition to lining the chicken coop with a highly effective insulation based on a polymer or mineral base, the normal temperature inside the chicken apartment can be kept in three ways:
- Installation of a heater;
- Use the heat of a residential building for heating;
- Apply chemical or additional heat sources.
A comfortable temperature can be called 15-17aboutC. At the same time, it will be necessary to simultaneously provide a normal flow of fresh air and humidity in the chicken coop room at a level of no more than 60%.
Folk heating options
The simplest folk way to organize heating of a chicken coop is the correct location of the premises relative to a residential building. Most often, the chicken coop was attached from the side of the oven, so that the heat from the wall warmed up the room with the bird. Thus, the problem of how to heat the chicken coop in winter, even in the most severe frosts, was solved quite simply and without electricity.
The second popular way to heat a poultry room is considered to be the use of decomposing chicken droppings with sawdust. But such a heater often leads to a massive death of poultry in the hen house by emitted gases, so today it can be found only in the greenhouse and to maintain artificial myceliums.
Which is more profitable for heating - electricity or fuel
Any heating options using alternative energy sources can only keep the heat in the chicken room at an acceptable level, provided that the outside temperature is not lower than -10aboutC. In more severe frosts, the problem of how to heat the chicken coop can be solved either by installing an electric heater in the room, or by a fossil fuel stove. Heat pipes and solar heaters in these conditions will turn out to be so expensive that their purchase and installation will cost three times more than the chicken coop itself with chickens in the bargain.
Electrical heating systems
The most voracious are electric wall convectors. The principle of their work resembles an ordinary fireplace, most of the heated air rises to the ceiling, and the lower layers, which are fundamentally important for the chicken tribe, remain cold. The difference in air temperature can reach 6-8aboutC. So, even having paid almost two thousand rubles a month, there is still a risk of underheating the chicken coop room using an inappropriate heating method.
In second place are infrared heaters installed in the ceiling of the room. Unlike previous models, infrared heating devices can provide a number of additional benefits:
- Heating of space, air and objects occurs in the lower tier of the chicken coop, energy is distributed more rationally.
- The location of the heating element is absolutely safe for birds.
- Heat radiation sterilizes and dries the condensation film and bedding, improving the sanitary condition of the chicken coop.
The power of the 600 W heater is enough to heat the insulated chicken coop room of 5-6 m2... Typically, a two-position heater with a thermostat is used for heating, which has two heating modes - 600 W and 1200 W. In this case, the heating of the poultry room has to be adjusted with your own hands using a manual thermostat.
If possible, it is better to choose a more modern model that allows you to smoothly change the load and the level of heating the room according to the signal from the external air temperature sensor.
Farmers and summer residents who breed poultry for sale prefer to choose a programmable energy-saving heater that can heat the chicken coop depending on the time of day. With a correctly selected mode, energy savings can be up to 60%. Which heater option to choose for heating depends on the size and characteristics of a particular chicken coop room.
The disadvantages of an infrared heater include high power consumption and burning of oxygen in the atmosphere of the room. In addition, if most of the interior decoration, perch and floor are made of wood, if overheated, the wooden surface will dry out and crack over time. The best way to protect the wood from burning out is to cover the wood with two coats of clear oil varnish.
In third place are infrared lamps. The principle of operation of the lamp is much like that of an infrared heater, but less efficient due to the harder radiation that is scattered throughout the room. Heating with a lamp is most often used in rooms for young animals and the children's section of a chicken coop, where, in addition to heating, it is important to use the disinfecting properties of the lamp.
For heating 5-7 m2 the premises usually use a standard "red" lamp IKZK215 with a mirror reflector. In theory, the service life of such a heater is designed for 5000 hours, but in practice it is enough for one season.
The most exotic option for heating the chicken coop room is electric film heaters, which are widely used to equip warm floors. In this case, the heater is placed on a heat-insulating mat, and the heating surface is covered with a wooden board impregnated with a varnish composition.
Film heaters can be installed on walls and even on the ceiling, but heating with the installation of a heating part on the floor of the chicken coop will be the most effective.
Of all the listed heating options, the film heater can be called the most economical and energy efficient system, the power consumption compared to infrared heating will decrease by 15-20%.
Fossil fuel stoves and heaters
It is not always possible to choose exactly how to heat the chicken coop in the winter. For example, in a summer cottage or in a country house in winter, the electricity can be turned off several times a week, which can lead to the death of a bird.
In this case, stone stoves are used for heating, attached to the outside of the chicken coop wall in a separate room. The stove has a massive brick heating shield that acts as one of the walls of the chicken coop. At night, the room is heated to a high temperature, a small amount of coal is put in the firebox, and until midnight in the chicken coop it will be +17aboutC. Further, heating is carried out due to the heat accumulated by the brickwork.
Safer and easier to manufacture is a self-heating oven using waste engine oil. But the device itself is not placed inside the chicken coop for fire safety reasons. The room is heated using a large water tank or a two-hundred-liter barrel filled with water.A steel pipe, bent by a knee, is installed inside the barrel, through which flue gases and products of combustion of oil from the stove are sent to the chimney.
For heating, 1.5-2 liters of mining are filled into the furnace tank, which is enough for a couple of hours of work. During this time, the water in the barrel warms up to a high temperature. At the end of the fuel supply, the hen house is heated by the heat accumulated by the water.
Conclusion
Often, homemade heat panels made of steel or aluminum pipes are added to stationary stoves and heaters using electricity or fossil fuels. Such a system, installed on the roof of a chicken coop, can reduce energy consumption for heating during the daytime by 70-80%.
