How to Best Add a Little Heat to an Animal Shed

Egon · Jan 7, 2018

Back when barns were uninsulated wooden structures with usually a hay loft above. The only heat came from the animals. More animals more heat. Straw was used for bedding. Most of these barns were warm in cold weather.

For the OP; lots of straw bedding that is dry and more animals or a smaller enclosure for the ones there are.

Industrial Toys · Jan 7, 2018

They were also largely "Bank Barns" partially below ground. And often a low insulated ceiling, there being hay above.

RSKY · Jan 7, 2018

When I was a kid living at home my mother would run an extension cord to the hen house and put a 100-watt light bulb under a metal wash tub. It would give off a little heat but the chickens were too dumb to gather around it. The little bit of heat provided did keep them alive. In later years she didn't have many chicks and never even did that. As long as they are out of the wind and have water they will survive. Cattle and hogs will pack together anywhere they can get out of the wind. Smaller pigs in a pile will constantly move around to the center of the pile, then get rooted out to the edge. In my growing up years on the farm I can only remember one just born calf not surviving the cold.

Animals were surviving for millions of years without human intervention. Give them a place out of the wind, water, feed, and a small heat source and they will survive. Unless it is a tropical animal transplanted up north they don't need a lot of help.

RSKY

coralhead · Jan 7, 2018

Here in southern Indiana it has been getting down to 10 below zero a few nights and our alpacas and llamas have been staying out in the field and usually only come to the barn if it is windy. Their fleece is thick and they don't seem to mind it. We do keep straw in the barn down so they have a place to bed into. The building is pole barn construction with the opening facing the south. It is by no means warm in there but it is out of the wind. We keep a heated water source for them and plenty of good quality hay for them to eat. We grow our own and is a timothy/orchard grass mix. We had an older alpaca (20+ years) that we would put a horse coat on. She did not mind the coat since her fleece was thinner due to her age.

Any kind of heat source in a barn with dry straw does not go over well with me. As long as they can get out of the wind, have a deep dry straw bed(18-24") to cush in, a warm water source, lots of quality hay available and occasional grain they will be fine. Just have her check to make sure they are chewing their cud and not shivering. A horse coat can help with that if they allow it.

/pine · Jan 7, 2018

Alpaca wool is some of the warmest natural stuff known for sweaters and hats etc...great stuff...!

Citydude · Jan 7, 2018

I doubt that the Peruvians have heat for their alpacas. They are high altitude pack animals and are fine out of the wind with hay, water and bedding.

airbiscuit · Jan 7, 2018

/pine said:
Alpaca wool is some of the warmest natural stuff known for sweaters and hats etc...great stuff...!

Yep. It was the lamb she was concerned about. Did I mention it has been @#$%^ cold up here since Christmas? Today it got in the20s - short sleeve weather.

coralhead · Jan 7, 2018

airbiscuit said:
Yep. It was the lamb she was concerned about. Did I mention it has been @#$%^ cold up here since Christmas? Today it got in the20s - short sleeve weather.

She can get a dog coat for the lamb. Very easy.

We finally got some warm weather here today, 35 degrees

John Fitzgerald · Jan 7, 2018

No artificial heating for farm animals if there is any way they can get to it. If they can reach it, they will, and likely start a fire if there are combustibles, or hurt themselves. A thick layer of straw or hay that they can bed down in is best, along with protection from the wind. An uninsulated metal building will provide excellent wind protection, but the underside of the roof will become iced from animal respiration, and drip when the sunlight hits it for a while.