Hi I live in northern Alberta. It gets cold here and we have short daylight hours during the winter. I have found that decreased light is a bigger indicator of slowed production than temperature. We turn on our heat lamp and keep the girls in their coop when temps drop below -25C. To maintain...
I have a 4 year old gal that is the last from my original flock. My 1 and 2 year olds are all chasing and pecking at her. I had to separate her for the past three weeks to heal a bad wound on her neck. Last night I reintroduced her to the coop when all were asleep. This morning they were...
You are doing everything right. Lucky girls. Only advice I can give you from Canada where today my girls are facing -30C is we use Vaseline on their combs. They let you just rub it on once a day and it protects them
Hey. I live in northern Alberta Canada. We have 7 girls and have worked through this question. What we do is start with a heated water bowl hanging in their coop. Then we ensure there is ventilation on the side of the coop the does not receive the brunt of the weather. We wrap poly plastic wrap...
Hard to get a good picture but this shows the break it is just a chunk off the top front. She is eating and drinking well. Just wondering if it needs filing or should I leave it alone?
I just discovered one of my hens has broken a small part of her upper beak. It does not appear to interfere with eating or drinking. As a newbie I am asking will it grow back? Also, I read some people trim beaks to discourage pecking. My 5 layers do not have any trouble getting along. Is...
They are doing great. They go out into the run up to -20C. We have a heat lamp on in the coop from 6 AM TO 10 AM and again from 4 PM TO 8PM. I close them in their coop at 630 pm and open it up at 730 AM. They stayed in full time during our recent week of -40C but are back out now. No frostbite...
They seemed to be ok. Unfortunately we were away during the cold snap. Our daughter came home to watch over them and left them in their coop the whole time. We have a heat lamp so it kept them around -10C most of the time. She had to give them various treats like a cabbage and apples and warm...
I have 5 sex link brown laying hens that are 9 months old. They are active and consistant layers. I am careful that their diet is mostly balanced chicken feed but they are supplemented with dried meal worms, scratch and fresh veggies. On very cold mornings I make them oatmeal. I believe they are...
Okay, this has me wondering....is it dangerous to give them handfuls of long grass? I have been doing this all summer and they love it. If there is a risk I will stop.
Here are some of my coop pictures for those that asked. Remember we live in a very cold climate. We have some constant ventilation and some we will control at -40 C
Interesting. We have no bylaws but have basically followed those rules anyway. We insulated like crazy then put in ventilation so we could control it. Thanks for your reply. Guess we will both see how it goes this winter.
Hello, my name is Allyson and I live 3 hours northwest of Edmonton Alberta on a bush lot in a small farming community.
I have wanted chickens for years and this spring, after about 2 years of research we got 5 sex-link brown chicks from a local hatchery.
After surviving the first 12 weeks we...
Hello. I have a new flock of 5 Sex-Link Brown layers. We live in northern Alberta Canada. We have created a coop with good ventilation and a large outdoor run. Both have wood chip floors. My question is in the winter when snow gets deep and we have prolonged periods of -30C I anticipate my girls...