Any one want to join me in waiting for eggs, posting and comparing notes?

[darina]

It sounds all too true and all too familiar!

 

[threescompany]

It is so cold here in NC, I went home at lunch to check on my girls and give them water, which was frozen over. They did not lay early this morning as they have been and I thought it was so cold , all their energy was surely going to staying warm. Looked in the coop and there were 3! One from each hen and thank goodness I got there before they froze! Like Christmas everyday!

 

[sondieblondie]

first egg from I believe my dominique, tikka! Came home from lunch and found this jem

 

[gfiman]

I have a question. How can you tell if a cold egg is frozen? 6deg. last night 24 for a high today and 18 tonight.
Chickens are doing fine, got a record 8 eggs today,(9 hens including 2 dom;s that are 3 years old now).
They were eager to get out and scratch for a while this evening. I tossed them some scratch, and some sun flower seeds.
They had a good snack before dark this evening. Any way, back to the question.........

 

[WthrLady]

Sit it on the counter, on it's side and spin it.... as it slows down.... if it wobbles it's NOT frozen. If it just keeps a steady spin..... frozen.

Try it with an egg you know isn't frozen to see what it does.

Same works for hardboiled eggs, which also don't wobble.

 

[gfiman]

Thanks. Is all lost if they freeze?

 

[CatSol]

I got a first egg from my Raven....

My EE mix




When my EE cross with an Buff orp came up with a cream egg I did not have too much hope for Raven here. But she gave us a pretty blue egg yesterday. I believe she is an EE/ Andalusian cross .... So Eggcited....

 

[chicksurreal]

I got a first egg from my Raven....

My EE mix




When my EE cross with an Buff orp came up with a cream egg I did not have too much hope for Raven here. But she gave us a pretty blue egg yesterday. I believe she is an EE/ Andalusian cross .... So Eggcited....

How exciting! What a pretty girl and a pretty egg!

 

[Scott16475]

We're beginning to come out of a really cold stretch of weather so I went out to the coop and cleaned it out. While I was out there, I was playing with the hens and noticed that three of the four have lost color in most of their crowns and one of the girls has a black tip or two. Clearly this cold snap really hurt them. I didn't have a heating lamp on as they didn't act as if they needed it and besides Black Austrolorps are supposed to be 'cold hardy'. I feel really bad. I'm going to pick up a heating lamp tomorrow. I admittedly know very little of what actually causes frostbite on the crowns of chickens so perhaps a heating lamp wouldn't have done any good but now I wish I had at least given it a shot.

 

[darina]

Apparently humidity is usually the culprit rather than just the cold. My sister has a tiny coop with good ventilation and even her Leghorns don't have any problems with their combs, but my smaller-combed girls have some black spots. I need to install some vents. I have been applying Vaseline to their combs on cold nights since then, and none of them have gotten any worse, even though the temps have dropped again.