Colorado

[maggiemo]

We give scratch every afternoon late - ours has rolled oats, whole barley and wheat, cracked corn, and wild bird seed. I don't measure, they just get "some" - this time of year whatever they will eat works for me, as long as they have food in their crops at bedtime I'm happy.

X2
I had some frost bite this morning for the first time on two of my birds combs. It's -4 right now.
I am tempted to put a heater in the coop tonight.
Is anyone giving any heat to their birds? I never have, but it is so unusually humid and cold. I don't want any more damage to any combs!.

 

[suncatcher]

I know so many beautiful pictures of green plants brighten the day with our wintery weather! I am going to try corn then, will start inside, and see how it goes, also going to try baby corn for the first time ever. We will pickle it, another first!

Everyone here had some warm mash this morning, they could not eat it fast enough!!! I feed cracked corn in the evening, just think it helps them keep warm during the nights cold temps.

Have been doing some research on super brght flashlights. Has anyone used the brighter 400 lumens? Do they work on the darker eggs?

 

[yawningreyhound]

I couldn't help it, when it hit -8, i turned on the coop light for a few hours before they retired. it's 7 in there right now and i shut it off as i put them to bed and sealed it up tight except for their ventilation roof.

man, it is fit for neither beast nor man.

my face starts to hurt within minutes of going outside.

hope everyone does ok tonight here in Colorado!

 

[Pozees]

Quote:
We bought an oil filled heater yesterday morning and left it on low in the big coop, where chicks are under heat plates and seem fine, but I didn't want to take a chance the heat plate wouldn't keep up with the temps. The layer coop stayed above zero overnight but not by much, the big coop was 15 degrees. It was -6 outside when I left this morning at 5:45, and it usually drops a bit more until about 8 am. Our high today was 5. This is at least the 4th extremely cold snap we've had this year. When I got home from work Bob was ranting about how from now on, everything we build has to be way overbuilt to compensate for the more and more extreme highs and lows we have had the last few years. I've been wanting to add on to the big coop or build another building, and he's talking about using 2x6s for the wall studs so I can stuff a ton of insulation in there. Probably makes sense.

I felt really conflicted about adding heat - chickens survive in Alaska, after all - and if I hadn't had chicks out there I probably would have toughed it out. FWIW, the chicks are still fine, they were out drinking and eating when I last checked on them before radio off and lights out for the night at around 5:15 after I collected scratch dishes - I have a heat lamp over the blocks the waterer ison so they will continue to drink in these temperatures.

This weather is a source of a lot of frustration. Some of us may lose birds. Tonight will be even worse than last night for many of us. We can't change the weather, so our chickens, for the most part, have to be able to tolerate the weather we have, if we are to have self-perpetuating flocks. I just keep saying this, to myself and to Bob.

 

[trochefarm]

HI Pozees,
My bees are doing well. We were super overboard crazy in protecting them this fall. We put up insulation around each wall, then tar paper, then 9 bales of straw. They are pretty snug. We also chose not to harvest the honey, since the prediction was to have such a hard winter, and these were first year hives.I have seen a lot of friends who posted they lost their bees colonies after the freeze we had in December. So I guess we will see. I am still feeding them pollen patties. I was expecting this to be a hard winter, and it sure has for the bees.

As for fruit trees... we ordered semi-dwarfs that were about 6 foot starters. We ordered 3 varieties of apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry, nectarine, and apricots. We also ordered bush cherries, blueberries, pink lemonade blueberries, gooseberries, and marion berries. Once it goes in my hubby will electrify the fence around the orchard for the bears. Our land is in a valley so we are fairly protected and get a good amount of sun.
So happy to have a snow day today! Last night was the first time the stubborn turkeys willingly went into their turkey hotel without our assistance.

Wendy, where do you order your trees? My catalogs all say they won't send plum, peach, apricot, nectarine, or cherry trees to Colorado.

 

[trsturself]

DH hung his hot work lamp up on the roof of the pen and shined it at the wall of the coop to hopefully add some radiant heat to the coop for the girls tonight. They came out of their coop and were walking around their enclosed area that is full of straw. Our coop isn't insulated at all. DH already has plans for how he wants to do the next one.

I can't wait for spring! I'm starting plants indoors next week. This year we are planting lots of tomatoes, squashes, peas, beans, lettuce, brocolli, herbs, carrots, potatoes, asparagus (well technically we aren't planting it but we already have it in the garden), onions, garlic, cabbage, rasberries, and goji berries. I'm sure I'm missing something but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[WendyGeisler]

Quote: Hi Trochefarm,
Yep, they do. I am getting around this by having half my order shipped to friends who aren't in Co. Then I will drive and go pick them up. I ordered through Gurneys and I got a 50% off my entire order coupon. It was such a great deal, that I am willing to drive

 

[WendyGeisler]

if anyone wants my 50% off coupon email, I am happy to share. I have never bought seeds for the garden from Gurneys, but I did this time.
My first package of 60 types of seeds came this week.

 

[Camp Leader]

Been busy and tired. Haven't checked in for a bit. Hope everyone is making it through this little cold snap. I almost put on a light jacket before heading out to work this morning. Those around me think I might be crazy, no jacket in this stuff. The cold is really slowing the egg production. I was steady with a 4 then a 6 egg day rotation. Only three the last two days. Everyone still healthy, just tired or frustrated from the snow. Maybe next week will get them going again. Stay safe and warm all.

 

[samsr]

My chickens survived last night pretty well. When I got home I just needed to give them some water and about 4 cups of scratch, so they can generate some heat for tonight. It is currently 10.2 in the coop at the moment and it is -12 outside. I did get six eggs today. down from 8 the day before. When it gets this cold they like to cram themselves into the nesting boxes and share their heat. I just dont have the heart to shoo them out.
I am starting to save more eggs for the wine-o-bators next hatch. The test eggs went on lockdown this evening. I candled also. Everything looks good. I only had one quitter. So 14 are going into lockdown. I will update and let everyone know when the chicks start to hatch in my experimental home made incubator. I do need to modify a couple of things. I need a way of getting water into the water tray without opening the door and I need to place a wire grid on the hatching surface of the hatching tray, to hold the eggs in place, as the eggs roll around too much for my liking.
On a different note. my furnace went out last night. It got down to 50 in the house before I realized it. The incubator didn't miss a lick. It maintained the temp inside really well. It was reading 100 when I checked on it. I had to fire up the pellet stove that I installed in the basement this fall. This raised the temp in the house to 62 in no time, even though it was -12 this morning. Its always good to have a back up plan.