Did I make a mistake bringing my 3 chickens in the house overnight because of the cold?

[o2bgreenntx]

My lil girl has no idea at this age what Im willing to go through for her, and these hens... she likely wont appreciated it for another 15+ yrs when she has her own "flock" of humans. Lol.
Meanwhile this has caused other problems... a distuption in the pecking order. Our Ninja has decided to be in the middle on the laundry room roost (black sex link, the biggest of the bunch but the outcast. She doesnt lay eggs & was always bumped around) . The other 2 girls, checker the dominique head hen & goldie cinnamon are on the ends and pecking her legs and head... she aint budging. Normally shes on the floor in the outside coop, and my daughter says "roost" and shell hop up. Then lights out and there is peace. Not tonite the food and water habe been knocked over. I hear chicken clucking & bickering. OmG what have i done!
Im sure theyll work it out. They "try" to behave when i enter the room but they cant help themselves.
Honestly if ninja wanted to she could beat all their asses but she dont. I dont know time for lights out for the girls then cookies and lights out for me. Happy Holidays BYC friends.
Peace love and happiness to you all

Yes, get a picture of your daughter with the ladies Christmas morning - use for Christmas cards next year!
Peace, Love and Chicken Joy to you!

 

[o2bgreenntx]

After all this is done you'll know more about how to fix the coop (next year!) To make life easier on you and more comfortable for them.

The hens in the laundry room will be an awesome Christmas memory for your 10yr old, and you will not spend the holidays consoling your daughter about her hens dieing from cold.

Take pictures of your daughter w all her hens in the laundry room with some Christmas decorations. You'll be able to look at them and recall this crazy moment in your lives. It is funny, really, when you look at how much we do for these babies... I have 2 khaki Campbell Ducks happily swimming in my bathtub at the moment... I feel pretty foolish, but it was easier than building them a new run with a heated tub in it. It got too cold too fast this year. Next summer I'll see about "improvements" I've got 4ft of snow on the ground, nothing can be done this year.

(And yes, there are two yellow rubber ducky and a little blue rubber whale in the bath with the ducks)

Your ducks are beautiful! I've made note of the breed and color if I should happen to catch "duck math". Is that a thing?

 

[Hope4Hennsyvania]

Hope everyone is having Merry Merry & Happy Happy.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Your ducks are beautiful! I've made note of the breed and color if I should happen to catch "duck math". Is that a thing?

The water and local outside temperature are big factors to being happy with ducks. I have a pond that is fed by a stream, so the water is regularly cleaned. If you have ducks with no natural water (pond lake or stream) you'll need to provide a tub and wash it out daily. (Ideally twice daily, but minimum once) They already can no longer go outside until spring where I am. They are not able to handle colder than -6 celcius/ +21 F. I saw that somewhere on a website, and I am now seeing it in them. At -8C / +17F they won't move, just sit on their feet. The other day, I put them down just next to me while I closed the coop and the cold of -11C / +12F was just scary. The boy just extended his leg out and toppled over. They could not move at all, very scary to see.

I love them, but I will be going back to in office work in the new year and they will be an issue. Right now I am bringing them in the house to bathe daily.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Hope everyone is having Merry Merry & Happy Happy.

That's so cute!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I had a thought about the "huddle" you arranged for them, that they wouldn't go into. Didn't you say it was a cardboard box on its side? Is it possible they didn't like the slick feel of it under their feet? Or maybe the way it sounded under their feet? Did it have plenty of the kind of bedding they're accustomed to? What about darkness, would it feel like a cave to them? Could they see into it okay? Chickens are often reluctant to go into a dark area from a well-lit one. Just some things to think about.

 

[Hope4Hennsyvania]

I had a thought about the "huddle" you arranged for them, that they wouldn't go into. Didn't you say it was a cardboard box on its side? Is it possible they didn't like the slick feel of it under their feet? Or maybe the way it sounded under their feet? Did it have plenty of the kind of bedding they're accustomed to? What about darkness, would it feel like a cave to them? Could they see into it okay? Chickens are often reluctant to go into a dark area from a well-lit one. Just some things to think about.

Oh wow! i didnt think of it as dark, since i could see inside... but for them it may be. As far as the bottom theres a heating pad inside a cotton case i can put leaves & pine shavings on it and hang one of these rechargeable lightbulbs i got from amazon (best purchse ever). They stayed outside yesterday 30° and did ok & in the coop lastnight they didnt run right in at dusk like usual, i confused em i think they expected to go in the house. Shut them in and temps went down to 14° I WORRIED. But instead of running disrupting them & letting cold in the coop, i researched the 2 hybrid birds parent breeds & cold hardiness lol. RIR, RIW & Barred Rocks are OK in these temps. Sun is up it's still 14 degrees, gave em warm water & mash, they pecking around looking for anything not frozen. Im going to put bedding in the box now... thank you for the input! I appreciate it

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Re the breeds, (or anyone else reading this later)

If they are bantams, they are MUCH more cold sensitive than their breed suggests. They are small and often the have no or almost no layer of fat under their skin.

 

[Tonyroo]

The one best thing to do for chickens having to sleep in really cold weather in there coop. Is to feed them high carb type foods before bedtime and checking that they have a full crop before going in there coop. The act of digestion creates a lot of heat to keep them warm all night.

So technically you don't need a external heater for them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh wow! i didnt think of it as dark, since i could see inside... but for them it may be. As far as the bottom theres a heating pad inside a cotton case i can put leaves & pine shavings on it and hang one of these rechargeable lightbulbs i got from amazon (best purchse ever). They stayed outside yesterday 30° and did ok & in the coop lastnight they didnt run right in at dusk like usual, i confused em i think they expected to go in the house. Shut them in and temps went down to 14° I WORRIED. But instead of running disrupting them & letting cold in the coop, i researched the 2 hybrid birds parent breeds & cold hardiness lol. RIR, RIW & Barred Rocks are OK in these temps. Sun is up it's still 14 degrees, gave em warm water & mash, they pecking around looking for anything not frozen. Im going to put bedding in the box now... thank you for the input! I appreciate it

You're very welcome, glad to help. Glad they did well. It was way colder than that here the last few days, below zero, and our birds did fine. Which is to say they all survived although they didn't like it and only a few have left the hen house, even today when it got up to around freezing. We have 24 hens and two roosters in an 8x10 walk-in building, so they're able to snuggle a bit on the roosts and have been fluffed up like puffballs and hunched up like basketballs, scowling as if the cold weather is all my fault. We have warm weather right around the corner though, so they'll be fine.