How cold is too cold?

[Jenni Hen]

What you call a "soak away", is that like a french drain ? You bury a long plastic tube that has holes and a cloth on it to collect and drain the water from where you don't want it to where it causes no issues (like directly into a pond or a lake) since you bury it that means you can put it around the run, middle of the run or under a space that is a path. That doesn't take up any room in your landscape and is not dangerous to slipping or falling into if you are tight on space. I likely would not put it into the run if it means you make the perimeter of the run vulnerable to a predictor but alongside the outside of it where the water is coming from (if you can see where the water comes from).

I have one behind the run (mountain side) that leads into a garden area and goes out to the ditch in front (road side). It gathers the water that comes from the mountain and makes it circle around the run and go away from the run to the ditch. Maybe I should make a sketch and add it to this message, that sounds confusing as a description. I had a little too strong a coffee this morning I think it makes me a little too intense

I can't do anything without coffee first thing. Then another after seeing to the chickens so I can start the rest of the day!
I think I can picture how your land-drain works. I don't think the description is confusing. It's interesting how you are controlling the draining water and I can see why it would work but it's not something I've come across personally, only once or twice I've seen big drains being laid under a field.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I can't do anything without coffee first thing. Then another after seeing to the chickens so I can start the rest of the day!
I think I can picture how your land-drain works. I don't think the description is confusing. It's interesting how you are controlling the draining water and I can see why it would work but it's not something I've come across personally, only once or twice I've seen big drains being laid under a field.

I'm at the foot of a mountain with several plateaus above me, in an area that gets lots of snow when I got here it was a river that washed the top soil off every spring. The house was on stilts and on higher ground, I could see why. The house was just a cabin in the beginning, it had just been a hunting lodge, mostly abandoned.

I got a shovel and got to work... I would come here 3 weekends a month. It was slow and gradual and all my neighbors thought I was nuts. Some saw the initial holes and offered to come in with landscaping equipment to fill them in for me (for a price).

(WTF!!! I dug it out with a little shovel and you want to come in and bulldoze it in again?? Talk about mansplaining! They thought whatever that woman is doing is just dumb, let's charge her $$$ to put it right.)

Anyway... now I have fruit trees/shrubs and little ponds and canals with bridges and walkways. It is crazy, but the digging also kept me sane as it was physical work that helped me quiet my brain.

 

[Jenni Hen]

I'm at the foot of a mountain with several plateaus above me, in an area that gets lots of snow when I got here it was a river that washed the top soil off every spring. The house was on stilts and on higher ground, I could see why. The house was just a cabin in the beginning, it had just been a hunting lodge, mostly abandoned.

I got a shovel and got to work... I would come here 3 weekends a month. It was slow and gradual and all my neighbors thought I was nuts. Some saw the initial holes and offered to come in with landscaping equipment to fill them in for me (for a price).

(WTF!!! I dug it out with a little shovel and you want to come in and bulldoze it in again?? Talk about mansplaining! They thought whatever that woman is doing is just dumb, let's charge her $$$ to put it right.)

Anyway... now I have fruit trees/shrubs and little ponds and canals with bridges and walkways. It is crazy, but the digging also kept me sane as it was physical work that helped me quiet my brain.

Wow! You are courageous to take on something like that!
This time a year ago I took on a second allotment. Unknown to me the council had strimmed the weeds and sprayed them with weedkiller so that it would look good to a prospective tenant. From end of December for over two months, every day I was there with my fork, lifting couch grass roots. I aimed to do a strip 5 yards by 1 yard each day and managed it. Second digging I did 2 yards a day.
By contrast, the council, and most of the tenants, pay someone to go over the plots with a rotavator and don't bother to lift any roots so I felt like the gardener from Mars! All my life I've gardened on heavy clay and not known anyone use a rotavator but here it's a light sandy loam and people use machinery, which seems strange.
I was doing that digging in contrast to my last job which had been demanding because I'd to learn a lot all the time as well as putting it all into practice, in emotionally draining situations. I thought that digging couch grass would be really boring but there was something deep that I can't describe about that physical routine, the sky and the fresh air, and I never got bored nor gave up. It was healing and I felt better mentally and physically.

 

[Shepherdess]

We have had terrible cold weather in central USA and so I wrapped both the runs and coops with plastic sheeting. I also have radiator heaters in my coops but have electricity so that doesn't help you much. Keep lots of straw on the floor. I didn't worry about ventilation this week as fighting the cold was more important. I have tiny bantys and have a hen who hatched 12 babies the day before the storm hit. All survived but one. Good luck!

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

Wow! You are courageous to take on something like that!
This time a year ago I took on a second allotment. Unknown to me the council had strimmed the weeds and sprayed them with weedkiller so that it would look good to a prospective tenant. From end of December for over two months, every day I was there with my fork, lifting couch grass roots. I aimed to do a strip 5 yards by 1 yard each day and managed it. Second digging I did 2 yards a day.
By contrast, the council, and most of the tenants, pay someone to go over the plots with a rotavator and don't bother to lift any roots so I felt like the gardener from Mars! All my life I've gardened on heavy clay and not known anyone use a rotavator but here it's a light sandy loam and people use machinery, which seems strange.
I was doing that digging in contrast to my last job which had been demanding because I'd to learn a lot all the time as well as putting it all into practice, in emotionally draining situations. I thought that digging couch grass would be really boring but there was something deep that I can't describe about that physical routine, the sky and the fresh air, and I never got bored nor gave up. It was healing and I felt better mentally and physically.

Dirt... Soil... And being able to see something tangible from your efforts is healing.

Also, doing something that requires you to be consistent and not give up teaches the inner you that you can be reliable and counted on when things get difficult.

Especially when we live through the ordinary betrayals of relationships (family, work, romantic) we need to rebuild self-trust.

And gosh it will give you a good reason to be dirt covered at the end of a day, like a kid in a sandbox!

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

We have had terrible cold weather in central USA and so I wrapped both the runs and coops with plastic sheeting. I also have radiator heaters in my coops but have electricity so that doesn't help you much. Keep lots of straw on the floor. I didn't worry about ventilation this week as fighting the cold was more important. I have tiny bantys and have a hen who hatched 12 babies the day before the storm hit. All survived but one. Good luck!

Wow! Newborns and little bantams! You really needed to spring into action to keep everyone alive! Awesome job!

 

[Jenni Hen]

We have had terrible cold weather in central USA and so I wrapped both the runs and coops with plastic sheeting. I also have radiator heaters in my coops but have electricity so that doesn't help you much. Keep lots of straw on the floor. I didn't worry about ventilation this week as fighting the cold was more important. I have tiny bantys and have a hen who hatched 12 babies the day before the storm hit. All survived but one. Good luck!

I've been thinking of all you people who are dealing with sudden terrible cold and wondering how you got on. I can't imagine it. So glad that the plastic sheeting and straw worked well.
How did you fix the plastic sheeting so that it didn't tear in the wind?

 

[Jenni Hen]

Dirt... Soil... And being able to see something tangible from your efforts is healing.

Also, doing something that requires you to be consistent and not give up teaches the inner you that you can be reliable and counted on when things get difficult.

Especially when we live through the ordinary betrayals of relationships (family, work, romantic) we need to rebuild self-trust.

And gosh it will give you a good reason to be dirt covered at the end of a day, like a kid in a sandbox!

I think it must have been something about the reliability of the task- just steady demands, no surprises to deal with, then building the confidence that I was doing ok at dealing with it.
'a reason to be dirt-covered' yes- no dress code issues! but also that the dirt and the soil is so basic to our survival yet so often ignored. I mean, soil can live without us but we can't live without soil.
Sorry if this is slightly off-thread. Managing to meet challenges seems to be a sub-thread of dealing with very cold conditions. I'd be scared in some of the situations people have described.

 

[Jenni Hen]

I keep thinking about 'how cold is too cold' and how being intolerable links with the humidity. At the moment moulds are thriving, rather then being frozen out! The chucks are benefitting from all the squashes that won't keep (with mould spots & surrounding parts removed).
I've been surprised at the amount of condensation on the roof of the run, not a problem previously, but humidity has been over 90% most days. I was thinking that it must be close to dew point and I've found an online calculator that lets you see the dew point. It also calculates wind chill and advises how long before getting frostbite; and calculates heat index and warns of the risk of heat exhaustion.

https://www.calculator.net/dew-poin...y=95&dewpoint=&dewpointunit=celsius&x=39&y=11
https://www.calculator.net/wind-chi...re=10&airtemperatureunit=fahrenheit&x=72&y=25

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I keep thinking about 'how cold is too cold' and how being intolerable links with the humidity. At the moment moulds are thriving, rather then being frozen out! The chucks are benefitting from all the squashes that won't keep (with mould spots & surrounding parts removed).
I've been surprised at the amount of condensation on the roof of the run, not a problem previously, but humidity has been over 90% most days. I was thinking that it must be close to dew point and I've found an online calculator that lets you see the dew point. It also calculates wind chill and advises how long before getting frostbite; and calculates heat index and warns of the risk of heat exhaustion.

https://www.calculator.net/dew-poin...y=95&dewpoint=&dewpointunit=celsius&x=39&y=11
https://www.calculator.net/wind-chi...re=10&airtemperatureunit=fahrenheit&x=72&y=25

Careful not to drive yourself to being over stressed/over thinking/overwhelmed. There are lots of things everyone "should" have done before the cold struck, lots of "should" do advice on what to do now that it has arrived. Overthinking becomes cabin fever in winter.

I think you are describing a run with walls so the humidity accumulates. Keep an eye on them, if they start being too sad looking, open the doors to ventilate the humidity, bring them inside for a chat & a snack while you do if there is too much of a draft. Once it is ventilated, then close the doors and put them back inside. If it isn't too badly cold, you could open a door or window once a day, maybe ?

I automatically ventilate the whole place every time I open the door, and I leave a little heat lamp on in the coop to kill the humidity at night. All those heaters dry everything out, so humidity just disperses. If your area is more humid, you'll want to have a vent high up, just be careful not to create a draft that goes through where they are.


Enjoy them, and give yourself the space to be wrong and keep trying. Be wary of too much information. Google can be crazy-making.