It's 13 degrees outside...And I am worried

[LizzzyJo]

I do not have electricity for my coop or run...

I have put out straw and hay in the run...

I have fine pine shavings in their coop...

I go out each day and toss each to keep it fluffed and not matted...

But tonight, it has dropped to 13 degrees...I have brought out warm to hot oatmeal each dusk for them to have as energy overnight...

Each day, I bring them some sort of greens to eat as well as Grubblies...

But this is the worst frigid cold...I look every day to see if there is frostbite...none yet so far...but some of my girls are lifting their legs to tuck under their bodies...who could blame them!

I am stressed because the temps are just brutal and I do have a thermal dog dish to keep their water from freezing which I change EVERY day (I have an extension cord running 50 feet to the run to power the bowl) and have completely wrapped the run as best as I could but it is not solid and the winter winds and snow can still get in...but MY GOSH it is colder than a Husky would like it!

I have 2 of each...Ameraucanas, Barred Rocks, New Jerseys Reds, Lavender, and Buffs...each I chose because all are cold & hot tolerant but jeesh....how can I make them through double to single-digit cold...I have already had to do miracles with triple digits this past summer!

What am I do to do...I am afraid of everything...I have tried to think of everything I could and I will go out tomorrow and I am afraid to find one of my girls frozen with frostbite or dead...

Is there anything I can do?

By the way, the temp just dropped to 12 degrees...HELP!

No worries! Mine of similar breeds withstood last year’s polar vortex of -20 real temp. Their feet were hot the whole time - I checked

They are fine. Keep a good balance of ventilation without drafts in the coop. No heating water in the henhouse - only outside. The vapor will get them wet. Water is the enemy, not cold.

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

you can put vaseline on their combs and wattles it will help frostbite

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

As someone who lives in Maine, I've dealt with some frigid temps. Like below freezing. And my girls have always made it through without electricity. You see, a man once told me that if you constantly use heat lamps/warming tools on your birds, and say the power went out and it was very cold out, and you had no access to electricity for them, then it is most likely a death sentence for your birds. And since I learned that, I don't use heat lamps for my adult birds anymore.
As long as they have plenty of shavings, Vaseline on their combs (I use BagBalm, which used to be used for cows udders, but I use it for my girls combs and wattles) they should be fine. And water and food of course, and warm oat meal always helps.

 

[aart]

you can put vaseline on their combs and wattles it will help frostbite

No, it will not.
Just read a posts here(wish I had saved it) and have read others, where they used vaseline and still got frostbite.

 

[Shepherdess]

It's good to see that there are lots of other people worried about their chickens and the cold. My chickens are, yes, spoiled and so I do use an oil-filled, radiator heater hung from the rafters of each coop. They like them and often roost on boards hung a the heaters. Since our runs are too big to wrap, I get inexpensive plastic greenhouses like in the runs that they can hang out in during the day. I use strawbales and straw inside and put their food and water in there as well. It works well and I have a nice place to feed them in and sit and talk to them-ha. Yeah, spoiled, but that's okay.

 

[JessRae]

This is wonderful news for me...I have only had my girls since the end of March and have gone through the most brutal summer and now this brutal winter...I tried to prepare myself before getting my girls by reading everything I could for two years before I pulled the trigger and got them. I am so stressed with the weather and temperatures...they are my girls and the stress I see them under makes me feel helpless. I just want to make sure they can get through this...

I am glad to know I’m not the only one stressing this first cold winter with my girls. I have 3 ducks, 6 pullets and 2 roosters. I read so much material before getting them but nothing has prepared me for this. I go out everyday and open the coop door giving them the option to stay in or go out. It has been brutally cold especially since we live right on the water. I hadn’t seen any issues until today. My big astrolorp rooster is standing on one leg and shivering. I noticed some of my girls fluffed but shivering as well. I do not want to lock them in for the whole day. I have ventilation well above where they roost and still am finding condensation on the walls. We have converted a metal shed into a coop. I have noticed some sneezing so put some vetrx in their water, put Luke warm water in the waterers but I don’t know what else to do. We have electric running to the coop but it isn’t insulated. Everyone has told me not to run any heat but I’ve seen several posts where people have done so just to add a few degrees to the coop...HELP

 

[RaZ]

I am glad to know I’m not the only one stressing this first cold winter with my girls.

It's understandable. I keep urging people not to use heat sources in the coop. Too many pitfalls involved. However, if you do decide to have a heat lamp or heated water fount just make certain that you have the wires and plugs properly secured. Use a chain, not rope, to hang the devices. A triple redundant hanger system greatly reduces the chance of a failure. Use a high quality ceramic base heat lamp, not the cheap clamp-on kind. You should also have a fire extinguisher handy in case of fire.

Good luck and don't stress about it. Chickens are pretty darn hardy.

PS It is 10 degrees here and the wind chill is well below zero. The wind is out of the north coming across Saginaw Bay / Lake Huron. So you can imagine just what it feels like outside. I have no supplemental heat in the coop and my chickens are doing fine.

 

[JessRae]

It's understandable. I keep urging people not to use heat sources in the coop. Too many pitfalls involved. However, if you do decide to have a heat lamp or heated water fount just make certain that you have the wires and plugs properly secured. Use a chain, not rope, to hang the devices. A triple redundant hanger system greatly reduces the chance of a failure. Use a high quality ceramic base heat lamp, not the cheap clamp-on kind. You should also have a fire extinguisher handy in case of fire.

Good luck and don't stress about it. Chickens are pretty darn hardy.

PS It is 10 degrees here and the wind chill is well below zero. The wind is out of the north coming across Saginaw Bay / Lake Huron. So you can imagine just what it feels like outside. I have no supplemental heat in the coop and my chickens are doing fine.

Thank you. I didn’t want to put the heat lamp back in but the shivering of my birds has me a bit concerned. One pulley was fluffed laying on her feet and still shivering. They’ve done pretty good up until today. I have them high off the ground with the cords strapped up and secure just in case they come loose. I don’t use the clamps, I learned that lesson when they were babies and it fell on them. Luckily I got to it in time. I do have a fire extinguisher so hopefully I’ll never have to use it. They do tend to pick on one of my bantams and they don’t allow her to huddle with them, she was the main reason for the heat source. That is bitter cold temps, i sat out with them most of the morning, it is 25 here with a wind chill so landing about 10 degrees. I have ventilation, 5 different vents at the moment and shut one that had wind coming into the coop. I’m thinking of doing some cardboard insulation this weekend since I have seen some condensation on the walls. First winter with the babies is stressful

 

[Manhen]

ou see, a man once told me that if you constantly use heat lamps/warming tools on your birds, and say the power went out and it was very cold out, and you had no access to electricity for them, then it is most likely a death sentence for your birds.

Also their combs and waddles don't become cold tolerant, and frostbite will occur sometime. Especially if they are like my Leghorn Rooster, "Rudy". That comb is awesome. Like having your ears outside your hat all the time.

 

[Zach123]

have 3 ducks

Waterfowl are especially hardy birds. Their wild mallard relatives are more at home in Canada than they are at the equator. Yes, it’s true that wild birds migrate but it actually has a lot more to do with food availability than temperature. Most of the big flocks happily hang out on the wetlands and prairie potholes of the Dakotas, Montana, Canada and Minnesota on frozen ponds in frigid temperatures until the snow becomes too deep for them to forage on the grain fields.

Next time you hold one of your ducks and run your fingers through the feathers and you can feel just how dense they are. In fact, the special circulatory system that is often cited as the reason that chicken’s legs don’t freeze serve as way for ducks to keep from overheating under all that insulation. If you wake up early enough, you can see ducks and geese sleeping soundly with a heavy layer of frost, and even snow on their backs, not because they are frozen to the bone, but because they are so well insulated that their body heat isn’t able to escape and melt melt it off.