SamLockwood
Songster
- Sep 29, 2022
- 269
- 567
- 156
This just some observations of my experience with my (mostly) new mixed flock and the coldest temperatures I can remember in the 25 or so years living here.
A little background:
The flock I have is mostly new birds: 15 pearl guinea fowl and 14 chickens (8 cream legbars and 6 olive eggers), plus my 3 old birds (which are an ancient speckled sussex, a wellsummer and a production red). The "kids" are 18 weeks old as of this Monday, the old girls are at least six years old (and I suspect the Sussex may be at least 8).
The coops are two raised platform type (the floors are waist-high), one 4'x'8 and another 4'x4', with a covered 12'x8' run between them that includes the screened in areas under the raised coops. The whole thing is about 10' from my house and there's woods all around the back yard no more than 15' away from the coop / run. As an inducement to the guineas to come home at night, I've got some brooder / heater plates in the coops that keep them maybe 15 degrees F above ambient air temperature on cool nights. The waterers also have heaters in them as well.
The younger birds are all well coop-trained, putting themselves to "bed" after a day free-ranging reliably around sunset, the old birds (whom I've dubbed "the Mean Girls") insist in roosting outside on one of the many bars I have in the run. Most of the guineas sleep in the larger coop, while the smaller coop I call "the Legbar Hotel" because all but one of them sleep there, plus 1-4 Olive Eggers and 1-2 guineas when the mood suits them.
Preparations:
The first night was supposed to be the big plunge: temperatures going from the 40's rapidly down to the teens in a few hours with 20mph winds gusting to 40mph. Wind chill and drafts were my big concerns so on the West and North sides of the coops I stuffed some plastic into the gaps on the coop door hinges to cut the wind. I also took some plastic (large clear garbage bags actually) and added some wind breaks across from the high roost the Mean Girls sleep on as well as where the feeders & waters were located.
The Cold Snap Begins.
I made sure all the heaters were plugged in. That afternoon, I gave the flock their daily treat of 6-way scratch feed (I also use this time to do a head-count about an hour before "bed time."). I supplemented this with a couple tablespoons of melted lard, figuring the extra calories would help them generate more body heat.
That evening (Thursday), one of the olive eggers and four of the guineas decided to roost outside for the night. One of the guineas even tried to repeatedly roost with the Mean Girls and was rebuffed. Great.
Around midnight it rained pretty heavily and then the winds started up. I woke up at 4am for unrelated reasons and decided to suit up and check out the outside birds. The outside temp was 27 degrees and falling, and one of the guineas opted for the coop sometime in the night, but everyone was OK (even the production red that's mid-molt). I checked up on them again around 7:30 when the started waking up. The Mean Girls and the guineas were either roosting or milling about in the run, while most of the young chickens opted to stay in except for a few that sprinted from the Guinea Roost to the Legbar Hotel.
I let them out as usual around 9:30, although they all exited for their usual daily exercise they quickly went to a variety of locations to avoid the wind and/or stay in the sun.
About midday I checked on the waterers, and found out that while the heaters kept the water in the tanks from freezing the watering cups froze up (I can't get the guineas to figure out nipple-style waterers). I repeatedly tried pulling the "hockey pucks" out of the cups and using warm water in the cups to get them flowing again, but to no avail.
I did two lard-enhanced scratch feedings on Friday, as we were expecting the mercury to drop to 5 degrees that evening (the coldest part of the "snap") and I wanted those little furnaces stoked as much as possible.
It never got above 18 degrees during the day with wind chills at 0. The Guineas reacted better than expected. I figured between being a more tropical bird and the naked heads would mean they would absolutely hate the cold, but they actually tried to venture out and forage when there were lulls in the wind more than the chickens. The guineas would just pause every once in a while, find a sunny spot, plop down to cover their feet and tuck their head behind their wing for 5 to 10 minutes, then go back to business as usual again. The Mean Girls jut hung out under the deck of the house most of the day, only emerging for feedings. The younger chickens spent most of their time staying out of the wind and puffing up their feathers.
Come evening, only the Mean Girls opted to roost outside for the night. The difference was all three of them tucked their heads behind a wing, giving a macabre image of three headless chicken torsos balanced on the roosts.
The mercury dropped to 5 degrees that night, with wind chills of -7.
On the second day (Christmas Eve) I decided to abandon trying to get the automatic waterers to work and got some pie tins for their water. I'd fill them up about halfway (enough to drink but not accidentally dip wattles into) and every couple hours I'd knock any ice out and re-fill them. I did two scratch feedings on Saturday, minus the lard. They were more active than the day before, and when the wind died down in the afternoon you would have thought it was a normal spring day. The only difference was many of the chickens were walking around slightly "puffed up" which made them look like feathery little volleyballs with heads and feet. Peak temperature was 23.
Sunday was pretty much a re-peat of Saturday with a high of 34 and the guineas getting back to their routine of climbing to the elevated deck 3 to 5 at a time, calling attention to themselves, and then launching themselves into the air and across the yard. The chickens were being chickens.
By Monday, the temps were above freezing long enough the waterers stayed thawed out, so that task was off my list. The birds were completely back to normal.
Overall, I'm impressed with how well they adapted. If we get more days where it's constantly below freezing I'm going to have to figure out a better solution for the waterers, because I won't always be around to re-fill pans every few hours after the holidays.
A little background:
The flock I have is mostly new birds: 15 pearl guinea fowl and 14 chickens (8 cream legbars and 6 olive eggers), plus my 3 old birds (which are an ancient speckled sussex, a wellsummer and a production red). The "kids" are 18 weeks old as of this Monday, the old girls are at least six years old (and I suspect the Sussex may be at least 8).
The coops are two raised platform type (the floors are waist-high), one 4'x'8 and another 4'x4', with a covered 12'x8' run between them that includes the screened in areas under the raised coops. The whole thing is about 10' from my house and there's woods all around the back yard no more than 15' away from the coop / run. As an inducement to the guineas to come home at night, I've got some brooder / heater plates in the coops that keep them maybe 15 degrees F above ambient air temperature on cool nights. The waterers also have heaters in them as well.
The younger birds are all well coop-trained, putting themselves to "bed" after a day free-ranging reliably around sunset, the old birds (whom I've dubbed "the Mean Girls") insist in roosting outside on one of the many bars I have in the run. Most of the guineas sleep in the larger coop, while the smaller coop I call "the Legbar Hotel" because all but one of them sleep there, plus 1-4 Olive Eggers and 1-2 guineas when the mood suits them.
Preparations:
The first night was supposed to be the big plunge: temperatures going from the 40's rapidly down to the teens in a few hours with 20mph winds gusting to 40mph. Wind chill and drafts were my big concerns so on the West and North sides of the coops I stuffed some plastic into the gaps on the coop door hinges to cut the wind. I also took some plastic (large clear garbage bags actually) and added some wind breaks across from the high roost the Mean Girls sleep on as well as where the feeders & waters were located.
The Cold Snap Begins.
I made sure all the heaters were plugged in. That afternoon, I gave the flock their daily treat of 6-way scratch feed (I also use this time to do a head-count about an hour before "bed time."). I supplemented this with a couple tablespoons of melted lard, figuring the extra calories would help them generate more body heat.
That evening (Thursday), one of the olive eggers and four of the guineas decided to roost outside for the night. One of the guineas even tried to repeatedly roost with the Mean Girls and was rebuffed. Great.
Around midnight it rained pretty heavily and then the winds started up. I woke up at 4am for unrelated reasons and decided to suit up and check out the outside birds. The outside temp was 27 degrees and falling, and one of the guineas opted for the coop sometime in the night, but everyone was OK (even the production red that's mid-molt). I checked up on them again around 7:30 when the started waking up. The Mean Girls and the guineas were either roosting or milling about in the run, while most of the young chickens opted to stay in except for a few that sprinted from the Guinea Roost to the Legbar Hotel.
I let them out as usual around 9:30, although they all exited for their usual daily exercise they quickly went to a variety of locations to avoid the wind and/or stay in the sun.
About midday I checked on the waterers, and found out that while the heaters kept the water in the tanks from freezing the watering cups froze up (I can't get the guineas to figure out nipple-style waterers). I repeatedly tried pulling the "hockey pucks" out of the cups and using warm water in the cups to get them flowing again, but to no avail.
I did two lard-enhanced scratch feedings on Friday, as we were expecting the mercury to drop to 5 degrees that evening (the coldest part of the "snap") and I wanted those little furnaces stoked as much as possible.
It never got above 18 degrees during the day with wind chills at 0. The Guineas reacted better than expected. I figured between being a more tropical bird and the naked heads would mean they would absolutely hate the cold, but they actually tried to venture out and forage when there were lulls in the wind more than the chickens. The guineas would just pause every once in a while, find a sunny spot, plop down to cover their feet and tuck their head behind their wing for 5 to 10 minutes, then go back to business as usual again. The Mean Girls jut hung out under the deck of the house most of the day, only emerging for feedings. The younger chickens spent most of their time staying out of the wind and puffing up their feathers.
Come evening, only the Mean Girls opted to roost outside for the night. The difference was all three of them tucked their heads behind a wing, giving a macabre image of three headless chicken torsos balanced on the roosts.
The mercury dropped to 5 degrees that night, with wind chills of -7.
On the second day (Christmas Eve) I decided to abandon trying to get the automatic waterers to work and got some pie tins for their water. I'd fill them up about halfway (enough to drink but not accidentally dip wattles into) and every couple hours I'd knock any ice out and re-fill them. I did two scratch feedings on Saturday, minus the lard. They were more active than the day before, and when the wind died down in the afternoon you would have thought it was a normal spring day. The only difference was many of the chickens were walking around slightly "puffed up" which made them look like feathery little volleyballs with heads and feet. Peak temperature was 23.
Sunday was pretty much a re-peat of Saturday with a high of 34 and the guineas getting back to their routine of climbing to the elevated deck 3 to 5 at a time, calling attention to themselves, and then launching themselves into the air and across the yard. The chickens were being chickens.
By Monday, the temps were above freezing long enough the waterers stayed thawed out, so that task was off my list. The birds were completely back to normal.
Overall, I'm impressed with how well they adapted. If we get more days where it's constantly below freezing I'm going to have to figure out a better solution for the waterers, because I won't always be around to re-fill pans every few hours after the holidays.
