Pipd's Peeps!

[TheChickenQueen]

Izzy looks a lot like a Phoenix/Olive Egger mix that I had. She had that same coloring with the dark flecks and everything. I did hatch a couple of her eggs that were from a splash Orpington rooster and I think most of them looked like that too. The others ended up blue. Very confusing little birds since I don't understand how some of them were blue with that combo.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That's funny!

I did have fun, even if my fingers were numb from the cold!

Izzy looks a lot like a Phoenix/Olive Egger mix that I had. She had that same coloring with the dark flecks and everything. I did hatch a couple of her eggs that were from a splash Orpington rooster and I think most of them looked like that too. The others ended up blue. Very confusing little birds since I don't understand how some of them were blue with that combo.

Hmm, very interesting... That would imply she was Blue after all! Unfortunately, Izzy passed away last year and I wasn't able to cross her to anyone in order to confirm whether she was Splash or Blue. Editing to add, she was a Meyer Hatchery BBS Ameraucana. Meyer's is one of the few hatcheries that does have true Ameraucanas, so I assume Izzy was pure for the breed, just not show or breeder quality because of being from a hatchery. (Edited again because the u and i keys are too close together...)

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

We had a low of -11° F (-23.9° C) last night, and it was -7° F (-21.7° C) when I went out to the chickens this morning. No heat and no insulation in any of the coops, and the birds are doing great. Other than a few comb tips n the youngest Dorkings looking a bit whitish, no frostbite in the main coop. In the other pens, Rufus's left wattle looks puffy and a bit blue, and Russell has one comb tip that's darkened, but they look good otherwise. Darwin and Dante also look whitish on some comb tips and Darwin's comb blade is whitish as well. The rest of the boys' combs are looking good! The ducks and Guineas are also doing fine, even Crashie, who's experiencing her first winter outside! I always get anxious when we're expected to get such cold temps, but every time it happens, I'm impressed with how well these birds handle it.

So, a few pictures I grabbed of the girls keeping themselves busy on this cold day. They're just quick shots with my cell phone, so not the greatest quality.

I went ahead and gave them the rest of the bag of leaves I had gathered last fall, so they were keeping busy scratching through those. There were more of them here a second ago, but I guess I walked too close and some of the girls are leery of my coveralls again. You know, since they haven't seen them since last winter. )

I also added another bale of shavings to the main portion of the coop so that they had a bit cushier of a place to stand. Here's Abie Baby Munchkin scratching in the new shavings. Bry was scratching with her, but again, scary coveralls.

Most of the flock is hanging out in the addition these days, enjoying the sun coming through the windows. I left all these windows open except the one to the left here because snow was blowing in.

This corner seems to be the favorite for huddling.

The main section of the coop. Thank goodness I scooped the dropping trays yesterday--I don't want to think about trying to chip through all the poopsicles today!

Last picture is a common one on cold mornings like these, although not the same bird as usual... Mavis says, "Somebody better turn up the thermostat!!"

Editing to add, oh, I forgot to ask--anyone stay up for the lunar eclipse last night? I grabbed a picture of it about 10-15 minutes into full eclipse, but it isn't great. My camera doesn't zoom in far enough for these types of pictures. Well, and I was having a hard time holding it steady in the cold, considering I ran out there in my jacket and boots over pajamas...

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Stay warm! Anyways hope you had a great holiday season, break, and start of classes Pipd. I haven't been on here in a while (busy during the break and I got a new laptop and have had to dig all my passwords off the old one so it's been taking some time). I didn't get to see the moon I was too busy packing for school and it was miserable outside. It looked pretty in your picture though. Hope this weather breaks soon (my nose keeps bleeding on the way to class it's so cold ). Hope your girls are holding up. I swear when it's this cold out they think it's our fault or something

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks, Shadow Rabbit! I actually graduated in December, so no start of classes this year. Just a lot of waiting for my degree to show up and preparation for what's to come next. Best of luck to you this semester, though!!

Looks like the weather breaks for us tomorrow, only to plummet again to the teens and single digits the rest of the week. I hope you have better luck where you live.


My girls definitely blame me for the weather. Just look at pictures like the one with Mavis. You can see it in their eyes. I'm sorry, girls, I just don't know where the controller went for the great outdoors!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Thanks, Shadow Rabbit! I actually graduated in December, so no start of classes this year. Just a lot of waiting for my degree to show up and preparation for what's to come next. Best of luck to you this semester, though!! View attachment 1650385 Looks like the weather breaks for us tomorrow, only to plummet again to the teens and single digits the rest of the week. I hope you have better luck where you live.


My girls definitely blame me for the weather. Just look at pictures like the one with Mavis. You can see it in their eyes. I'm sorry, girls, I just don't know where the controller went for the great outdoors!

Ah shoot I didn't realize! Congrats! Good luck job hunting or whatever else you have planned in the future. I'm hoping for a better semester. My classes don't seem too bad. That weather seems bad. It's supposed to be back in the 40s and 30s this week thankfully. The sidewalks are iced over on campus and it's so dangerous! Haha Mavis seemed angry. My girls just stare at me and give me the sad eyes wondering why I'm so mean and why I would do this to them. Especially with snow. Mine won't touch it lol.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Actually, I went back and looked at my posts from around that time and I guess I never mentioned it! With everything going on around that time, I must have just let it slip my mind to post about it.

Aww, the sad eyes... Mavis is usually the sad eyes kind--must've been really cold to get her that grumpy!

Yeah, this weather sucks. We're above freezing now and I'm seeing some real frostbite on a few birds. Poor Myrna looks like she's going to lose a good portion of the back of her comb. Look at this sweet face, poor baby!

I didn't get any more pictures of them, but Kita and a few of the Marans are showing some frostbite on their combs, Rufus now has a purple blotch on the back of his comb as well as his one wattle that was already frostbitten, and Darwin and Dante have some purplish tips. That's all I saw, anyway. Hopefully that's it. I really dislike this kind of weather!!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

I agree the weather sucks. I have to start doing short checks late at night because the ewes at school are lambing and this weather is going to make it miserable. Frostbite sucks. Luckily most of my birds have small combs or none at all but I feel bad for everyone else's birds

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, after an approximately 36-hour-long stint at -14° F and below, air temp, followed by a day just barely seeing a positive number on the thermometer, we're finally in the positive teens again and it feels so nice out! The girls did okay in those cold temps, but it was rough. That was the coldest day we've had here since owning chickens, at least to my memory. To prepare, I baffled a few spots in the coop to make absolute sure that no drafts were hitting my bird, and made sure the bantams were tucked nicely between the bigger, fluffier hens each night. I also brought all the roosters into the coop for the extra body heat and so that they were better sheltered as well. During the day, the boys went back to their pens, and I went out every couple hours or so to break open their waterers for a drink and grab eggs before they split in the cold. I was definitely scared, but the girls did survive it, for the most part.

I say 'for the most part' because by the end of the first day, I went with my gut and brought Kate and Scooter inside. Kate has been loosing weight over the past few months with no apparent reason for it, and my suspicion is that, at 8 years old, she's simply approaching the natural end of her life. Anyway, she was not handling the cold well, and with her weight loss, I didn't think she would survive another night. Scooter had been iffy off and on all day, and I didn't want Katie to be alone, so I brought her in as well.

Day 2 is where it really got ugly. Myrna's frostbite, which had already occurred from the thaw and refreeze last week, had caused her comb to swell so bad that it was standing straight upright, so I brought her in and put her with Kate and Scoot. On top of that, both Roscoe and Dante had wattles so swollen I wasn't sure they would be able to eat and drink past them, if they were even willing to. They're both part of rooster flocks and I didn't want to split them up, so I brought all of them inside. Roscoe with Rufus and Russell, and Dante with Darwin and Murphy. They're in small pens, but at least they're out of the cold and the swelling has gone down. It should be above freezing for a while starting today, so they can go back outside, thank goodness! It gets a bit noisy with six roosters in the house--seven if you count Winston! Even worse is that Crashie was having some issues with not having full access to water to snoot her nostrils out, so she had to be brought in as well, along with Malcolm. Crash makes the roosters seem quiet. Just try to have a conversation with her in the room! I'm definitely not missing her time as a house duck!!

Anyway, to make a long post just a hint shorter, we all survived! The girls have relatively little frostbite from the experience (besides Myrna, obviously, and the rest is just a few comb tips on some of the younger birds). It looks like most of the boys I brought in will have some comb and wattle loss to frostbite, especially the boys whose wattles swelled. Everyone else is looking good despite it all.

Oh, just to finish off the post, here is Myrna, who decided to fly out of the makeshift bathtub pen and perch next to the toilet paper on her first night in, and Scootie, who was looking for a nice place to snuggle I guess.

 

[ronott1]

We go through similar stuff when temps go over 105 here. It too is usually a two or three day period of deadly heat.

Many here lose chickens on the very hot days