-20 and below-frozen egg issues

[PaulaJoAnne]

Ugh! Now I am dealing frostbite.....hubby is rushing home with a small space heater, and in the meantime, I added another light near the floor.
We have a heavy duty extension cord out there for that.
Tuesday, we are going to "raise" the floor up, putting lots of extra hay underneath and on top, and thus making the coop smaller.
I feel bad that they cannot run around.

Oh the joys of keeping chooks!
Oh yeah, and the cat had an accident all the way to the litter box that i just found..............not my day I guess, LOL!

Any ideas on how to prevent hay eating? I am feeding them soaked alfalfa pellets with their barley and fishmeal, plus sprinkling around for them to locate.

 

[jus1jack]

I would LOVE to get to Alaska some day. Good luck with your birds...

 

[Jasper_899]

I live in Alaska too and I never have egg freezing problems, I have one 100w bulb running and a 250w red light, and my coop is small and insulated. I pack my nest boxes with lots of hay and shavings and the coop stays about 40-50F I want to avoid freezing water. Its unavoidable for me though when it gets to 50 below x__X And today I just noticed that my hens with straight combs have frost bite and so does my roo. There was a little bit of blood. But the hens with rose combs are fine.

Good luck keep your chickens warm I know I am dreading the 30 below weather >.< I am so jealous of all the chicken owners who live in warm places they should come here to Alaska for a year. Beauty sure does come with a price

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Mrs. AK here ...
I've only lost a couple of eggs so far this year, though I have to admit that this early deep freeze sucks!
Without the snow to insulate on the roof, it suddenly dipped to 0F overnight and I've been treating frostbit combs ever since.

Our layer coop has been closed up and packed with birds to keep it warm. Their bodyheat keeps the coop just above freezing, and when one hen lays an egg, another is close behind to sit on it so they don't freeze.
You said it's only 3 days... Can they be cooped up for that time?
And

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Everyone did well while we were gone. Egg production dropped way off from being so cooped up, but temps are good again, and I have opened up the coop, and given them a good pile of dirt, scraps and grains outside to play in.
They are making up for the low egg production as well.

We used a small ceramic heater on low while it was super cold. Prevented more frostbite problems.
I also put raw coconut oil on the affected areas, and they have healed up well.

We were talking with a guy up near Delta, and he had a really good idea.
An uncle of his had a neat trick for keeping the coop warm in extreme weather.
He kept several rabbits in the coop along with the hens.
Rabbits have a very high heart rate, and hence a very high body temp.
They raise the temp in the coop enough to prevent frosbite issues.
We will be trying this next year for sure.