2018 Newbie Chat!

[No More Empty Nest]

Roo laid her first egg this morning I'm so proud of her - she waited for Lilah to go lay her egg then got in the nest area next to the one Lilah was in, Roo seemed a little anxious at first but then Lilah came out to Roo a couple of times and got close to Roo, doing what looked like a soothing action, it certainly calmed Roo and then Lilah went back in to her favourite nest area and laid her egg, she had finished a while before Roo but Roo remained calm the whole time. I'm so proud of all my girls but seeing what Lilah did in helping Roo melted my heart
Roo's egg is tiny compared to my other girls eggs, made me giggle that my smallest chicken lays the largest egg and my biggest chicken lays the smallest egg
Roo's first egg , at 24 weeks and 2 days old
View attachment 1656780
All four of my chicken's eggs, from left to right - Jellybean's, Roo's, Lilah's and Pedro's
View attachment 1656781
Pedro has laid a couple of massive eggs now, both have been double yolkers - here's the pic I posted a while back of her first big egg -View attachment 1656783
Here it is cooked -
View attachment 1656784
Her eggs are always more yolk than white, very tasty too

Congrats to Roo!!! I'm still waiting at 23 wks 1 day, lol. Soon!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Congrats to Roo!!! I'm still waiting at 23 wks 1 day, lol. Soon!

Awwwww surely yours will be next - Roo is 24 weeks and 2 days, plus you are in a much colder climate than we are so I'm thinking that might be a factor. Obviously breed types is a factor, Pedro and Jellybean are from the same flock and both started laying on the same day and at the exact same time too! I bet as soon as one of yours starts laying the rest will start laying too. I am very excited to see the day when you post to tell us you have your first egg or eggs - let's hope it's soon

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Its snowing at present and is laying, so when I let my birds out for the day in approx 4hrs time, they will be meeting snow for the very first time of their lives. My daughter and I have decided that if we hit -4 Celsius or below we will bring the birds in, our home is small, it is a two bedroom bungalow so will be tight living together birds and all but we don't have any heating for outside nor any water heating systems either, the birds fight if penned together and partitioning the run is ok for short burst i.e. a few hours every once in a while but is not a condition I would keep them in for more than that, soooo, we have decided, if we end up having to bring them in, ducks will have living room, hall and bathroom, all of which is laminate flooring so much easier to disinfect and mop up duck splats and water. Chickens will have our kitchen diner and my bedroom, (my bedroom leads off from the kitchen diner) both are carpeted so I will cover as much of the area with tarpaulin as poss, and keep mess to a minimum, we always have our carpets deep clean every spring so if there are any "accidents" we aren't too bothered. My daughters and grandsons bedroom will be out of bounds to all animals and we will move all his toys to the one room until birds can go back out. It isn't ideal, will be tight and not very nice for the birds either but will protect them as our temps are plummeting rapidly (but hoping it wont come to this as birds don't really like being indoors, both flocks pop in on occasions but never stay in for very long). My daughter and I have decided we are going to go ahead with the extension and renovations on the run we originally planned, we figured we are already in trouble for having them and the run/coop/duck house, if they force me to give up my birds, it will happen regardless of whether we renovate or not so we may as well go ahead and keep our birds in the comfort they deserve. If I get to keep my birds or still have them by next winter (apparently cases like mine can take years) at least I will be better equipped to handle the winter as going through this one has taught me a lot.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Here we go, it's currently -14 F outside, going down to -20 (-29 C). Tomorrow's high will be -10. then down to -22 Wednesday night. Don't even ask about wind chill, lol. What's crazy is that it will be up to 44 by Sunday...above zero.

They look pretty good on the camera. The heat panel is right next to the roost. I gave them some warm scrambled egg before bed. Well, it was warm when I left the house to walk it out to the coop...not so sure how warm it was when I got there.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Here we go, it's currently -14 F outside, going down to -20 (-29 C). Tomorrow's high will be -10. then down to -22 Wednesday night. Don't even ask about wind chill, lol. What's crazy is that it will be up to 44 by Sunday...above zero.

They look pretty good on the camera. The heat panel is right next to the roost. I gave them some warm scrambled egg before bed. Well, it was warm when I left the house to walk it out to the coop...not so sure how warm it was when I got there.

And here I am fretting about -4°c (28°f) lol - ours is a walk in the park compared to yours lol.
Hope all goes well for you and your birds hun. Good job you got the heat panel, that will help a great deal.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

It's -24 with -48 wind chill this morning. Chickens are up and moving...I am not, lol. Actually I was outside taking my daughter's dogs out this morning already. She, in her infinite wisdom, picked this week for her honeymoon and is enjoying the 60s at Disneyworld! So I'm actually taking care of 2 coops of chickens and 2 dogs. I got her chickens a heat panel too.

 

[llombardo]

It is presently -27 here without the windchill. I put a heater in the bathroom with the ducks to try to keep it at 40.

I wonder if those heat pads can be put in with ducks in a duck house?(thinking about next year)

The dogs back legs went in the air and they couldn't move at about 3 minutes. I had to run out there and get my older golden moving. Nothing like a blast of that air hitting you...

I'm super worried about the rabbits. I keep praying for them. I haven't saw them, so I'm hoping they are in one of the hiding places I have out there.

 

[emrya]

It is presently -27 here without the windchill. I put a heater in the bathroom with the ducks to try to keep it at 40.

I wonder if those heat pads can be put in with ducks in a duck house?(thinking about next year)

The dogs back legs went in the air and they couldn't move at about 3 minutes. I had to run out there and get my older golden moving. Nothing like a blast of that air hitting you...

I'm super worried about the rabbits. I keep praying for them. I haven't saw them, so I'm hoping they are in one of the hiding places I have out there.

Keep us updated the next few days- I worry about you guys in Illinois and Minnesota! Coldest we have had so far with wind chill is -10, which was really 5, and my guys all seem to have a little bit of frostbite but were fine otherwise.

 

[CannedMonster]

Roo laid her first egg this morning I'm so proud of her - she waited for Lilah to go lay her egg then got in the nest area next to the one Lilah was in, Roo seemed a little anxious at first but then Lilah came out to Roo a couple of times and got close to Roo, doing what looked like a soothing action, it certainly calmed Roo and then Lilah went back in to her favourite nest area and laid her egg, she had finished a while before Roo but Roo remained calm the whole time. I'm so proud of all my girls but seeing what Lilah did in helping Roo melted my heart
Roo's egg is tiny compared to my other girls eggs, made me giggle that my smallest chicken lays the largest egg and my biggest chicken lays the smallest egg
Roo's first egg , at 24 weeks and 2 days old
View attachment 1656780
All four of my chicken's eggs, from left to right - Jellybean's, Roo's, Lilah's and Pedro's
View attachment 1656781
Pedro has laid a couple of massive eggs now, both have been double yolkers - here's the pic I posted a while back of her first big egg -View attachment 1656783
Here it is cooked -
View attachment 1656784
Her eggs are always more yolk than white, very tasty too

Yay Roo!
Her eggs should get bigger during the next few months and then level off in size.
And yes, a lot of large breeds only lay small-medium eggs and small breeds lay large-extra large.

 

[CannedMonster]

Its snowing at present and is laying, so when I let my birds out for the day in approx 4hrs time, they will be meeting snow for the very first time of their lives. My daughter and I have decided that if we hit -4 Celsius or below we will bring the birds in, our home is small, it is a two bedroom bungalow so will be tight living together birds and all but we don't have any heating for outside nor any water heating systems either, the birds fight if penned together and partitioning the run is ok for short burst i.e. a few hours every once in a while but is not a condition I would keep them in for more than that, soooo, we have decided, if we end up having to bring them in, ducks will have living room, hall and bathroom, all of which is laminate flooring so much easier to disinfect and mop up duck splats and water. Chickens will have our kitchen diner and my bedroom, (my bedroom leads off from the kitchen diner) both are carpeted so I will cover as much of the area with tarpaulin as poss, and keep mess to a minimum, we always have our carpets deep clean every spring so if there are any "accidents" we aren't too bothered. My daughters and grandsons bedroom will be out of bounds to all animals and we will move all his toys to the one room until birds can go back out. It isn't ideal, will be tight and not very nice for the birds either but will protect them as our temps are plummeting rapidly (but hoping it wont come to this as birds don't really like being indoors, both flocks pop in on occasions but never stay in for very long). My daughter and I have decided we are going to go ahead with the extension and renovations on the run we originally planned, we figured we are already in trouble for having them and the run/coop/duck house, if they force me to give up my birds, it will happen regardless of whether we renovate or not so we may as well go ahead and keep our birds in the comfort they deserve. If I get to keep my birds or still have them by next winter (apparently cases like mine can take years) at least I will be better equipped to handle the winter as going through this one has taught me a lot.

That's only 24 degrees F...if you bring them in you may force them to molt.
Chickens are designed to be able to easily withstand those temps.
There are many BYC keepers whose birds roost in trees and they're fine.
We have the same temps here in Idaho and the people down the street have probably 25 peacocks and they all roost in these huge trees and they're fine.
They don't have skin like people, they have a thick feather jacket on.
What is happening in the mid-west of the US right now is unusual and very dangerous with windchill temps approaching -70 F!!
If that were me I would be bringing my birds in the garage or something.