-26 This Morning - All Is Well

[Trishkabob]

hi featherz/neighbor, and everyone,
I have been monitoring posts about cold tonight...as Fred said, it is harder on me than on them (and thanks for reminding me that people had chickens in extreme cold before heat) but I have checked on them many times all day and found, for the first time in 2 months, an egg! Right at the coop door, oddly. But it seemed to be a good sign. Still, with the temps here at minus 17 and dropping I need to get vaseline or bag balm on them tomorrow for sure. Do you prefer bag balm over vaseline? and what is betadine? Should it just go on combs or anything red??
and featherz, did you hear we are likely to get another foot this week? enough already!
p.s. while I'm at it, what is AFAIK?

 

[featherz]

-25 this morning and all appears well. I can't check for frostbite since it's too dark and I know some of my girls already have a bit, but everyone seems alive and kicking. My bantams are even skittering around in the unheated coop, not piled up.

Another foot? Geeze. I really wish I hadn't taken a full time job. Was tempted to stay home today, but alas, not gonna happen. I'll wait and see if I get snowed in later.

 

[blueseal]

-13 down to -8 right now . i treated the combs and waddles lastnight.

 

[annie3001]

brrr brrr brrr.
its only -1 outside this morning. i can't imagine any colder. i went out to check on the chickens before going off to work this morning. refilling the waters. and i touched a few of the girls legs. they were warm. thankgoodness.

i still have my chicken in the house. she will be moving back out with the others sometime today tho. shes going insane in the house. clucking and my dog is driving her nuts. (keeps bothering her). anyways glad your chickens are fairing well in this awful cold snap everybody is having.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
Folks have kept, bred, and developed the breeds we love today, in as cold, or colder weather, since the 17th century in North America.

There was no electricity until very recently. We would not have the Plymouth Rock (New England), Wyandotte (upstate New York), the Buckeye (Ohio) or the New Hampshire if they couldn't have been bred and raised in very cold climates, without heat.

None of these famous strains, types or breeds where developed in Florida and only recently dragged off to the north. Just saying.

 

[thegoldengirls]

-18 here right now, but it may have been colder before I looked.
Will go out and see if I have "chicken pops" as soon as day breaks.
I did turn on the red lamps in the coop and the goat/rabbit barn. They don't heat the barns, but they help take some of the nip out of the air.
Only going to get into single digits today, so I plan on keeping everyone inside with lights. (They wouldn't go out if I opened them anyway.)
I know they are all hardy, but the lamp helps keep the water from freezing as quickly.

I have always been an upstate New Yorker, and appreciate the colder weather.. but this is a little too extreme.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

-8 this morning. Not sure what the windchill is. I will go out later with some warm oatmeal for the girls. They still insist on going outside even in this cold weather. They were out all day yesterday in the single digit weather. I am sure they will demand the pop door open again today. Love my plymouth rocks and wyandottes! Cookie tin water heater has been great as well. No frozen water. I guess I am the only one whining about having to go out! The things we do for our chickens!!!

 

[toto65]

It was -37 here this morning, all the chickens and turkeys were up and running around when I went out early to check on them. Water was frozen a little around the edges and the windows were covered with frost but everybody seemed OK. It actually seemed warm in the coop compared to outdoors. It is time to go check on them again and take them some warm water. It is still about -5 at 3pm.

 

[blueskylen]

i was pretty warm sitting here beside my electric heater - untill i read this post!! now i am freeezing.

i do keep a heat light in the coop and a heated water bowl , and in this single digit or below weather ,try to give them some warm canned veggies ( cheap offbrand in the grocery store ) with their food and scratch. the biggest problem i am seeing is that some poo freezes to their feet, making them uncomfortable, but no frostbite yet.

hoping it warms up soon!

 

[Ironmaiden]

Hey Folks. 15 degrees here this morning in Kansas. We've had temps hovering around 5 degrees for a few days. It's the winds that come sweeping across our plains that really put the bite in! My flock is in a big barn, out of the wind luckily. I have two heat lamps that I turn on at night. The residual heat from those helps warm the coop a bit. My big RIR roo has frostbite on his comb. It's black towards the end. I'll see what everyone has to say about that. It's supposed to be warmer, into the 30's after today, so we have some reprieve.
One thing I do know....they are going stir crazy as much as the rest of us.

We are ALL tired of winter! Makes the coming of spring seem even more fantastic..