28 degrees down here in Texas today

[briteday]

Northern NV...15" of snow on the ground, today's high was 19 and at 9PM it's already down to 3, expecting a low tonight of -6...has been like this for 3-4 days now. Snow mixed with rain is coming Fri, Sat and Sun...oh boy, can't wait

It will be at least next week until we get back to our average temp for this time, 40's daytime, 20's night time.

Over all the girls have been doing fine. The silkies have gone outside in the snow during the day but the egglayers are staying in the 8 x 10 shed. The shed is not heated (nor is the A-frame for 2 silkies so I put a RIR hen in there to keep them warmer). They seem active enough and I have been sprinkling cereal and other treats in the straw to give them something to do during the day. We only got 3 eggs today from 17 hens, but ...oh well. I just keep hauling water out to them and checking to be sure that no one looks sick. They definitely don't look happy and are probably praying for nicer weather and snow melt!

 

[snowydiamonds]

NW Alaska has temps in the range of 30-mid 30's for about a week, its like Spring weather here! The ducks with the spare roo's and the geese both have their coop/barn doors open night and day, enjoying the mild weather. I haven't let the banty or standard chicken flocks outside but by all signs from the spare roo's (a BO/RIRx, a Silkie and a bantyx) everyone would be enjoying it. I am thankful I just put more clean straw down though, with this warm weather or I'd be doing major cleaning and removal of the deep bedding as everything has thawed out. My BO roo decided he'd just lay down in the straw for bed last night instead of roosting for the first time in his life, they'd been having a great time kicking and pecking in the clean straw. (You are all having Alaskan weather, down there!)

 

[txchickie]

Also in Texas and it was 6 degrees this morning here

 

[elmo]

I'm also in the DFW area, and this is my first chicken winter. We have Serama hybrids, so I'm more concerned about them in cold weather than I would be with standachickens or even other kinds of bantams. I've been bringing them into our attached garage on nights that hit freezing or below. The garage runs 10-15 degrees warmer than the coop temperature.

It's been pretty cold in the mornings when I let them out into their run, but they seem lively and doing fine, so I guess they're doing ok.

 

[bigoakhunter]

I feel for the Texas crowd as your coops are probably not insulated.

Currently 12 here in Michigan. Supposed to drop to 7 degrees tonight and the wind is howling about 25 to 30 miles an hour! We got hammered with wet snow yesterday that has frozen on everything.

 

[highcountrychickens]

It warmed up to -28 by 10:15 here in Jackson Hole this morning.

but it's a dry cold... *ahem*

 

[Summer]

Here is Fort Worth, we put a heat lamp in the coop at night. The hens did fine during the day, free to range inside or out. I covered up the screened walls with plastic to keep out the wind. "This cold weather is early for us, even in the north central part of Texas. We may have to insulate this year if this is any sign of things to come.

 

[JimWWhite]

Sounds like a heat wave!!!

 

[fiberart57]

Last week, Tuesday through Saturday were nightmares of cold here in Western Colorado. First on Tuesday we had a historic snowstorm that dumped 14 inches of snow onto a town with no snow moving equipment. Needless to say there were numerous accidents, schools and businesses shut down and everything was higglety-pigglety. Then the storm moved out and it got really cold, -4 degrees, which is considerable here.

I had a terrible time trying to keep the girls warm in a playhouse coop that I was afraid to but a heat lamp in because it's not too big. I found out that my electric waterer doesn't work below 10 degrees and four out of the six now have frostbite despite my best efforts to Vaseline them. They hate the snow and all just stood on their ramp whining. I got some alfalfa to cover the snow and that helped to keep them happy. I feed them extra and warm up their food into a warm mash but I am exhausted just trying to battle the cold and make modifications to the coop to try to stave off the worst cold.

Today, it warms up to 45 degrees and starts to rain. The ground is frozen so the raid doesn't seep in, and did I mention that it's melting the snow from last week as well.

I went outside to find the girls, whom I had let out of their run and they were delighting in an opportunity for some exercise, huddled together underneath one of my basement covers to escape the rain/snow mixture. I just picked them up, put them in the (now) covered run, shut all the doors and let them be. Then I went into the house for some liquid fortification. I'm all about a white Christmas and all, but this is crazy.

Oh well, snow now means more wildflowers in the spring.

Mary