-7c tonight, time to worry? Anyone else in the UK wondering if it's time to panic?

[slave2hens]

Hello (again!) I've got three ladies in a covered run. I've had to change the frozen water three times today. I've shut the small hen house door last night and tonight. It's absolutely freezing outside. Did the poo pick this morning and the dumps were rock solid frozen even though the door was shut.
We have colder weather forecast tomorrow (I know it's nothing by Canada standards...) but when should I seriosly consider putting them in a box and bringing them indoors overnight?

 

[lazy gardener]

Chickens easily do minus 20*C without issue. You would do them more harm by bringing them into your warm home than leaving them in the coop. However, you MUST have adequate ventilation in your coop. Equal to 10% of floor space or 1 s.f./bird. If you close things up tight, your birds will get severe frost bite.

 

[BantyChooks]

LOL, quit worrying. I know it's hard---but -7 is not at all close to dangerous temperatures. I've had chicks in colder.

Me, I'm celebrating because there are temperatures UP to -7 in my forecast. The chickens are celebrating too. So, take a deep breath, put on some gloves, and don't panic.

 

[happyhens1972]

Hello (again!) I've got three ladies in a covered run. I've had to change the frozen water three times today. I've shut the small hen house door last night and tonight. It's absolutely freezing outside. Did the poo pick this morning and the dumps were rock solid frozen even though the door was shut.
We have colder weather forecast tomorrow (I know it's nothing by Canada standards...) but when should I seriosly consider putting them in a box and bringing them indoors overnight?

I understand your concern. I live near Worcester and we have -7 predicted tonight too. I have six girls and have just made sure there is loads of straw in the hen house for warmth and that they are shut in tight. I am keeping their waterers on rotation....always a defrosted one waiting in the kitchen to replace the frozen one...like you say, three or four times a day at the mo.

I also have a 6ft x 4ft wendy house in the run as a daytime shelter for them, also with lots of straw, as they will not shelter in their hen house during the day. Have yours got alternative shelter to their night time house? If not, it might be an idea to provide something, even if it is a cardboard box on its side, replaced as needed.

Be careful about bringing them indoors at all as the difference between your house temperature and theirs will do them more harm than good as their bodies will be putting too much energy into making the adjustment. If you are really worried, pop them in a garage or outbuilding, which will be a degree or two higher than outside....but really, as long as it is dry and well ventilated inside their hen house and they have plenty of bedding, should they choose to use it, they should be fine xx

 

[happyhens1972]

Just a P.S......

The only time I have EVER had any issues at all with cold is when I separated a cockerel off from the flock, along with one girl for company, as he had injured a spur. It got down to -10 and the little 'hospital coop' was not as well ventilated as it should be so he got frostbite in the tips of his comb...lost the tips but made a full recovery, however, bodily, he was toasty warm in the mornings!

 

[slave2hens]

Thank you all for the replies, my mind is (almost) at rest, the top of the house has a gap for ventilation, changing the water in the run isn't a problem it was the frozen poop on the floor of the house this morning that made me worry a bit (lot!)
They were fine in the run today, although it was very cold, I think they were more annoyed that their gardening project was put on hold because everything out side of te run was covered in snow!

 

[slave2hens]

I understand your concern. I live near Worcester and we have -7 predicted tonight too. I have six girls and have just made sure there is loads of straw in the hen house for warmth and that they are shut in tight. I am keeping their waterers on rotation....always a defrosted one waiting in the kitchen to replace the frozen one...like you say, three or four times a day at the mo.

I also have a 6ft x 4ft wendy house in the run as a daytime shelter for them, also with lots of straw, as they will not shelter in their hen house during the day. Have yours got alternative shelter to their night time house? If not, it might be an idea to provide something, even if it is a cardboard box on its side, replaced as needed.

Be careful about bringing them indoors at all as the difference between your house temperature and theirs will do them more harm than good as their bodies will be putting too much energy into making the adjustment. If you are really worried, pop them in a garage or outbuilding, which will be a degree or two higher than outside....but really, as long as it is dry and well ventilated inside their hen house and they have plenty of bedding, should they choose to use it, they should be fine xx

Hi @happyhens1972 Just wondered how your six ladies got on, I'm just over the Welsh border from Chester and I think you had worse weather than us. We've still got snow on the ground which is making my three grumpy as they won't go out of the run, it's a bit warmer today (finally) so I can stop closing the hen house door at night. (They were all complaining this morning as 7am is too late to open it up again apparently and my three don't offically recognise weekends!)

I think it's this new temperature "feels like" we're being told by the news that isn't helping. If it was above -5 I wouldn't close the door, or worry but now we're being told it's -4 "and feels like -10" so I started second guessing myself.

Hope your crowd are ok and it's finally warming up for them.

 

[Perris]

I discovered today that putting a drop of glycerine/glycerol (you might have some left over from making the Christmas cake icing, which is the only time I ever use it) in the water stops it freezing - and it seems to work.

 

[happyhens1972]

Hi @happyhens1972 Just wondered how your six ladies got on, I'm just over the Welsh border from Chester and I think you had worse weather than us. We've still got snow on the ground which is making my three grumpy as they won't go out of the run, it's a bit warmer today (finally) so I can stop closing the hen house door at night. (They were all complaining this morning as 7am is too late to open it up again apparently and my three don't offically recognise weekends!)

I think it's this new temperature "feels like" we're being told by the news that isn't helping. If it was above -5 I wouldn't close the door, or worry but now we're being told it's -4 "and feels like -10" so I started second guessing myself.

Hope your crowd are ok and it's finally warming up for them.

Hi there! The ladies are doing OK thank you. We ended up with about 6 to 8 inches total, so a fair covering, that's for sure. I had to dig paths for the girls so that they would go from their hen house, to the food, water and wendy house shelter as they just hovered at the hen house door, looking out at the blanket and clucking to each other, 'You go first, I'm not going' 'No, you're biggest, you go first' (Disclaimer: this may have just been in my imagination! )

I have an automatic pophole opener so I at least didn't need to worry about ACTUALLY shutting them up at night but I still had to trudge out to check that it was working properly in this bitterly cold wind we've had....but that can be done from a bit of a distance. Thankfully, it didn't let me down.

I agree with the 'feels like' thing....we are at the top of a hill, surrounded by open farm land so we were getting 40 mph winds lashing across and I'm fairly convinced that was taking the 'feels like' factor down to a good minus 10 to 12, maybe lower. I put so much straw in the hen house and rabbit house, to keep them warm, that there was barely room for THEM!!! Same goes in the goat stable. The goats HATE this snow more than anyone I think, especially the Nubians, with their long, flappy ears. I've had to keep a close eye on them to make sure they didn't get frost bite.

Everyone has been thoroughly enjoying the warm water they've been getting three or four times a day......with added ACV. I have used the glycerol, mentioned by @Perris
above, in the past, and it does work but I don't have any in at the moment...really should address that!

 

[CCUK]

Sorry I'm a bit late. Hope you managed the cold ok. It's warming up now. The snows mostly gone. Just rain forecast. I give mine a warm mash in the afternoon. Seems hens are quite good at generating heat. Just make sure they have good ventilation. I normally leave the coop door open at night as it opens into a covered run. I have been closing it the past week. But it should be OK to stay open now.