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

[theoldchick]

My old hens survived minus 7 quite well despite their age and various age related conditions. However, we had those cold temps for a day or so. The best thing you can do is make sure your chickens are healthy in the first place. Folks here argue what to feed during cold snaps, but the homemade suet (Think wild bird suet) works great. I understand the desire to bring them inside, but moving them back and forth would do more harm as that would make acclimation difficult. Watch your three girls closely-they may puff up like footballs but should be active and respond to you when you bring food. If your three girls appear to become hypothermic and you do bring them inside, make sure you have adequate facilities to house them comfortable even it is just for the night.

 

[slave2hens]

My neighbours are wondering why my drive and path are are still covered in snow but I'd cleared a few square meters of grass with a shovel and a brush in the back garden.

The hens appreciated it though, they got some time out of their run today and seemed to enjoy it. Until one decided it was time for their tea (corn/mealworm) made that "come on" noise and they all went back in the run and waited for me.

Obviously I did as I was told..!

 

[slave2hens]

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!

I'd love to try an automatic pophole but No 2 hen (Tilly) goes into the house when she wants not when it's dark or by any clock. She also comes back out again for some munchies and a drink later, any time, I've got a chicken cam (infra red cctv) in the run and it can be any time from an hour after bed time to midnight. (Could be later but I try not to spend my life watching them..)

@Perris will get some glycerol and try it, thank you for the suggestion.