A little break from the bitter cold

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Nope, he is not a wing tucker. My understanding is that good ventilation is the key and I am sure that my coop having low humidity does help.

What’s your humidity like? We have great coop ventilation, but that didn’t seem to help during this cold snap. It was a very humid storm, with freezing fog during part of it. Later in the weather pattern, the humidity at night was about 85%. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about humidity and frostbite in chickens. I guess that the thought is that high humidity in the coop during freezing conditions will lead to condensation on the skin of the comb and increase the chance of external ice forming on the surface of the comb? I’ve been a little hazy on that explanation since I would think that if comb blood circulation was too poor to keep the comb tissues above freezing, then a thin layer of ice wouldn’t make much difference to tissue damage...

 

[R2elk]

What’s your humidity like? We have great coop ventilation, but that didn’t seem to help during this cold snap. It was a very humid storm, with freezing fog during part of it. Later in the weather pattern, the humidity at night was about 85%. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about humidity and frostbite in chickens. I guess that the thought is that high humidity in the coop during freezing conditions will lead to condensation on the skin of the comb and increase the chance of external ice forming on the surface of the comb? I’ve been a little hazy on that explanation since I would think that if comb blood circulation was too poor to keep the comb tissues above freezing, then a thin layer of ice wouldn’t make much difference to tissue damage...

My guess that my coop humidity is less than 30% during the winter.

 

[Sydney65]

What’s your humidity like? We have great coop ventilation, but that didn’t seem to help during this cold snap. It was a very humid storm, with freezing fog during part of it. Later in the weather pattern, the humidity at night was about 85%. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about humidity and frostbite in chickens. I guess that the thought is that high humidity in the coop during freezing conditions will lead to condensation on the skin of the comb and increase the chance of external ice forming on the surface of the comb? I’ve been a little hazy on that explanation since I would think that if comb blood circulation was too poor to keep the comb tissues above freezing, then a thin layer of ice wouldn’t make much difference to tissue damage...

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/frostbite

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/frostbite

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/frostbite

Yes, I agree that’s a good site. There’s a good amount of scientific research and description of frostbite, but it’s mostly from a mammalian perspective. A medical discussion of frostbite on birds (but still little data):

https://www.researchgate.net/profil...te-in-Birds-Pathophysiology-and-Treatment.pdf

 

[My2butterflies]

Mine are just awful! Waiting for the shrivels bits to fall off. I’ve read too many posts from people who feel that Vaseline made the frostbite more likely to want to try that. None of it makes any medical sense to me anyway. Frostbite should be a simple matter of whether tissues get cold enough to freeze and /or disrupt blood flow for a perfusion/repurfusion injury with necrosis resulting from damaged tissues. Since the comb tissue, like any body tissue, is filled with water, I don't understand why “locking” moisture in or out, even if possible using waxes or oils, is going to change whether an appendage freezes or not or gets cold enough for blood disruption.

Poor guy:/
I’ll take a picture of mine later when the chickens get let out.

 

[My2butterflies]

Mine are just awful! Waiting for the shrivels bits to fall off. I’ve read too many posts from people who feel that Vaseline made the frostbite more likely to want to try that. None of it makes any medical sense to me anyway. Frostbite should be a simple matter of whether tissues get cold enough to freeze and /or disrupt blood flow for a perfusion/repurfusion injury with necrosis resulting from damaged tissues. Since the comb tissue, like any body tissue, is filled with water, I don't understand why “locking” moisture in or out, even if possible using waxes or oils, is going to change whether an appendage freezes or not or gets cold enough for blood disruption.

This is my boy right now. A couple tips have come off already.

This was right before temps dropped passed -15F

Poor thing still had frostbite, but not nearly as bad as it upended up being now.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

This is my boy right now. A couple tips have come off already. View attachment 2560808View attachment 2560807

This was right before temps dropped passed -15F View attachment 2560809
Poor thing still had frostbite, but not nearly as bad as it upended up being now.

Awww, I love naked necks!!! Still such a handsome guy. At least the points that have dropped off look like healthy tissue is remaining. Do you think he will lose part of his wattles too? One of mine has wattle damage like that. Mine haven’t lost their points yet but they are looking rough and maybe injured deeper into the comb than your roo.I had the flock boys out today with their hens, and their comb issues don’t seem to be affecting their libido any! Clearly the roosters have also decided that it’s spring!

 

[My2butterflies]

Awww, I love naked necks!!! Still such a handsome guy. At least the points that have dropped off look like healthy tissue is remaining. Do you think he will lose part of his wattles too? One of mine has wattle damage like that. Mine haven’t lost their points yet but they are looking rough and maybe injured deeper into the comb than your roo.I had the flock boys out today with their hens, and their comb issues don’t seem to be affecting their libido any! Clearly the roosters have also decided that it’s spring!

Thanks! It does look like it will heal ok once the dead parts come off. No infection as of yet.
I do think the front edges will come off. The side shown is the worst. The other side isn’t as bad. He might look a bit uneven for a while.
Haha, yep! Spring is in the air! This time last month fertility dropped because they were spending more time on their roost bars to keep warm. Now he’s mounting the hens constantly it seems A couple need some saddles it looks like. Time to break out the sewing machine

 

[My2butterflies]

@Mixed flock enthusiast How is your rooster doing? I’ve been meaning to ask.

Most of my boys dead bits have fallen off now. I think his wattle is permanently deformed now though

I also think I found out why or at least partly why they got frostbite. Their roost is on the east wall and when the wind blows from that side snow comes right in! The top where the roof and wall connect has gaps. Small, but still gaps. It works well for ventilation, but obviously a horrible spot to have the roost! The poor things were covered in snow during our last snow storm. Normally when it’s snowing hard like that I don’t go out, so I didn’t see that till then. Poor things
I’ll fix that so next winter hopefully will be better.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

@Mixed flock enthusiast How is your rooster doing? I’ve been meaning to ask.

Most of my boys dead bits have fallen off now. I think his wattle is permanently deformed now though
View attachment 2581657View attachment 2581658
I also think I found out why or at least partly why they got frostbite. Their roost is on the east wall and when the wind blows from that side snow comes right in! The top where the roof and wall connect has gaps. Small, but still gaps. It works well for ventilation, but obviously a horrible spot to have the roost! The poor things were covered in snow during our last snow storm. Normally when it’s snowing hard like that I don’t go out, so I didn’t see that till then. Poor things
I’ll fix that so next winter hopefully will be better.

Well snow blowing on them sounds hard to handle! I wish I had made mine go into the coop during the worst of our weather - that might have helped. SOB has lost most of his points on his comb. The remaining tissue looks smooth and heathy, so that’s good. It is so weird to see that smooth comb though! He did have a beautiful comb. His daddy, Bloody Larry, has his points still but it looks like some will fall off soon. Fabio is still waiting for his to drop. The boys with the most pea comb like comb fared the best - I don’t see damage to them. The guy, Green Legs, with the more modified pea comb sustained damage though.