Birds dying...extreme cold! **UPDATE** 12/23 PG 10

[Mrs. Mik]

Thank you. We went and bought two rolls of 4 mil plastic and wrapped the entire outside of the coop in it and stapled it in place. I also have about 10 bales of straw lining the bottom to keep the plastic in place and to help keep it a bit warmer. I then took another bale of straw and used about 3/4 of it in the coop to give them some nice clean dry bedding. I was told NOT to clean out the coop to the floor in the winter as the "fermenting" poo will help to keep it warm. Is that true?

I'm not sure how much good we did, but while I was working inside the coop, I was sweating! I was even able to take my gloves off and my hands stayed quite warm.

This weekend, the kids are going to nail up some cardboard inside the coop and stuff it with straw, as I'm worried that if we get a blizzard or really bad winds again, the plastic is going to tear and then we're back to where we started. I have plans for the summer to do some more work out there to insulate it, so this will have to do for now.

Next, one of the hens had frozen feet. She could walk around but not bend her toes. Once we were done outside, we brought her in and she looked like she wasn't going to make it by that point. We have her in our dog's crate (we use that a LOT for chickens, LOL!), and she's on a couple of towels with a hot water bottle and a milkhouse heater blowing warm air on her. I thought for sure she was a goner . . . .

Abby (my youngest) went down there to check on her, and she was standing up! We just made some warm oatmeal for her and are going to give her that, too. Hopefully, this one makes it!

Keep your fingers crossed!

Julie

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

Mrs. Mik :

Thank you. We went and bought two rolls of 4 mil plastic and wrapped the entire outside of the coop in it and stapled it in place. I also have about 10 bales of straw lining the bottom to keep the plastic in place and to help keep it a bit warmer. I then took another bale of straw and used about 3/4 of it in the coop to give them some nice clean dry bedding. I was told NOT to clean out the coop to the floor in the winter as the "fermenting" poo will help to keep it warm. Is that true?

Julie

The fermenting process you are referring to, is similiar to composting, and is essentially the poop rotting and giving off heat. In my humble opinion, the slight amount of 'heat' that would eventually come off a situation like this would in no way balance the negative health effects that could be caused by living in this kind of condition. (not to mention the simple 'gross' factor.) And what happens come spring, when you then have to scrape out months of accumulated rotted fecal matter and dust? do you want to breath that? blech! Oh, and one other thought.... in order to rot the fecal matter and straw would have to be moist..... moist cool chickens.... doesnt sound like a healthy coop situation to me.

Oh, and mites and lice love to live in straw..... (so I have learned here)

Im sorry, I cant imagine in any way how that would be considered a healthy situation for any animal. Clean dry shavings. a heat light will help to keep things not only dry but warm. Clean out the coop as regularly as you would any other livestock, is what I have always been taught, and what I practise. In my humble opinion, you cant beat a clean environment for healthy animals...

Sounds like your having a tough time, I hope the weather gives you a break, and I look forward to hearing about your improvements!!

Good Luck!​

 

[JennsPeeps]

Julie - I agree with Piedpiper. Coops w/o a floor (i.e. dirt) can use the deep litter method, which creates soem heat through the composting of the shavings & poop. Unless you've got a really big coop with good ventilation, I wouldn't recommend it.

My coop is quite small (3'x7'). I keep about 4-6" of shavings in there. Every weekend I go out there with a latex glove on and pick up the poop. I put that in my compost pile, shift all shavings to the left, and add new shavings to the right. I figure that I rotate the shavings roughly every 6-8 weeks.

If your coop has an ammonia smell, it's not clean enough for the chickens' health.

 

[PortageGirl]

Read these... the one here and the link(s) within the article. I'm sure I saw some good info here too, but I knew exactly where this link was, so I'm putting it in. No doubt others will have the BYC liks handier than I. http://www.plamondon.com/b2evolution/blogs/blog4.php/2008/11/14/deep-litter-for-healthier-chickens Some really good information and things to think about.

I think that for those in the deep freeze now, it might be difficult to get things right now, but not impossible to make a good start.

Deep litter isn't about having them be on filthy bedding, just piling up poo, it's about managing the bedding sensibly. I saw it done as a kid without realizing it, and they were the healthiest bunch of chickens you'd ever want to meet, clean, dry, warm and happy.

 

[Mrs. Mik]

Thank you both. The coop is actually quite large. I don't know the exact dimensions, but it's 50 feet around -- I only know that because we bought two rolls of plastic that were 10' x 25' and we only had 2 feet left (not counting what we had to cut off to be able to open the door).

I've never smelled any ammonia when I go in there -- but will know better in the morning, after adding the plastic to seal the drafts.

The only ventilation we have is the 4-inch space on the east side that we have the sliced rubber covering (like in the meat dept. of an old-fashioned grocery store), and of course, cracks around the door (it's not sealed the greatest).

We're going to go out there shortly and take the outside temp and then the inside temp to see if the plastic helped. Right now (according to the news) it's about 10 degrees outside, so about 20 degrees warmer than it was yesterday.

Your thoughts?

Julie

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Yeah the houdan was the second to go....first was my sumatra hen.

Then my salmon fav roo and then a bantam sultan roo. Oh and a muscovy...which they are usually VERY hardy...

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Mrs. Mik :

I've been having the same problem. Went outside this morning and four of our chickens are dead. A Polish chicken was the first to die, and now the second Polish chicken is dead. These are all from McMurray Hatchery, that we received in August. I don't think it's that they're not hardy enough, as we had problems last winter, too. I have two warming lights in there and their water is on an electric heater. I'm feeding them a combination of layer feed and corn, and we keep the feeder filled at all times, so they can eat when they want.

Our chicken coop is built from old pine, and although we covered up many of the knots and filled in a lot of the spaces between the wood with caulk this summer, it's still a tad drafty.

After reading this thread, I'm convinced it's the drafts that are causing the problem. Today, we're heading to the hardware store to get a couple rolls of heavy-duty plastic and will be wrapping the entire coop in it to eliminate the drafts.

A question -- there is an opening at the top on the east side to allow for ventilation, but I was tired of the sparrows getting in that way. We took some old inner tubes from tires and sliced them and hung them up there to allow for ventilation, without allowing the sparrows in. I'm thinking that should be left alone, the way it is, because otherwise there really won't be any ventilation at all? Your thoughts on that?

Thank you for any help you can provide!

Julie

I've heard that polish are not very cold hardy birds...are they underweight at all? Sometimes not having enough "fat" on them makes them lose their heat too fast, as well...​

 

[chickiebaby]

I am so sorry! Here's one thought: we insulate dht bottom half of the coop with spray-can type stuff, and covered that with plywood, effectively double-walling the bottom half of the coop. Took literally half an hour to bang together one day last year and did the trick.

 

[chickenannie]

I had "late in the season chicks" that got bad frostbite the first night it was below freezing, so I brought them inside my kitchen every night in a cat carrier full of hay until the temps went back up.
It was a desparate measure, but at least they survived and are ok.

 

[Mrs. Mik]

Well, the good news is that the hen in the basement is still alive! Wahoo! She's standing and eating and drinking. I'm going to keep her inside for a few days until the weather clears up a bit. We have high winds and snow right now and it's darn cold outside.

The other good news is that we didn't lose any chickens overnight!

The only bad news is that some of the plastic ripped off the outside of the coop. I went out there this morning and took a roll of duct tape and wrapped the coop in two rows of duct tape and stapled it. I was so proud of myself, thinking that the duct tape wouldn't tear in the wind . . . until my father burst my bubble!

Guess we have to go nail some wood up over it and that's about the only thing that will stop it from ripping and tearing off. My husband (Greg) is going to do that before going to work today.

So far, so good! Our neighbors are going to give us half a dozen bales of "old" hay that we can use to insulate the inside this weekend. My son (Aaron) and daughter (Abby) are going to do that tomorrow.

When I went in the coop this morning, there was NO smell of ammonia, so I'm fairly confident that the opening on the east side at the top (that we have the rubber "slats" over) is giving them enough airflow.

Any other thoughts? Gosh, this weather sucks!

Julie