tweetzone86
Songster
Hello all!
I could not get a picture tonight unfortunately (too dark in coop) but some of my chickens have tiny dark spots on their combs. Just black, nothing else. They're all eating and drinking and pooping normally and I got 11 eggs out of 12 birds today.
They're 27 week old RIRs and though I try to put things in their 140 sq foot run sometimes they get bored I think. Their coop is the back 7 feet of a 10x20 shed (chicken wire on framed wall with human door separating it from the rest of my shed).
I will try to get pics tomorrow, but thought it odd. It has been below freezing at night and some mornings have seen fog and frozen surfaces, even the steel shed door surface. I don't let them out til about 8 or so (light comes on at 2 and off at 4, and sunset is between 4 and 4:30 right now), but it's still been pretty frosty.
They have a rubber hog feeder for a water dish because it was the only thing I could manage to do inside the coop that didn't leak, and it isn't freezing because shed is insulated (though I do have a 12x14" window open for ventilation plus their chicken door during the day), but it's pretty cold water nonetheless (prob just above freezing- my hands go numb if I have to pick out bits of straw bedding they've kicked in). Could it be frostbite from them drinking? Sometimes a few drops of water here or there goes flying, especially if several are drinking at once.
Thanks!
I could not get a picture tonight unfortunately (too dark in coop) but some of my chickens have tiny dark spots on their combs. Just black, nothing else. They're all eating and drinking and pooping normally and I got 11 eggs out of 12 birds today.
They're 27 week old RIRs and though I try to put things in their 140 sq foot run sometimes they get bored I think. Their coop is the back 7 feet of a 10x20 shed (chicken wire on framed wall with human door separating it from the rest of my shed).
I will try to get pics tomorrow, but thought it odd. It has been below freezing at night and some mornings have seen fog and frozen surfaces, even the steel shed door surface. I don't let them out til about 8 or so (light comes on at 2 and off at 4, and sunset is between 4 and 4:30 right now), but it's still been pretty frosty.
They have a rubber hog feeder for a water dish because it was the only thing I could manage to do inside the coop that didn't leak, and it isn't freezing because shed is insulated (though I do have a 12x14" window open for ventilation plus their chicken door during the day), but it's pretty cold water nonetheless (prob just above freezing- my hands go numb if I have to pick out bits of straw bedding they've kicked in). Could it be frostbite from them drinking? Sometimes a few drops of water here or there goes flying, especially if several are drinking at once.
Thanks!
