Coffee's ready...

[sourland]

Good morning, all.

 

[rngrbill]

Boy have I been off for awhile. DW goes off for a week tomorrow for her Aunt's funeral back in MA. Maybe I can get caught up then. Be careful all.

 

[vehve]

Hey there Bill. Give your wife and her family all of our's condolences.

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers,
Rngr hope you and your wife and her family are doing well after the loss.
Felix ,is it winter there yet? I have to get out and pick the last of the green peppers soon ,before it frosts.
The flock is doing great, They have not seen a winter yet and it will be hard on them I suppose. I generally do the same for the girls in winter as in summer I just open the coop in the day time and close it at night . I have found that closing them up in the coop just adds to the sickness.
They seem much healthier if they just run and act like cold chickens. How about you guys what do you do for winter?
God Bless!

 

[vehve]

Karl, it was below freezing for a week, but now it has warmed up again. About 10C (50F) and rainy. First winter with chickens for us too, so it's a learn as we go sort of thing, but the coop is insulated, and I have a heater in there in case Siberia decides to throw some super cold weather our way. And I put up corrugated plastic around the run, so that it's sheltered from wind, snow and rain. But I keep the run door open throughout the day, and in -5C (23F) the chickens still spent a lot of time outside. We're discussing the issue of heating the coop with the better half, I want to keep it cold, and she isn't completely aboard. But we'll see. And I'm not planning on closing the coop door for any weather, but we'll see how it looks.

 

[sourland]

Draft free, dry and well fed, and your birds will be fine. Their feathers are great 'energy saving' devices. Still no major killing frost. I'm still bringing a couple of tomatoes into the house each day to ripen on the window sill.

 

[vehve]

We don't have anything left growing, except for the Jerusalem artichokes that we re-planted after harvesting. We had the same issue with those as with the potatoes, learned a lot about what kind of soil to plant in, and to make a uniform mix. We had a lot of layers of different soil for almost everything we planted, that's a mistake we're not going to repeat.

 

[rngrbill]

Coop is un-insulated will have a high window open (6"x40") all winter. Humidity is a KILLER for the girls in winter so have to keep the coop dry and draft free especially around the roost area. Back up in New England did the same Birds did nicely. Have a little 4 - 7 watt paddle heater (http://www.petco.com/product/124960/Hydor-Slim-Tropical-Mini-Aquarium-Heater.aspx?CoreCat=MM_FishSupplies_Heaters)

from an aquarium that I put in the coop water bucket and have a thermo cube outlet

from TSC that turns it on at about 35° and off at 45° (http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/thermo-cubereg%3B-thermostatically-controlled-outlet) . The only other concession I make is to make sure they have 14 Hours of light. feed and water is in the coop. This year in the "South" I will try to leave the water outside full and see how that works.

 

[rngrbill]

Oh! Hit 80° here yesterday front going thru today to drag it down to low 50's with nighttime low of freezing by Saturday.
With todays rain a nice nap day.

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers,
I do not heat the coop, and I leave it open all winter, except at night. I keep plenty of dry straw in the coop and the nesting boxes for the hens but the eggs will freeze anyway. You have to go out early to get them in winter. I too leave a large window open in the coop year round. I read an old time list of directions for raising chickens and they said that cold is nothing more than a nuisance to an adult chicken so that is what I follow.
One year I tried to heat the coop and keep it closed but the chickens all got sick from being closed in . That year I opened the coop and let them run in the snow and what ever and it is much better for them I think. I will temper that with common sense of coarse, if it is far below zero I will turn on the heater and keep them closed up but not for more than a day or so .
God Bless!