Cold enough to freeze the $#@!s off a brass monkey!

[midget_farms]

I have an automatic pop door - really nice one - its been perfect right up until it got cold. Darn thing wont open for anything unless I use my propane heater to heat it up (from the outside of the coop).

Plus - the large door I enter the coop from is so cold it has shrunk & is messing up the allignment of the henges. So the bottom of the door kicks out & is a bear to get closed! Poor chickens have been stuck inside for 2 days playing teather ball with a cabbage.

Thats all not to mention the eggs popping like popcorn.

I sure am tempted to heat the coop - but there is just too much moisture in there to do that.

I hear that Monday is going to be the worst so far. Down to Zero Ferenheight with a wind chill of - 15!!

 

[cottage19]

Yup, I had my first cold-cracked egg this morning. Silly girl laid on the floor. Good news though - the membrane was intact so I ate it for breakfast. The eggs in the nests were fine. It was down in the low teens last night with lower temps in the forecast. We don't heat the coop and don't plan to but I did hook up the water heater thing yesterday - no frozen water when I went out this morning.

 

[Baymule]

Here in southeast Texas, I can't imagine such cold. I would have to go sit in my upright freezer to even get a clue. When we get a snow, freeze or ice that lasts a day or three, we are complete idiots. We have lots of wrecks, schools and businesses close because we just don't know how to deal with it. I can't imagine piles of snow that comes to visit and stays for the whole winter. Give me hurricanes anyday-they blow in-tear everything up for 12-24 hours and then blow out. Then out comes the chainsaws, roads get cleared and life goes on. Frozen eggs??? Inside the coop???? Poor, poor chicken butts.

 

[midget_farms]

I think I'll ask santa for turtle necks.

 

[woodmort]

Been in the single digits here--just too cold for December, these are January temperatures--and haven't been above 30 in three days. Chickens are happy but not willing to venture out in the cold/snow. No frost on the inside of the windows so the ventilation is right and yet to have a frozen egg<knock on wood> because the birds have been keeping them warm in the nests. My pop door is hinged on the outside top so it does freeze shut--have to go inside and kick it loose.

 

[midget_farms]

My girls are laying well but they don't stay in the nest. By the time I get home from work usually 1 or 2 eggs have frozen & popped.

I have the water heaters going though so that is OK.

Have a couple cabbages in there too so they can play teather ball & not pick on each other. Just too cold for me. I prefer Hawaii cold not Illinois cold.

 

[digger MN]

Have not had a frozen egg yet. Been getting 10 t0 11 eggs a day from 11 hens. BUT going below zero tonight and they are saying 13 to 15 below the next few nights. No heat in there yet, and do not plan on it. I have a light on a timer that comes on at 4 in the morning and all eggs are in the nests when I go out a 8 in the morning. Heated water now inside. But am feeding them outside only right now. We have about 4" of snow left on the ground, with 7 to 10 inches comming tonight. Wonder how this will hold up. As long as wind stayes from the north west should be ok I think. Well good luck to everyone. By the way I am here in Mankato, Minnesota

 

[superchemicalgirl]

First frozen egg for me today.

What I wasn't expecting was frozen poo. I'm going to need a sandblaster to get it off the poop board! Or just let it accumulate and replace the board in spring. Also it's weird to step on frozen poo patties in the coop, I keep thinking they're eggs!

 

[buckabucka]

No heat here, - and they survived the first zero degree night. I've been sprinkling the poop boards with shavings, which makes removal of the frozen turd easier.
I need to put a cabbage out there for entertainment.

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
Had to pull off the door to the run to do some trimming last weekend because everything was heaving up so much after the ground froze that I could barely get it open enough to squeeze in there. Then I had to deal with some tiles that the DW put down in front of the coop door last summer. They looked great all summer, but now they are being pushed up by the frost and are blocking the coop door from opening enough to carry in a bucket of water to fill the waterer. I was out there after dark breaking up concrete and ceramic tiles with a headlamp on so I could get in the coop. Now that those chores are done I can open both doors all the way for now at least. We have at least 14 inches of snow on the ground with another 8-16 expected between now and Sunday. After that it's supposed to get really nasty...

. Temps in the double digits below zero and winds gust from 25-35 MPH. This should be fun.

Glad I had a sneaking hunch what was coming this winter and had the snow blower completely rebuilt this year.