Colorado

[wsmith]

Heads up      ( from the NWS)

 THERE MAY BE SOME MODERATION OVER THE WEEKEND BUT
TEMPERATURES SHOULD STAY WELL BELOW FREEZING. THE NEXT WEEK MAY
BE THE COLDEST WEEK IN THE LAST 15 YEARS.

Oh joy!  Can't wait!  Time to get the soup on!  Plug in the truck and all that.......

Yup. Its gonna be a cold week. I will leave the hot water running at a trickle on the cold nights. That reminds me, I have to pay the propane bill.....

 

[cluckcluckgirl]

Hello fellow CO people! I have been on BYC for awhile but just found this thread.

With this upcoming weather I added a lamp in the enclosed pen to shine on their water since I don't have a heated waterer and won't be home to change their water multiple times on those days it doesn't get above freezing.

I'm in the process of building an incubator to try and hatch some chicks this spring. If anyone has any silkies (my daughter prefers mixed colors), marans, and bantam EE hatching eggs I'd love to hear from you.

Welcome to the thread! We have EE hatching eggs, but unfortunately they are not bantams.

 

[Minchi]

Yup. Its gonna be a cold week. I will leave the hot water running at a trickle on the cold nights. That reminds me, I have to pay the propane bill.....

Of course it could not hit a few days earlier....last night our fridge fried. Lost a lot of food since I just went to the market, and all those holiday leftovers.

 

[samsr]

Preparations for the quail ar done. They ar in their rabbit hutch in the garage as i cant keep the wafer from freezing this week coming up. Clean cage amd an extra layer of pine shavings are in. Tomorrow nevening will be the chickens time. Im going to tarp up the west run and close off the east run. They should still have plenty of space. Just not a cross draft through the coop.

 

[cjmorrow]

I have a quick question. How cold is to cold to let the girls out into the run? I have a heated water bowl in their coop and moved their feeder in to get it out of the weather. They have plenty of room inside but they do get grumpy!

 

[Pozees]

I have a quick question. How cold is to cold to let the girls out into the run? I have a heated water bowl in their coop and moved their feeder in to get it out of the weather. They have plenty of room inside but they do get grumpy!

I open the pop door every day. I will be moving feeders into coops tonight, and tomorrow will put small unheated waterers into the coops for a while if they don't come out due to weather, although I really hate putting water inside the coops and one of them really isn't big enough for the 3 gallon heated waterers I have. I won't leave them in there overnight, they'll just freeze anyway.

At any rate, to your question, I can only think of one time I went back out and closed the pop door last year, and that was a day the snow was blowing right into it, it was bitterly cold, and they were not coming out.

 

[wsmith]

All of my small coops and the hen house face south, with all the doors on the south sides. Nothing in the small coops this time of year. I mostly closed of all the vents in the main hen house, still ventilated, but this year we won't have the snow blowing in through the upper screens. I only closed the chicken door twice last year. The people door stays closed unless people are walking through or it is very hot.
I may have to physically put the Tom into the hen house today. He thinks he should roost outside no matter what the weather. Silly turkey....

 

[cjmorrow]

I open the pop door every day. I will be moving feeders into coops tonight, and tomorrow will put small unheated waterers into the coops for a while if they don't come out due to weather, although I really hate putting water inside the coops and one of them really isn't big enough for the 3 gallon heated waterers I have. I won't leave them in there overnight, they'll just freeze anyway.

At any rate, to your question, I can only think of one time I went back out and closed the pop door last year, and that was a day the snow was blowing right into it, it was bitterly cold, and they were not coming out.

Thanks! This is my first winter with the girls. The water in the coop is just a 1 quart bowl so if they do knock it over it wont make too big of a mess. They did pretty good on the last storm except for when it was snowing. I think the hens are ready, don't know about me.

 

[suncatcher]

I can't do heated waterers here so I use Fortex bowls during the winter, acutally I use them year round as extra waterers for my smaller run. Some nights they will freeze solid if I leave water in them, so I usually dump them in the evening, and refill in the morning. Pretty sure with this upcoming Artic blast, they will be frozen solid during the day too, but is fairly easy to get the ice out of them, and they are indestructable! Seems our snow and cold is early this year, usuallly we don't have these low temps til January, and the snow stays away til mid December. We don't have it hard though, I am reading, "The Seven Daughters Of Eve", now those early humans had it rough!!!

Welcome to all the newbies!

Pozee, Partridge Rocks are a great dual purpose bird too, just like the Barnevelder, they will make a nice addition to your laying flock, and that rooster is HUGE! Also, have you noticed if you are feeding more since you stopped the FF????

I will have Bantam Cochins available in the spring for those of you who want to add a broody breed to your flock, also, they are smaller so they don't eat as much.

 

[trsturself]

I can't do heated waterers here so I use Fortex bowls during the winter, acutally I use them year round as extra waterers for my smaller run. Some nights they will freeze solid if I leave water in them, so I usually dump them in the evening, and refill in the morning. Pretty sure with this upcoming Artic blast, they will be frozen solid during the day too, but is fairly easy to get the ice out of them, and they are indestructable! Seems our snow and cold is early this year, usuallly we don't have these low temps til January, and the snow stays away til mid December. We don't have it hard though, I am reading, "The Seven Daughters Of Eve", now those early humans had it rough!!!

Welcome to all the newbies!

Pozee, Partridge Rocks are a great dual purpose bird too, just like the Barnevelder, they will make a nice addition to your laying flock, and that rooster is HUGE! Also, have you noticed if you are feeding more since you stopped the FF????

I will have Bantam Cochins available in the spring for those of you who want to add a broody breed to your flock, also, they are smaller so they don't eat as much.

My daughter and I have talked about getting some bantam cochins. But we are allowed a limited number so we have to be picky. We have 3 spots left and I'd like to fill them with bantams since we built our coop only expecting to have 4 and now we'll have 10 (we moved to a place that allows more so of course we had to get more). Good thing we were overkill on the coop originally but it would be a little tight with 10 LF in there! Do you sell hatching eggs or chicks? What colors do you have?