Hi everyone! Here we go again with the cold weather. I'm a native; you'd think I'd be used to this.
Not.
The birds are still molting but have feathers covering all their skin. I hope they'll be warm enough tonight and this week. I loaded them up with BOSS, their heated water bowl is functioning, the run is tarped. We changed out all the bedding yesterday and they have fresh barley straw strewn thickly in the run, the sleeping coop is as cozy as I can make it and maintain ventilation. Save bringing them in to watch TV with me, don't know what else to do for them.
I'm monitoring the temp in the sleeping coop and if it drops too much, I'm turning on the heat for a while--something I never did last season and wound up with a frostbitten wattle. Of course, it was 18 below that day. The next few days promise to be brutal.
Great to read all your posts. Hope you're all doing well!
Marcia in Pinewood Springs
sounds like your doing a great job taking over as flock mom for your girls.....
Funny you talking about the pellet smoker, and I was just looking at one for hubby. Let me know how yours does, in the colder temps. Does it take longer to heat up, use more pellets to stay hot? Things like that.
It was a balmy 11F here in South East Boulder last night. 17F now.
Mine mulling around in the run and coop and not venturing out into the inch or so of snow we have here. My heated dog bowl seems to be working so far.
We have a Treager pellet smoker. I we have to use a welding blanket to hold the heat in the smoker below fre
well I cannot speak highly enough about Treager, had one with ex and we almost used it exclusively for cooking. I have made everything on it, cookies, pies and of course your regular meats. Food never tasted as good, in my opinion, but I tend to be a foodie. Just like Maggie said, in the winter having a blanket to through over it to help hold temps, when it is below freezing. I didnt notice using more pellets. First year we had it we made the Thanksgiving ham, we got a fresh pork leg and brined it for a week and then smoked it for 13 hours, was the best ham I have ever had and I am not a huge ham person. My brother-in-law smoked the turkey and it was amazingly moist, he brined his as well. Anyway, the only draw back is you have to vacuum out the pellets and ash from the grill, kind of a pain when it's freezing out. We used to vacuum it out every use, but then started doing that about every other time before using. Also they have a tray that sits over the pellets, cover that in tinfoil each time and then you have easy clean up! Just pull of the old tinfoil and put some new down before each use, saves a lot of cleaning.
The temps are dropping. I'm out every hour checking for frozen water, putting more straw and roosting poles up. This gives me new meaning to freezer camp.
lol
My thermometer says -0, what does that even mean?
Like everyone says, at least it isn't windy. Stay warm everyone.
Someone on craigslist is in NoBo advertising fertilized eggs for sale. Is that someone here? They say they have bantams, but don't say what type. I am just curious if it is someone here and what they have.
While we are in NoBo, this is not us. There is a couple up the street that has 40 chickens, turkey, etc. I don't remember seeing any bantams when I was there last, they have Autralorps and mostly Cuckoo Marans.
Just yesterday my little orp hen who would not break broody hatched out her first chicks. Of course this all happened during the coldest part of this new winter season. It's -4F here in Parker at 6550'.
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oh so cute and wow, welcome to the cold world chick! Glad they are doing well, I bet they stay warm under mama....
Cold here in North Boulder, just like everywhere right now. It was 0 when I went out this am and it is expected to be bitterly cold tonight. I am not sure what we will do about the heat lamps. I did put one in the coop last night and the gang seemed to appreciate it. I will probably use sparingly during the cold nights, not sure yet what I will do. I keep going back and forth, I am more wish washy than Charlie Brown on this subject. I am a huge animal lover and I always project onto the animals and how they must be feeling, lol. Like if I am flipping cold, certainly the chickens are. I am sure this will change over time, this will be my first experience with winter and chickens. On the positive their water bowl has not forzenm even over night. I will dump it tonight since we will be below freezing and such.
Yikes winter weather advisory for us overnight, temps with wind chill could be between negative 10 - 20 below freezing tomorrow am!
