Colorado

[iluvchessies]

It's 8.2 degrees here now - NOT ready for winter after this beautiful fall we've been enjoying! I decided not to heat the coop even though my husband wired it for a heat lamp. Seems more people recommend not using a heat lamp for a variety of reasons. We grew up in MN and I don't know anyone who heated their barns or coops. We did put down extra wood chips in the coop and some straw in the run. And of course, got the heated waterer set up. The girls didn't venture out much today. I tried to coax them with a bit of scratch in the run, but they just grabbed some and fled back to the coop. Guess we are all needing to get used to the rapid drop in temperature these past 24 hours!!

 

[trsturself]

My experience with this cold is similar. It was 6 when I went out to tend everyone this morning and 7 when I went out to do it tonight.

I am not ready for this winter either! I had to dig out my winter clothes in a hurry.

The chickens and I are both missing the automatic coop door! I need to figure out what's wrong with it and then make another for the other coop. Of course I'll still have to go out to put my friend's one stupid chicken in. I got home tonight and she was huddled next to the door covered in snow. I'm sure she was there all day. I'll be surprised if she's still alive by the end of this cold front. I might just leave them locked up tomorrow and put their food inside the coops. I already have their water in there. I'm glad I bought the heated bowl! But my friend's chickens are still on a bucket/nipple system. She bought a heater for it today. Got to get it from her tomorrow so they will have water all day too.

Glad I bought the tank heater for the horses. I didn't even get to check on them tonight. It was too dark and cold when I got home!

The goats were cuddled up together in the space under the barn (our land slopes under the barn so the end has about 8-10" of space under it). They have a loafing shed full of straw with some wood blocking a corner to keep the wind out (even though it doesn't face the wind) and a large dog house full of straw they could go in, but I guess buried under the barn is better.

DH gave me a hard time last night about leaving the kitten in the tack room. I knew he'd be ok, and he was. But after being out there all last night and today in the freezing temps I gave him a break and brought him in the house. He's a barn cat so I don't want him getting used to it in here so he's locked in a bathroom. He's back out as soon as it warms above freezing.

At least it wasn't windy this morning or tonight. Yesterday was warmer temp wise but felt frigid because of that wind!

 

[maggiemo]

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.

 

[ryan820]

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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[Double Kindness]

It's not me, even though I think my first little ee's might be bantams. Idk, they seem to only be 3/5 the size of my other ee's & ameracuna. Even my polish is bigger than they are. Only my rooster Lenny is outside the coop today, I guess the dusting of snow on the straw has them not wanting to come out. There's a tarp over their food/water area. I don't keep water or food in the coops, but in the runs. Where the ducks and majority of my roos are at is completely covered. 2 of my brown female muscovy ducks were under the coop not in it last night, and they're my 2 favorites.

It's so cold in the barn where my babies are at (5+weeks-3 month olds my ac, wb, haffies and a slw. My haffie roo Nugget keeps trying to mate with Wobbles, the cemani roos don't let him near the other girls. Wobbles has been pleading with me to do something about it. It's too cold to separate him to with hold him from food yo attempt caponizing him until after the cold front relents and we have 6 out of 13 baby 5 week old chicks needing to be caponized too. I'm seriously over run with roos. Not counting the 11 outside. We need one or 2 more nice days so I can send everyone off to freezer camp that needs to and caponizing the others.

I swear it feels colder today than yesterday morning, but my phone says otherwise. My bones are hurting pretty badly and I'm thinking of warming up some of the split pea soup I made last night with the gluten-free Brazilian cheese bread I made to go with it. I began my gf sourdough starter yesterday morning. I'm looking forward to fresh sourdough bread Thursday.

 

[Ashdoes]

It's not me, even though I think my first little ee's might be bantams. Idk, they seem to only be 3/5 the size of my other ee's & ameracuna. Even my polish is bigger than they are. Only my rooster Lenny is outside the coop today, I guess the dusting of snow on the straw has them not wanting to come out. There's a tarp over their food/water area. I don't keep water or food in the coops, but in the runs. Where the ducks and majority of my roos are at is completely covered. 2 of my brown female muscovy ducks were under the coop not in it last night, and they're my 2 favorites.

It's so cold in the barn where my babies are at (5+weeks-3 month olds my ac, wb, haffies and a slw. My haffie roo Nugget keeps trying to mate with Wobbles, the cemani roos don't let him near the other girls. Wobbles has been pleading with me to do something about it. It's too cold to separate him to with hold him from food yo attempt caponizing him until after the cold front relents and we have 6 out of 13 baby 5 week old chicks needing to be caponized too. I'm seriously over run with roos. Not counting the 11 outside. We need one or 2 more nice days so I can send everyone off to freezer camp that needs to and caponizing the others.

I swear it feels colder today than yesterday morning, but my phone says otherwise. My bones are hurting pretty badly and I'm thinking of warming up some of the split pea soup I made last night with the gluten-free Brazilian cheese bread I made to go with it. I began my gf sourdough starter yesterday morning. I'm looking forward to fresh sourdough bread Thursday.

Humidity levels definetly effect how cold it feels.
I love my sourdough, homemade is so much better then the store. I have a recipe for sourdough dinner rolls that my family literally fight over. I'm not sure if it's able to be modified for GF, but let me know if you'd like the recipe. My little nephew was just diagnosed Celiac, and I'm putting recipes together for my brother.in.law to have. Nephew doesn't really mind, since he can stil have ice cream. Lol.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Ryan, that is sooo cute! What a good Momma Hen you have there.
So, it is like -10 up here, warming up to -6 currently. Quail seem fine, no heat for them either, just a tarp on their domicile. I change out their waterers am and pm.
It is still snowing and we have about 6 inches of snow, no wind.
Fire going, coffee going, bread baking... calorie up kiddos!

 

[trsturself]

My phone says -4 here. I left all the chickens in their coops this morning and brought them warm grits for breakfast. I don't have a way to block the snow from the runs (they are just too large) so they'll be getting fed inside the coops on snow days. I'll have to go change at least one chicken water and the goats water this afternoon. I'm happy the water tank heater is mostly working for the horses. There was a little ice on one side of their water this morning but they still have plenty of room to drink. I'm also thankful we have a well spigot right there that is the freeze proof kind so I don't have to lug buckets of water for the horses.

DH put lights up for the kitten in the tack room to keep his water from freezing. It's 34deg right by his water so I put his bed there and put him back outside. He likes it better out there and was happily running all over the tack room purring.

I cancelled my work in the springs today. My day will be spent trying to get this stupid automatic door to work. It was working fine for weeks then just stopped and I can't figure out why.

 

[COChix]

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!

 

[trsturself]

I was sitting in the front room yesterday watching the snow and 5 little song birds came flying up to my porch rail and our bare tree out front. Seeing them reminds me that animals can endure the cold without any help from us. Which makes me feel better about not giving the chickens heat or the horses blankets. From what I've read us interfering can actually cause more harm than good. As long as they have a place to stay dry and out of the wind, they should be good. Look at those chickens in much colder places that only get a 3 sided structure and are just fine.

Of course, my pugs are laying here on the couch with me. No way they are going out for longer than it takes to do their business. lol