Colorado

[Percheron chick]

Why let all that energy escape? Cover most of it just leaving enough uncovered for them to drink out of and the heater will run that much less lasting that much longer.

 

[maggiemo]

hmmm. never thought of it. I'll do it! Thanks.

 

[Percheron chick]

I would kill me to see all the heat pouring off the water tanks in the morning. I made a few prototypes of tank covers that I need to get into production.

 

[trsturself]

My phone said it was -13 with a realfeel of -20 when we went to bed at 11 last night. It said -8 when I woke up with a realfeel of -13. All the animals fared well.

Our horses have 2 acres with a loafing shed type thing on the side near the house. I can't see into it well enough to see if they are both in there from the house. But I haven't seen them out in the pasture so I'm assuming they've been using it when it gets windy. I'm keeping them in plenty of hay and they have a tank heater in their water so they always have fresh water.

We use the 1 1/2 gallon heated water bowl from amazon for the chickens. I don't cover it but might look into it now. Might keep it cleaner that way too. It had a little frost around the edge this morning but the water is good.

 

[trsturself]

meant to add that I love my polish too. She's one of my favorite birds and if we had room I'd get more.

 

[COChix]

I just wanted to thank everyone here for being so helpful and kind and patient with answering all my newbie questions! After two weeks of no one wanting to claim Odysseus, my parents and I bought him some hens on Tuesday (I still can't drive because of my injuries). We ended up with 4 Golden Laced Polish hens and they are almost twice Odysseus's size. And he loves it. So much so that he doesn't want to hang with me after work anymore. I've been replaced by 4 large, exotic lady-friends! My German Shepard/Shiba Inu mix is happy with this turn of events. My dad hooked up a heat lamp for everyone last night since it got well into the negatives out here thanks to the wind, and everyone seems to be happy, eating, drinking, and clucking up a storm this morning. I am eager to get the ladies (who my dad has taken to calling The Supremes because of the 60's-ish head fluff) out in the daytime pen more so I can name them and to just see them running around. I'm pretty sure their previous owner didn't dote on them as much as I have been. Anyhow, thanks again for all the help! I am very thankful for all the wonderful, helpful people on this site and I am very grateful for everyone taking the time to offer help as making sure that little rooster thrives has become kind of part of my recovery regime. Gives me something to focus on instead of how much pain I'm in and how I can't really walk very well anymore.

Aww how cute Odysseus and The Supremes....that is great that you two found each other. Also just curious were you in an accident? I have forgotten if you posted that or not. I ask because I have gone through two neck fusions and come off nerve meds recently to better assess how much damage I have and what my limitations/disabilities are all over again.

Sadly tragedy struck last night. One peep passed when she got stuck between a wood barrier and the nest box. Sad sad. She froze last night and we said our goodbyes today. I modified the nest box and have been checking on the family often to see if they'll exploit any gaps I may have missed. Dang it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

oh that is too bad, sorry for your loss.

So, it's 11 outside and 28 in the coop. Guess who I haven't seen hide nor hair (feather?) of since they came out at 10 and ate.... SHOPPER ALERT: TARPSPLUS IS HAVING A BIG SALE AND WHEN YOU PUT YOUR FIRST ITEM IN THE CART, ANOTHER 10% BUTTON POPS UP!!!!! I just ordered vinyl and clear tarps to replace the silver ones so it's not so darn dark in there on the bad days! The vinyl are pricey but allow me to see in the coop from the house. The clear aren't really clear, but will allow light in!

seems like you are doing great as a chicken mom to thise flocks. I don't know if you saw my post last night, I had said don't worry about the heat lamp, as I also tossed in a heat lamps after the coop after it was -1 at 3 yesterday. We all have to do what we feel is best for our flocks, don't let anyone scare you...it's not like you were being cruel. Glad to say the coop got up to a balmy 8 degree today with the sun and heat lamp, the gang ventured out some, but they have no choice. They don't have food or water in the coop... Also we picked up our heated dog water bowls at thrift stores, we paid like 10 each.

 

[uzisuzuki]

COChix - I was. It was a rollover car accident at the end of July. I spent about a week in ICU, 2 months bedridden and in a wheelchair, just started walking and going back to work again last month. I got a pretty good concussion, both ankles broken, an odd lower face/mouth injury, plus some other injuries, but those are the three lingering ones I'm working on and that currently have given me a handicap. Lots of speech and physical therapy in the future for that, but taking care of animals is a good routine to get back into now that I can kind of walk again. I hope you're doing okay. My docs have been monitoring me for possible nerve damage in various places, but I can't imagine how much pain you have to be dealing with right now. This kind of cold weather seems to make any kind of injury about 20 times worse than it was before.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Ryan- sorry

Last night, it warmed up to 27 (by 8 PM) at 9000 ft up in the air.....

Sorry, just had to rub that in as most times I am freezing and you all are basking!
Coffee and shades, good to go for the day...

 

[COChix]

COChix - I was. It was a rollover car accident at the end of July. I spent about a week in ICU, 2 months bedridden and in a wheelchair, just started walking and going back to work again last month. I got a pretty good concussion, both ankles broken, an odd lower face/mouth injury, plus some other injuries, but those are the three lingering ones I'm working on and that currently have given me a handicap. Lots of speech and physical therapy in the future for that, but taking care of animals is a good routine to get back into now that I can kind of walk again. I hope you're doing okay. My docs have been monitoring me for possible nerve damage in various places, but I can't imagine how much pain you have to be dealing with right now. This kind of cold weather seems to make any kind of injury about 20 times worse than it was before.

Yikes, your accident sounds like it was bad, glad you are ok, so to speak. As for me, I am fine, or at least I am not paralyzed. I ruptured a disc restraining wild children at a residential treatment facility in 2002, long story short, I decided not to get surgery at that time. Fast forward to 2010, which is when my disc collapsed after falling head first down 10 concrete stairs and somehow walked away from that fall with two broken big toes. At least that is all I thought I had wrong, started having all sorts of issues with my arms and nerve pain all the way down to my right pinky and ring finger. Numbness, tingling, aching, throbbing, loss of grip strength, etc. Got out on opiates, etc and had conservative treatment, after that ann MRI showed just how bad things were. One collapsed disc, two more herniated, C4-C7. I opted to a fusion on one level C5/6 guided by my top notch surgeon, this was the level that had collapsed. Got through that and recovery, to then fall on the ice in the fall after surgery and then had problems again, MRI revealed the disc above and below the fusion had already moved, so I had to do a second surgery on two disks in Sept 2012. The second surgery recovery was much harder, but I managed. During this time between 2011 when the first surgery was and before the second surgery in Seot 2012, I managed to get off all my pharmaceutical crap, I was on 10 different medications at some point, ******* ridiculous. I have stayed on the nerve med up until now, as I would prefer to be with no meds if possible, I have done a complete turn around with my health and felt like I owed it to myself to go off the nerve med to assess how bad things are. I had been on this med for 4 years and basically it turns off the pain signal in your brain, that can't be good. After all if you don't feel pain how do you limit what you can do? Well you can't and then you end up doing more than you should and only furthering the damage. Anyway, I will be fine, just struggle as some days are better than others and man the cold really hurts my arms. I hadn't noticed this before, probably due to the meds I was on. My surgeries were successful and such as the fusion are solid, but I have residual issues. Anyway, I have found on the bad days when I can't do much, the flock was great fluffy butt therapy for sure. Anytime I am in a "fowl"

mood or having a bad day, if I spend time with the flock they always make it better, animals are great therapy! Glad you are recovering and working on just taking it one day at a time, it is all you can do. Enjoy your flock.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Yikes, your accident sounds like it was bad, glad you are ok, so to speak. As for me, I am fine, or at least I am not paralyzed. I ruptured a disc restraining wild children at a residential treatment facility in 2002, long story short, I decided not to get surgery at that time. Fast forward to 2010, which is when my disc collapsed after falling head first down 10 concrete stairs and somehow walked away from that fall with two broken big toes. At least that is all I thought I had wrong, started having all sorts of issues with my arms and nerve pain all the way down to my right pinky and ring finger. Numbness, tingling, aching, throbbing, loss of grip strength, etc. Got out on opiates, etc and had conservative treatment, after that ann MRI showed just how bad things were. One collapsed disc, two more herniated, C4-C7. I opted to a fusion on one level C5/6 guided by my top notch surgeon, this was the level that had collapsed. Got through that and recovery, to then fall on the ice in the fall after surgery and then had problems again, MRI revealed the disc above and below the fusion had already moved, so I had to do a second surgery on two disks in Sept 2012. The second surgery recovery was much harder, but I managed. During this time between 2011 when the first surgery was and before the second surgery in Seot 2012, I managed to get off all my pharmaceutical crap, I was on 10 different medications at some point, ******* ridiculous. I have stayed on the nerve med up until now, as I would prefer to be with no meds if possible, I have done a complete turn around with my health and felt like I owed it to myself to go off the nerve med to assess how bad things are. I had been on this med for 4 years and basically it turns off the pain signal in your brain, that can't be good. After all if you don't feel pain how do you limit what you can do? Well you can't and then you end up doing more than you should and only furthering the damage. Anyway, I will be fine, just struggle as some days are better than others and man the cold really hurts my arms. I hadn't noticed this before, probably due to the meds I was on. My surgeries were successful and such as the fusion are solid, but I have residual issues. Anyway, I have found on the bad days when I can't do much, the flock was great fluffy butt therapy for sure. Anytime I am in a "fowl"

mood or having a bad day, if I spend time with the flock they always make it better, animals are great therapy! Glad you are recovering and working on just taking it one day at a time, it is all you can do. Enjoy your flock.

Oh my goodness, that sounds painful! I'm glad you're doing well and that the surgeries were successful. I can empathize on the pain subject for sure. Before my car accident, I had about 6 years of some kind of pain that mostly made my arms, hands, and fingers numb/painful/pins and needles and the docs had me on a ton of pain management meds. I was exactly like you - I tried everything to get off the meds, but at the time they were the only things that allowed me to use my hands (important for an illustrator to have that). The concussion from the accident seems to have made my brain hit a reset button and all that weird nerve pain and even the month long migraines I had been getting since I was 15 have just completely stopped. And while I definitely wouldn't recommend a car accident to anyone looking for a way to stop chronic pain, I would like to believe it shows there is a possibility of finding a way to stop it and get people off those types of meds. There has to be a better way to manage pain than popping pills that kill your liver. I'm hoping to get completely off all pain meds after my PT and I can figure out why my ankle mobility has regressed now that I'm walking without the braces on my legs. It'll be nice to be off them. Hopefully, your doctors can help you stay off them.

Animals definitely make great forms of therapy for bad days! Having a daily routine that involved taking care of something else has always done wonders for my bipolar disorder, and as I've learned with my new flock, it helps with this kind of recovery as well. The concussion has left me with mild dementia and weird mood swings even for someone who is used to them. Sitting with Odysseus for the past couple weeks after work helped relieve stress better than any meds I've ever been on for it. Animals help you get out of your own head for a little while and that's a good thing to do every now and again.