Colorado

[trsturself]

To Percheron Chick and all who posted about heated water bowls and keeping food and drink things warm in the winter - THANK YOU!! I love this thread and "getting to know you" and some of what you struggle with. Thank you for that as well.


It's a lovely afternoon here in Denver - at last. I hope all of you can find sunshine and warmth in your weekend.

It was a lovely day! I even let the flock out to free range a little to get those last scraps of green grass. I also got my automatic door back up and a heater put in the bucket waterer.
Now to find something to cover our water bowl with...

 

[jime]

My daughter is having a hard time parting with them. Then I tell her, you'd be the one taking it out in the snow every 2 hours to potty train it, and then it will grow into that (and point to the dad that she doesn't like) and that makes it a lot easier for her. lol
I don't find it hard at all. As long as I know they are going to good loving homes I'm happy. Puppies are a lot of work and I feel like we have plenty of dogs with the three we have. I'm glad we are almost out of the young dog stage (the dad is only a year and I don't consider them out until they are 2) and have no desire to start it all over again, so there's no lasting attachment to the little ones for me.

We plan to have another litter around the same time next year if she'll be ready then.

Anyone know a good farm sitter around Elizabeth area? We are going on vacation the first week of Feb and need someone to watch the animals (preferably stay here).

I can give you my sitter's info if you want.She comes twice a day.
She is a bit high on the price but it gives me pice of mind that somebody that likes my animals is caring for them.The chores she does for me are lots so maybe the price will be less for you, she even milk my goats (I did have to teach her) she will be milking the cow as well.
Ideally I would like to meet somebody with animals (as many as I have and specially he variety I have so we could exchange the care of our animals but so far I have not get much luck) I think everybody runs from my animals because the chores are crazy (sprouted food, fodder, dry food, raw food) and milking goats and cow.And taking care of about 80 critters.

 

[trsturself]

I can give you my sitter's info if you want.She comes twice a day.
She is a bit high on the price but it gives me pice of mind that somebody that likes my animals is caring for them.The chores she does for me are lots so maybe the price will be less for you, she even milk my goats (I did have to teach her) she will be milking the cow as well.
Ideally I would like to meet somebody with animals (as many as I have and specially he variety I have so we could exchange the care of our animals but so far I have not get much luck) I think everybody runs from my animals because the chores are crazy (sprouted food, fodder, dry food, raw food) and milking goats and cow.And taking care of about 80 critters.

Maybe we can offer exchange services! I will have milking to do starting in the spring. I do sprouting, fermented food, raw food, dry food, and thinking about starting fodder again.

I would love to have someone local that I can exchange services with. I used to do dog sitting when we lived in Littleton but haven't done it since moving out here. I'm experienced with everything you need and we could save each other a lot of money.

 

[jime]

trsturself I ma sending you a PM.

 

[Double Kindness]

It's the handling the gluten (wheat, barley, rye) in their feed making me sick again. I need to do something. I lost a ayam cemani roo today, one of the new babies. Dang it. And a big muscovy duck has a bloody tail feathers. I need to cull heavily and fill the freezer. Wtd with the weather so cold?

 

[alebuela]

To Trsturself - I'm glad you got your automatic door fixed, just in time before the next round of frigid temperatures! I don't have one, but it seems really efficient and appealing, so maybe in the future.

To Double kindness- Sorry to hear about the loss of your AC baby, and about the celiac problems. Thank heaven for modern and alternative medicine and research, which have helped so many people identify and deal with the effects of their many food intolerances.

 

[Latestarter]

Well, was away from BYC for almost a week and had a lot of catching up to do. Sorry to hear about those who had issues due to the recent weather. Also glad to hear from all who have found a way to make it through

My first "winter" with chickens, so I'm learning as I go and all your input here has been very valuable. The day the cold front hit I had to stop at Tractor supply and picked up 4 auto temp sinking water heaters to put inside the 5 gallon buckets with horizontal nipples I use to water my birds. The stand that came with them was too large to fit in the buckets so I just broke up some paver bricks and put them in the bottom to help hold the heat and keep the element from contacting the side of the plastic bucket. They've been working since I put them in and haven't melted the buckets yet

In the morning I have found a few nipples frozen but a couple of minutes of contact with my semi warm fingers melted them and they were workable again during the rest of the day (still working when I got home from work and checked them). They are supposed to maintain the water at 40 degrees F by turning themselves on and off at 60 second intervals as needed.

Most of my flock is at POL with 2 older pullets that have been laying now for about a month. I can't check for eggs every couple hours, so most I'm finding cold or frozen with many being cracked. Those I just set aside and when they thaw, I scramble them up and my dog is feasting. Maybe over the weekend, I can cook them and give them back to the birds as a treat. Was actually warm enough and still light enough when I got home today that I was able to give them room temp FF for a pre-bedtime snack. Boy were they happy campers! Yesterday morning I surprised them with a morning snack of room temp meal worms, pupae and beetles before giving them their dry food for the day.

So if the egg is frozen but NOT cracked, is it still no good? I thought they were still OK as long as the shell was UN-damaged? If not, I have to go back through my eggs and get rid of those that were frozen... <sigh> gonna lose quite a few eggs as I didn't separate them from those before the cold front... or those that were still warm or just chilled when I got them...

The coldest I've been here was about -10 outside and not sure what the temp inside the coop was on the coldest morning. This morning I noticed that my 2 buff orp roosters both suffered freeze/frost damage to their combs and wattles

None of the other chickens, rooster or hens had a problem. There was no condensation in either of the coops, and both are well ventilated with near floor venting outside the enclosures and full length eve venting as well as gable venting at both ends. I did close the windows to prevent wind directly on the roost area. Tonight is not supposed to be AS cold, but cooling back down again in the days ahead...



The roo on the left is the alpha (can you tell?) The one on the right gets chased off the floor back onto the roosts virtually any time he dares to come down. I have to stand there and hand feed him (twice a day) to make sure he gets some food, or stand guard to allow him to eat and keep the alpha away from him while he eats. The other 2 groups that have multiple roos do NOT present this problem

Anyway, while feeding them their FF tonight, I grabbed both roos (alpha was NOT happy, bravo seemed content to be held) and spread Vaseline on their combs and wattles to help prevent moisture from potentially freezing them more/again. I couldn't think of anything else to do for them and I'm not going to heat the coops.

Has anyone here had to deal with this issue in the present or past? Any permanent damage/harm from frostbite? will their combs/wattles fall off? Not much I can do, but will do what I can to help them through this. Thanks in advance for any input/suggestions.

 

[megshenhut]

Your roosters may or may not lose their points on their combs. They don't look too bad at this time, but they will turn black if they are going to fall off. If that happens when they fall off, they bleed a lot and will need to be attended to so the other chickens don't peck them at the sight of the blood. I had one rooster that froze his wattles badly and they became very swollen and he was miserable and shaking his head a lot. Finally the swelling went down and he only lost a bit of the wattle, but that whole process was bad. I've never had the comb points swell. They just will turn black and fall off. My oldest welsummer rooster has no points left. In my opinion the wattles are way more of a concern for the comfort of the bird. I think the wattles tend to freeze if the bird gets them wet from drinking right before they roost. Vaseline or VetX on them will definitely help shed the water off.

 

[Latestarter]

Thanks Meg. I'll be checking them daily when the temps are sub freezing.

 

[trsturself]

The uncracked eggs are ok for eating. Best for hard boiling since the yolk will have different properties. You should also refrigerate them if you don't already because they will sweat when you bring them into the house and wash off their bloom.