Colorado

[KaseySnow]

Hope everyone's flocks are surviving this cold alright!

 

[ChickyBaby75]

Hope everyone's flocks are surviving this cold alright!

I've lived in Colorado all my life. I don't remember cold quite like this. (Of course it would be our first year keeping chickens...)

 

[chrissynemetz]

I've lived in Colorado all my life. I don't remember cold quite like this. (Of course it would be our first year keeping chickens...)

It's definitely been colder than usual this year

 

[Percheron chick]

Well I can put the "Do my chickens need heat" debate to bed. I have a batch of 15 4 month old pullets out in an open metal shed with only dogloos and hay for protection from the weather. No problem.

 

[Mtn Margie]

We have seen -29F way up here before and this was only -20 to -22 depending on the equipment. Baby stuff! LOL!
My chickens were fine in their coop and I have one that sleeps in the 3 sided sheep shed
under a hay feeder and she was fine as well. No wind and that helped with things!

 

[ChickyBaby75]

We have seen -29F way up here before and this was only -20 to -22 depending on the equipment. Baby stuff! LOL!
My chickens were fine in their coop and I have one that sleeps in the 3 sided sheep shed
under a hay feeder and she was fine as well. No wind and that helped with things!

What kind of chickens are they? Ours keep pulling up their legs and look like they shiver. We've supplied a heat lamp.

 

[Mtn Margie]

In general, mutts. I add birds every now and then. I now stick to the small combed ones like Icelandics and Rose-combed breeds and such. I found that if there is not enough ventilation, the birds are much colder because of humidity and also prone to frostbite (Roos.) I feed scratch at night when it is cold and for this cold spell, I made sure to add another bag of shavings to the coop before it hit, also to keep down the humidity.

 

[Percheron chick]

Well my baby girls must be wimps. It was only -12.

 

[pozees2]

Good Morning all, just wanted to say a quick hello. Hope everyone is managing their varying amounts of really heavy, wet snow this weekend. We had the couple of inches we got all cleaned up yesterday and then right at dark it started snowing again, and now we're looking at another ~4" and still snowing - nothing like the foot or so expected further north, thank goodness.
I have some Leghorn chicks coming from McMurray the week of the 22nd - had ordered a mix of Leghorn colors plus a few Speckled Sussex and White Cochins, and then realized my order of 30 chicks was probably going to get "supplemented" with about 20 extra males, because the boxes hold 25 or 50, and there was nothing in the order I really wanted to cancel, so I added 20 more White Leghorn pullets to fill the box. I don't really need that many so if anyone would like some I'm happy to share. They will be vaccinated for Marek's and coccidiosis, so my cost comes out to just under $5 each. I'm just south of the City of Pueblo. They grow very quickly and usually start laying right around 19 weeks of age. McMurray's white Leghorns are the first chicks I ever bought from a hatchery and they were really easy.
Yesterday I set my first eggs of the year to participate in the Easter Hatchalong, and since my birds are often hit or miss this early for being fertilized, I only set 15 of my own, got a dozen Hedemora eggs from a keeper in Colorado Springs, and then, being the experimenter I am, I had 2 dozen (actually 26) White Leghorn eggs shipped to me from the University of Connecticut to see how they fared with their method of shipping. The eggs themselves were inexpensive enough but shipping was killer expensive (next day air UPS), and shipped eggs here usually have a very low hatch rate, so I'm expecting this to be a very expensive failed experiment, but my curiosity will be satisfied once and for all. If I get a handful of chicks from the 26 eggs I will be pleasantly surprised. Had I known how expensive shipping would be before I ordered the eggs I probably wouldn't have ordered them, but what's done is done, just crossing my fingers at this point. They arrived on Wednesday and I let them sit undisturbed for 3 days, hoping any detached air cells will have settled and improved.
*ETA* this was not really a very quick hello after all, was it? LOL

 

[Loveshorsesandglee]

Hi just joined I’m in Cortez Colorado