Connecticut!

[ll]

Doing okay here, thanks for asking.

Tonight is supposed to be the coldest though - I thought the last two nights were supposed to be, but tonight the actual temp is going to be -2 ... with a windchill of whatever.

Definitely going to do the wattles & combs today.

My heated dog dish is working perfectly, not even a thin layer of ice has formed yet = nothing.

I worry that my two won't produce enough heat for each other on nights like this, but so far so good = 2nd winter now. One occasionally tries to sleep in the nest box (I don't blame her a bit!) but I go out to check every night and if she is in there I remove her & put her on the roost so they can snuggle next to each other.

• pmessner - beautiful bird! are they friendly?

 

[Jakoda]

I'm in Old Lyme and am probably colder than my chickens Changing water ALOT, will invest in an electric waterer when I rebuild my barn..Chicks don't seem phased and laying like crazy

While posting, is there any Orpington breeders in CT??? I am looking for blues/lavenders , I could order but only want a small number , am looking for day old/week old chicks for Spring.
thanks
Diane

 

[new chick 203]

I know what you mean, I only have three girls at the moment and I worry about them. So far so good. I keep it clean, check the water for ice, bring them a hot water bottle each night, hot oatmeal in the morning - what more can you do?

 

[Galinha]

I could really use the help of some of the more experienced chicken folk on here. This morning my husband walked out to our coop/run to find 10 of our <1 year old bantams (2 roosters and 8 hens), a pair of Runt pigeons and 2 common pigeons dead in the run! Three hens - a cornish, a Japanese and an Ameracauna - and 5 common pigeons survived.

We have a coop with a heat lamp but many of the birds chose to roost in the rafters of the attached roofed run. I actually checked on them yesterday around 4:30pm and thought about picking them out of the rafters and locking them in the coop with the heat lamp but figured they would be fine since it was 8° degrees yesterday with no incidents.

These birds seemed completely normal up to the last time I saw them alive. Could they have frozen to death or should I be looking at other potential causes? There were no signs of a predator attack, they didn't have anything different to eat and the last time we added a bird to the flock was in the middle of November. Any insight into probable causes of their deaths would be helpful.

 

[new chick 203]

is it normal for them to not sleep in the coop? Most people shut the birds in at night, especially in the north where it's cold. Could there have been a predator in the coop that frightened them from going in?

I could really use the help of some of the more experienced chicken folk on here. This morning my husband walked out to our coop/run to find 10 of our <1 year old bantams (2 roosters and 8 hens), a pair of Runt pigeons and 2 common pigeons dead in the run! Three hens - a cornish, a Japanese and an Ameracauna - and 5 common pigeons survived.

We have a coop with a heat lamp but many of the birds chose to roost in the rafters of the attached roofed run. I actually checked on them yesterday around 4:30pm and thought about picking them out of the rafters and locking them in the coop with the heat lamp but figured they would be fine since it was 8° degrees yesterday with no incidents.

These birds seemed completely normal up to the last time I saw them alive. Could they have frozen to death or should I be looking at other potential causes? There were no signs of a predator attack, they didn't have anything different to eat and the last time we added a bird to the flock was in the middle of November. Any insight into probable causes of their deaths would be helpful.

 

[ll]

Galinha - sorry for your loss

Good luck solving the mystery too.
Without any signs of bite marks or feathers flying, it reminds me of
a friend of a friend that washed his dog's water bowl with degreaser and accidentally poisoned his beloved family pet.

Otherwise I would guess moldy food. idk

Edit: Are your breeds cold hardy? The wind chill factor was terrible.

 

[Galinha]

It's completely normal for them to roost in the run rafters rather than in the coop which is why I decided not to lock them up for the night despite the cold. Plus, they had been fine the night before which was 8°. Last night was a bit colder; our thermometer said 5°. I always leave the coop door open so they can come and go as they please.

As for a predator, we know nothing got in there. I don't think that something would have scared them since they were about six feet high in the rafters. Actually, not all were in the rafters since the silkie and the runts can't fly. They typically go in the coop (again with a heat lamp and lots of pine shavings) or roost in the enclosed area under the coop.

Here is a photo of our coop and run so you can see it's quite protected.

 

[new chick 203]

It's a beautiful coop. I'm so sorry about the terrible loss, but I'm pretty sure it was the cold. You might take one to get an autopsy just to be sure. My guess is that it sounds like a lot of birds for that coop and they may have gotten use to spreading out into the run when the weather was better. If you decide to get more birds (when you have recovered from this) you might want too take a second look at how many square feet and how much roost per bird you have. I hope you take this as it's intended, trying to be helpful. It's just my guess from what you have shared.

It's completely normal for them to roost in the run rafters rather than in the coop which is why I decided not to lock them up for the night despite the cold. Plus, they had been fine the night before which was 8°. Last night was a bit colder; our thermometer said 5°. I always leave the coop door open so they can come and go as they please.

As for a predator, we know nothing got in there. I don't think that something would have scared them since they were about six feet high in the rafters. Actually, not all were in the rafters since the silkie and the runts can't fly. They typically go in the coop (again with a heat lamp and lots of pine shavings) or roost in the enclosed area under the coop.

Here is a photo of our coop and run so you can see it's quite protected.

 

[Galinha]

Thank you for your response and I don't feel like it was a criticsm but helpful feedback. It's certainly a possibility that these bantams had just gotten in the habit of sleeping out in the run rafters although we have quite a bit of roosting space in the coop. I could see how it could have been too toasty in the warmer months had all the birds chosen to roost inside. I definitely don't intend to have as many birds as before and admit to a little "scope creep" when we got our first batch of chicks. I feel horribly guilty for not putting the birds up when I thought about it last night but figured they had been fine the night before and surely they would be smart enough to go where it's warm if they were cold. Tonight I have put the remaining hens in the coop with the door closed and the heat lamp on. I will call the CT Ag Dept tomorrow to see if they think an autopsy is advisable. Thanks again for your response.

 

[Galinha]

Thanks, II. I thought about the possibility of poisoning but can't think of anything that changed. I hadn't changed food, waterers or used any chemicals for cleaning. The food is fresh and all the birds ate it, presumably including the surviving hens.

As for being cold tolerant breeds, I think the least cold tolerant would have been the surviving red-laced Cornish. I can't understand how we could have lost a very well-feathered silkie to the cold, for sure. I suppose I do hope it was the temperature as, if it's not, I'm not sure what to do to protect my remaining birds.