Consolidated Kansas

[michelleml]

Danz sorry you've had such a crappy time i hope things get better for you. Hope cloud and puppies will be okay good luck

off topic but other horse owners would this cattle shelter be okay for horses/donkeys?

 

[chicken danz]

How tall is the shed? Looks like it would work to me.
We are now up to 8 puppies. She just had another one. I have got to say that so far she is having a much easier time than Marshmallow ever did. I hope it continues.Most of the babies have at least nursed a little except the last couple. I am so glad she is inside. They would have never survived the cold tonight. I have one little campine roo who wasn't doing well when I went back out to the brooder. I brought him in and have the vaporizer on him. I put some more shavings down on the two end areas of the brooder so maybe it will be slightly warmer.
I figured out chickens and dogs are like children. Mom's have no time to be sick!

 

[ppimf]

hey guys, do any of you from kansas have any cayuga ducks, i'm looking for someone close to kansas to try to do the shortest shipping here. i would be interested in like 5 or 6 eggs from them if any one would want to trade or i'll pay for them. i will have f&w runner, rouen, pekin eggs starting feb . i would like to have the eggs sometime in feb or march

 

[Trish44]

Danz, congrats on the puppies, I hope they all do OK, keep us up to date. I hope you feel better soon too. What a crappy time for Cloud to have her puppies, at least you were able to get her inside where she is warm & safe & the puppies are too.

Well gotta run again, I have to go into town to pick up a couple things. It's going to be busy for several days, I probably won't be on here much. Tomorrow my DH want to go to Wichita to do shopping since he has decided to work Sat. He was supposed to be off on vacation after tonight. We're going to take the girls down to OKC to celebrate Christmas with my son too, so I have lots to do to get ready for that. I haven't even got their gifts wrapped yet. Oh & I just found out I'm probably getting my little Salmon Faverolle rooster tomorrow too, the gal is supposed to be coming this direction tomorrow if we can work it out for me to be here.

 

[Trish44]

hey guys, do any of you from kansas have any cayuga ducks, i'm looking for someone close to kansas to try to do the shortest shipping here. i would be interested in like 5 or 6 eggs from them if any one would want to trade or i'll pay for them. i will have f&w runner, rouen, pekin eggs starting feb . i would like to have the eggs sometime in feb or march

Sunflowerparrot has Cayugas, but she is in Winfield, a ways for you to drive.

 

[ppimf]

Sunflowerparrot has Cayugas, but she is in Winfield, a ways for you to drive.

yeah i sent her a message on here. i would just have them sent usps

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye, I'm not an expert on chicken injuries, but it almost sounds like a spinal injury or nerve if he can't grip with that foot & doesn't seem to feel pain in it. Maybe it will improve after the swelling decreases, time will tell about that.

I went & got the little leghorn pullets this afternoon. I had to make a flying trip up to Douglass to get them because I didn't get a lot of notice about when I could come get them & I had someone coming to pick up some things they were buying from me. They're about 6 months old, so I would think they would start laying soon if they weren't already. The guy I bought them from said they were his dad's, so he wasn't sure if they had been laying or not. I got one white & 3 brown & the white one actually doesn't seem as flighty as the brown ones. I was able to go right up to her & pick her up after I let them out of the crate. I wasn't aware that the brown ones had yellow earlobes. I thought all white egg layers had white earlobes, but I guess not. Anyway, they are really nice little pullets & after they fill out some they will be some good little layers for me. I should have a nice mix of brown & white eggs & after my Welsummers start laying I will have some dark egg layers too. Hopefully they will do a better job than these Marans I have did. My little chicks that hatched from my eggs are starting to get little dots on their wings, they're so darned cute. They get up on top of the Brinsea Ecoglow so they can see over the thing I put over the door to try to stop the shavings from shooting out the door & chirp at me.

I think you're right about my roo. Good luck with the new pullets! I hope they are great layers for you! I'll have to invest in an EcoGlow at some point.

My Golden Campine hen had a similar problem this fall. She was dragging the leg and even stepping on it with the good leg. She could barely get around at all. When I held her and put my hand under her feet, there was no resistance to my pressure up from the injured leg. I figured she was done.

I took her to my vet and he said she had about a 30 % chance of getting enough use of the leg to live a moderately normal life. He thought she had torn either a ligament or a nerve. I'm guessing here, but there was some loose wire on a couple of the straw bales in the run, and I wonder if she caught a foot when she jumped down from one.

In any case, she was isolated in the grow out hoop coop (near the run) for 2 weeks while I was gone to my daughter's. My DH took VERY good care of her being sure that he gave them their treats right next to where she was in the hoop. By the time I got home, she was hopping around using the bad leg as sort of a crutch. She was able to get up on the roost (a foot and a half off the ground) in the run part of the hoop, too, and she could get up to the nest boxes in the hoop to sleep at night.

At this time she is working her way back up the pecking order (she had been the head hen before the injury, and she is back up to 3rd or 4th from the top) and getting around almost normally. She still isn't completely healed, but she is living a normal life and bossing everyone around again.

I'd give the boy a chance if you have a way to separate him and still give him room to move around. You never know. Chickens seem to heal pretty well.

Sharol

Thank you so much for the reminder of your campine that got injured! I'm hoping my boy will be okay. We'll see. He's getting around okay. He flaps his wings hard to help him stay upright when he is getting around. He can get himself to the feed and the water. I'm guessing he won't starve. They are also warm, I have a heat lamp over them AND they have a cookie tin heater in their bachelor pad. I left him alone, he has picked out a safe spot in there, and the other boys are ignoring him for now. If he looks picked on, I'll put him in a kennel, but I'd rather not as I think he'll be warmer with the other birds.

Hawkeye he might just be in a lot of pain. Try to drop some childrens tylenol in his mouth. Just a drop or two. You might give him some vitamin E as well in case it is neurological. Give him a few days. He might start showing some improvement. Sounds like your boys are all wanting to be top roo these days.
Josie hang in there. Don't let the MIL upset you. One of these days she'll realize she can't call all the shots. Obviously she's a bit of a control freak and thinks she needs to control your finances as well. I think if she doesn't get more excited about the baby that could be a blessing in disguise!
I am totally disgusted. I have only been home from Topeka for 30 minutes or so. I spent lots of time and got very little. I guess I was just not in a mood to spend money and every one was so slow. It took me 45 minutes in Toys R Us while l waited for them to tell me they didn't have magnetic letters and then couldn't find them on line. I had found them on line so I know they were there. They kept getting side tracked and chit chatting with each other while I stood around. LOUSY customer service!
About all I got was some gifts for my two youngest granddaughters....and a headache!
SO then I get home and I have an email. I am SO done with scammers. I lost about $50 trying to appease this one gal that said she got the wrong product and she is still complaining because the postal service hasn't delivered the new product to her yet. Not my fault. Anyway I had a message from a gal saying she hadn't received her Lemax item yet. I looked up the confirmation and it said it was delivered yesterday so I wrote her back and told her and advised her to contact her postman.
She wrote me back and is demanding I send her all her money back and send her the item again. You have got to be kidding me! I told her that delivery confirmation showed it was delivered and I had done my part. That I didn't have access into USPS system to fake a delivery, so she'd better talk to him.. not me. I invited her to file a dispute if she wasn't happy. I am so sick of people wanting to get something for nothing. Of course it doesn't help I had two bogus charges show up on my credit card in the last month either!
It's no wonder people get crabby during the holidays if every one has to deal with a bunch of dishonest nasty people. It makes me appreciate staying home with my chickens even more.
It's amazing what a couple hours drive makes in the weather. Our high today was 44 and the wind was cold. Further west it was snowing. It is raining here. And down by Wichita you guys had nice weather.

Yeah, I need to do the Vit E, I haven't done that! Thanks for the reminder!! UGH, I'm so sorry about the scammers! I swear, this whole world is going down the drain. Glad I live far away from most people out here.

We, too, desperately needed the moisture. Yesterday's snow and the .05" of rain a couple days ago are the only moisture we've had since this spring. We had white-out conditions here yesterday evening and winds that were gusting to 55 mph. The wind chill was in the single digits yesterday at about 4pm MST and fell after that. This morning, even my horses were shivering. I brushed the ice/snow off of 'em and put a horse blanket on the one that was shivering the worst (I only have one blanket - bought it at a garage sale for $2). When I went out yesterday, I had on 6-8 long-sleeved shirts/sweaters, plus a quilted flannel shirt and a carhartt coat. I also had on wool socks, heavy gloves, an ear warmer and a wool hat. The only thing that was showing was my face, and I was really wishing I owned a ski mask. It was downright COLD out there. When I did chores yesterday evening, I gave my birds fresh water, just like usual. My silly birds didn't seem to mind that it was 20*F outside with a 7*F wind chill. They were trying to take a bath in their water bowl, despite the cold! Silly birds!

So far my horses have fared well, it rained last night and then turned into snow and it was COLD. But I had all the horses put up in their stalls in the barn with grain to eat, so they did really well. I have a neon Pink coat for my old mare if she gets too cold. I'm sure I'll be using it this winter. She does okay at first and then it just catches up to her. I've been having to medicate her with Bute every sinlge night to keep her walking. The cold has about stoved her up. She's able to get around okay with the Bute. Poor thing.

Hawkeye, sorry you had to deal with sick kids. That's so tiring. I had one throwing up all morning yesterday but somehow in the afternoon she just got up and announced she was better and she was. I'm so thankful that no one else got it. There have been times that it's taken a whole month for bugs to get through everyone. Sorry to hear about your roos fighting, that is a pain in the patootie. If it were me I would just give him some time in a small pen/cage and give him time to rest and see if he gets better. My EE miraculously started walking on her hurt leg, visible swelling and all and today she's back in with the others and you can't even pick her out of the group. I don't get it, sometimes they just get better so I'm going to suggest give him some time to see what happens.

I was expecting chicks to hatch today, but they came yesterday. I had a few pips the day before yesterday. When the pips obviously didn't progress overnight I inspected and they were all shrink wrapped. I have to put an end to this shrink wrap problem, it's my biggest issue. After realizing they were shrink wrapped, and knowing that my chicks always hatch early it put some pressure on me to help or not to. Of course I helped the 8-10 that were already hatching first, slowly with lots of breaks. I got those stable and started working on the others one at a time. ALL were shrink wrapped. All but 2 had broken the membrane inside of the shell and had their beaks out at least but not through the shell at all. They couldn't move. I found 1 that quit developing a few days before hatch, 2 died during hatch, the ones that didn't have their beaks through. I helped the rest of the chicks, so this hatch, every single chick I helped. I have 23 chicks, it was a long day. 3 chicks had significant yolk sac issues, a few had minor yolk sacs. The 3 that had big ones I really didn't think would make it. I put them back in the incubator, not the hatcher/incubator we just made. They would be disturbed less there. I just left them there to rest. One got loose from his shell and his yolk sac didn't absorb but dried. The other 2 were very stuck to their shell with lots of stuff in different directions, I've never seen that before. They remained lying on their side all night stuck to the shell. This morning I thought one was dead, but both of those the yolk absorbed but I had to cut a cord with scissors to get them loose. Now both of those chicks are learning to walk and I'm just totally amazed. They seriously couldn't get off of that one side. We propped them up at first and it didn't take long for them to adjust. Now they're eating and drinking, walking although wobbly. We will keep them separate until tomorrow morning to give them time to get more steady. There are another 2 chicks in the lively group, their legs look like they're doing the the splits. I told my dd that they reminded me of her. She was a breech baby and her feet were stuck by her ears for the longest time. We are doing exercises with them to help them walk with their legs together. We will see how it goes.

Considering the talk about power failures, I think I'll stop hatching until February. I mean a month old chick will better be able to handle mishaps like that than brand new ones. I'm hoping maybe I won't have to run a heater too. It's still nice to work in the brooder room even with the few heat lamps. My baby chick brooder has 2 lights, it's been nice when they go out they still have another spot to go to get warm. I still have places in the brooder room but not enough spots to continue to rotate them outside as they get bigger so if I wait until warmer weather comes and we can get more pens built I think it would be the more responsible thing to do.

Danz, I hope you get to feeling better soon.

Oh no, I'm sorry your kids have been sick too. It's been bad, but I think everyone is on the mend now. I hope! I'm really sorry about your sticky chicks! NO FUN! Do you boost your humidity with warm soaking wet towels? What does your Hygro say? It should be reading 65-70% humidity. If it's any lower, then it's no wonder they are sticky. I had problems at first until I realized how important it is to watch that hygro gage like a HAWK. Be all over it and when it starts to dip down, add water!

I just had to be right this time! I told DH when he woke up to go Pee that I thought Cloud might be having pups so we needed to get the dog house moved. Of course the tractor wasn't plugged in so we can't move it. He came running in 20 minutes later saying she went out to poop and dropped a pup in the snow. Then she went in the barn and crawled back in a bunch of stuff. Neither one of us could lift her. She weighs a ton. I finally grabbed her collar and pulled her while she skidded her feet trying to stop. I finally got Dh to push her back in and together we got her lifted into the truck, Then I drug her from the truck to the house. After she tracked mud everywhere and so did Marshmallow..(she of course had to know what was going on!) Cloud finally settled in the utility room. She has three puppies so far and seems to be doing well although the pups haven't nursed yet. I am just checking on her every now and then and making sure she is doing okay. Once she gets more settled I'll try to attach some pups. In answer to someone's question, no she isn't house trained. These dogs just don't like being indoors. If I have to I will clean up messes.
It will be tomorrow before I can get the house moved and a kennel set up. At least in the interim I know they pups won't freeze. I Just hope she doesn't have trouble like her Mom did.
At least it isn't Christmas day so I might be able to reach the vet if I have to .
I could sure deal with this better if I wasn't feeling so crappy.

OH MY!! So glad you caught that first pup! You might never have seen it until much, much later. Good thinking that your DH was checking on her. Congrats on the puppies and I hope they do great! May they be fat and thriving!

Danz sorry you've had such a crappy time i hope things get better for you. Hope cloud and puppies will be okay good luck

off topic but other horse owners would this cattle shelter be okay for horses/donkeys?

Looks good to me. Are those cement floors?? Cows and horses have hooves and can NOT be on cement floors. You'll want to get rubber mats to lay down so they don't fall. If they fall-- you're talking about putting a horse down which is sad, sad. And even then, if they don't break a leg, they could rip a tendon or do something really horrible to their legs or back. Anyway, just putting hay or chips on top won't cut it. It has to be mats. That is why you ALWAYS have rubber mats in your horse trailer, too. They need to grip on slick surfaces. How tall is it? Hopefully it's about 8-9 feet tall. Taller would be better, but you could carefully train them to enter and be calm. If you can't get mats for the barn, I would NOT put them in there. No way. Just an FYI. I've seen a lot of horrendous things happen to horses. I worked as an Equine vet tech for a couple of years and the injuries I saw from trailers and slick surfaces... usually wound up with surgery or being put down.

How tall is the shed? Looks like it would work to me.
We are now up to 8 puppies. She just had another one. I have got to say that so far she is having a much easier time than Marshmallow ever did. I hope it continues.Most of the babies have at least nursed a little except the last couple. I am so glad she is inside. They would have never survived the cold tonight. I have one little campine roo who wasn't doing well when I went back out to the brooder. I brought him in and have the vaporizer on him. I put some more shavings down on the two end areas of the brooder so maybe it will be slightly warmer.
I figured out chickens and dogs are like children. Mom's have no time to be sick!

Congrats on the 8 puppies!! HOpe your boy does okay! Goodness, it rains, it pours!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So this morning I woke up to the silkies pens having frozen water! Sheesh! I thought since they were wrapped up with plastic and had the heat lamp over them, they'd be okay. But nope!! So I made up two more Cookie tin heaters about 2 hours ago and plugged them in out there. No more frozen water! Not to mention, they can snuggle up around the tin heaters if they get chilled.

 

[sharol]

My spoiled rotten hens (and Butch) wouldn't leave their coop today. They stuck their beaks out about noon and pronounced the wind "too cold" and came back in. They have sweeter heaters over the roost set to turn on when it gets down around 30 or so, so they haven't turned off today. last year I used a 20/30 thermocube, but this year I'm using the 30/45 one (on/off). Every hen is molting, and the missing feathers and the weird sudden cold just make them miserable. spoiled rotten, I tell you, spoiled!!! At least they are comfortable.

 

[lizzyGSR]

So far my horses have fared well, it rained last night and then turned into snow and it was COLD. But I had all the horses put up in their stalls in the barn with grain to eat, so they did really well. I have a neon Pink coat for my old mare if she gets too cold. I'm sure I'll be using it this winter. She does okay at first and then it just catches up to her. I've been having to medicate her with Bute every sinlge night to keep her walking. The cold has about stoved her up. She's able to get around okay with the Bute. Poor thing.

My horses have a barn (3-sided shed facing east), but the wind was blowing in such a way that everything in the barn was covered in snow. The horses actually decided that it was warmer behind the tree line than in the barn, but they got snowed on out there, and it got COLD last night (wind chill got down to -13*F). Their body heat made the snow melt, and then they had water running off of them, which then froze again. My mare is 21 years old, and I"m afraid the move and the wide swings in temperatures are hard on her. I don't know that there's a whole lot else I can do for her/them though.

 

[cherwill]

Our Christmas party/dinner for DH's shift went well. Almost everyone had seconds and some had thirds so I guess the food was OK! The car shopping is on hold for now even though my Montero won't start at all now. One of the guys told me I can't get the Liberty and when I told him I was the one who'd be driving it, his response was yes, but HE would have to see me driving it around town!

I even had a burst of good will the day before and made trees out of stacked gingerbread stars and royal icing for them to take home with them. I haven't done that in years.

I wish the sickness would go away, I hope all of you and your families get well and stay well. It's going around here in town still. My mom's sick and hoping she'll be over it by the time she has everyone over for Christmas Tuesday. I told her to delegate if necessary, but I'm hoping she won't have to. I'm so sick of trying to figure out food for family nights, holidays, parties, etc. Most of my shopping is done. I just need to get some oranges for my dad (he specifically requested them) and figure out something I can make for the neighbors. I think Mom is planning to just do the meal and not have us bring anything (unless she's sick), so all I need is to make the cheesecake and something else for the in-law Christmas on Wednesday.

I am so excited, Iam busting at the seams here. I am getting some little baby duccles for my dd for xmas... I just have one problem, the only working vehicle is the one my dh drives to work. I want to get them this week, asap actually. I am trying desperately to try to find someone to help me get them but I only 8 bucks to give someone in gas. I have to get this done. This will be the biggest xmas surprise ever. She has always loved them and the 2 we had, we lost the one to a hawk, she is in love with. I have everything ready fot the chicks, I just need to get them,,, something always happens to delay me.

Congratulations! You know we want pictures ....

Thank you all for the input about the eggs! My husband asked me to wash them before I put them in the fridge. HE's worried about contaminating the other food in the fridge. What do you do about that? These eggs are much too large to put in an egg carton, so I don't have much choice but to just lay them on a shelf.

I know it isn't necessary to wash them most of the time, nor is it desirable if you're going to be storing the eggs for any time. I do often give mine a quick rinse in warm water, though. I can't keep Ruby from roosting in one of the nesting boxes and sometimes some of the eggs are smeared. We keep them in the fridge and use them quickly, though, so I'm not worried about any bacteria getting in because I've rinsed off the bloom. If an egg is lightly cracked and I'm sure the membrane hasn't been broken, I'll use it first. If the crack is bigger or I think the membrane might be broken, I give it to the dogs. I read somewhere that each 24 hours an egg is stored unrefrigerated, it's equivalent to about a week in the fridge. I'm not sure what the shelf life of a refrigerated egg is, but I think it's quite a while. I use mine quickly and if I get up to 4 dozen stocked up, I sell a dozen or two to my in-laws, so old eggs have never been an issue for us.

I realized this morning that I hadn't paid my car insurance and it was due in two days. I hate having things like that and taxes come due in December because it strains the budget further and it is just too easy to forget about.
I'd better get moving.

I hate that, too. Our car insurance is due in November and then the second half of our property taxes is due in mid-December. Bad timing all around!

Okay-- I need ideas! I have another chicken emergency. My roosters have been fighting here recently which is driving me nuts, because they have been together for MONTHS with no issues!! Idiots! For one, two of them got into a big fight and bloodied each other up really good. I got them cleaned up, put on antibiotics and separated. They were a mess. And now the both of them are missing HALF their beautiful full crests and part of their beards and muffs! They look awful!! But it's been a few days and they are healing well. One of them had a swollen eye that was closed off, but with the antibiotics and cleaning, he's fine. I bet he just got a really good peck to the eye. The eye is in tact and looks clear.

Sigh... well, Part II. The remaining roos must have got into another fight while I was gone, one of them managed to fly OVER the divider to the girl pen and I'm leaving him alone since he's not bothering the girls right now. And the worst thing is that I think one of my boys BROKE his legs! He can't move his leg! He is walking around and is able to drag it up under him and then he sits down on it. So he can get to the food, etc, but he must have flown into the wall or something or got it twisted in the fencing. I don't want to put him down, but I don't know what to do. I tried feeling the leg, but I don't feel any obvious breaks, or anything. He doesn't seem to flinch when I mess with it. I checked his wings and he still pulls them back tight to his body, so I'm not thinking disease, I'm thinking injury. Especially considering the brutal beatings that recently happened AND the fact that I found him with the leg and the other boy had flown over the divider the same day-- so guessing a scuffle happened. What can I do for his leg?? I can get pictures if that will help. He can drag the leg, and then he lifts his body up and is able to move the leg back under his body so he can sit down. Where would the injury be??

I have no ideas in addition to what you've already learned. I'm sorry for the fighting. My dogs fight and it sucks.

I am just sick. We lost power in the snow storm at about 3:30 am. I've been awake most of the time since. There was nothing I could do to get heat to the brooder. I could see thousands of dollars going down the drain. I called DH at work but it was 8:00 AM before he got home and could dig out a propane heaters to put in there. Not too safe for fumes but better than no heat. It just started warming up when the power came back on about 8:30. There was no way I could have dug around in the dark and found that stuff since he wasn't sure where it was.
Unfortunately I think I lost 4 of my white rock chicks. I have them in the house under a heat lamp but they were smothered by other chicks and it doesn't look like they will recover. It broke my perfect record. All of these 50 chicks I purchased for breeding red stars, including the baby red stars had survived up until now. I also lost one barred rock but out of the hundreds in there if that is all I have to thank the lord for not loosing more. I quite honestly was afraid I would have total carnage and loose at least a thousand dollars in money invested in all those birds.
The other problem is my incubator was off and it was getting pretty chilly in the house. I had eggs to come out today and I just hope it held the heat long enough not to kill them. The hatcher was ready but it has to get warmed back up as well. I guess I will just have to wait a day or two to see if any hatch.
I don't know where my dogs are either. I noticed the snow had blown in their dog houses and they had vacated them. The wind is just whipping in circles so there is no way to keep the snow out. I just hope Cloud didn't decide to whelp.
I bought a thermometer yesterday to check her but it is still in the car. By the time I got home last night I was too tied to drag the stuff I got in the house.
I do hope my other birds are okay.They are all staying hidden....even the ducks, except the silly geese. They were out playing in their water pan earlier. I am guessing it was frozen though because the heaters don't work with no power.
I lit the gas fireplace in the front room cause it was so cold in there. It really doesn't put out much heat but the front room is on the north and it is a super cold room.
I really am afraid for some of my younger birds that had no heat like my youngest olandsk. I just hope they all did okay. This really sucks. It makes you realize how much you could loose with just a tiny problem.

I hope they're OK. Other than getting a generator, which is expensive, I don't really know what you can do when the power goes out.

I just had to be right this time! I told DH when he woke up to go Pee that I thought Cloud might be having pups so we needed to get the dog house moved. Of course the tractor wasn't plugged in so we can't move it. He came running in 20 minutes later saying she went out to poop and dropped a pup in the snow. Then she went in the barn and crawled back in a bunch of stuff. Neither one of us could lift her. She weighs a ton. I finally grabbed her collar and pulled her while she skidded her feet trying to stop. I finally got Dh to push her back in and together we got her lifted into the truck, Then I drug her from the truck to the house. After she tracked mud everywhere and so did Marshmallow..(she of course had to know what was going on!) Cloud finally settled in the utility room. She has three puppies so far and seems to be doing well although the pups haven't nursed yet. I am just checking on her every now and then and making sure she is doing okay. Once she gets more settled I'll try to attach some pups. In answer to someone's question, no she isn't house trained. These dogs just don't like being indoors. If I have to I will clean up messes.
It will be tomorrow before I can get the house moved and a kennel set up. At least in the interim I know they pups won't freeze. I Just hope she doesn't have trouble like her Mom did.
At least it isn't Christmas day so I might be able to reach the vet if I have to .
I could sure deal with this better if I wasn't feeling so crappy.

Wow! Good thing your DH was watching.

My spoiled rotten hens (and Butch) wouldn't leave their coop today. They stuck their beaks out about noon and pronounced the wind "too cold" and came back in. They have sweeter heaters over the roost set to turn on when it gets down around 30 or so, so they haven't turned off today. last year I used a 20/30 thermocube, but this year I'm using the 30/45 one (on/off). Every hen is molting, and the missing feathers and the weird sudden cold just make them miserable. spoiled rotten, I tell you, spoiled!!! At least they are comfortable.

This made me laugh because my spoiled girls don't like the snow either. Some of them did come out a couple of times, but they never stayed out long. Most of the time they didn't even get all the way down their ramp before they turned around went back in.