Doing all that is noted, still have frostbit comb tips?

[patandchickens]

It would be worth trying to figure out whether there is a correctable humidity problem going on. That is a *gorgeous* coop, but it is still a considerable number of birds in there and it would probably be worth buying a hygrometer, calibrating it (that is, using the salt method to calculate its personal correction factor, see the 'Incubating And Hatching Eggs' section of BYC for directions), and then leaving it out there for a few days to find out what your nighttime humidity is.

If humidity readings (corrected for the hygrometer's inaccuracy) are below 60-70%, then I'd say you probably just have unusually susceptable roos; OTOH if they are higher, and I could certainly imagine they might be, then it would be worth seeing whether some structural or management changes might help. (Ventilation won't cure severely damp *weather* but usually when it's that cold it isn't that humid in the coop, so IMO most often it's a management issue not a climate issue).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[nikischicks]

That pic shows twice the amount of birds we have now too, I just realised that.
The weather is so crazy here that now its raining and real cold so its nasty damp air. I think that there is plenty of space for them in there though. I would think 7x14 would be plenty for 13? Thats 98 sq feet. The picture shows about half the space on the inside, he kind of zoomed in. It was just about a 7x7 or 8x8 and I added on the back at least that amount then we cut out the back wall of the original to make it twice the size, the first pic was before this, but you cant really see the depth anyway.

See the thing is I have read so much posted here on the ventilation that it seems that all the insulation I did is kind of mute, since you need a flow of air. I do not have any air movement through the roost area in the back though, wouldnt that be considered 'draft' Its all a bit confusing trying to make a warm coup to go to that has cold air coming in. I could have it sealed up nice but then it would be more damp, I just dont know what to do with it.
Thanks for the compliments! Im glad someone spent so much on a nice playhouse a while back, they never thought there would be chickens living it!

 

[Akane]

Frostbit combs is more of an aesthetic problem and somewhat uncomfortable for the roos than seriously harmful. I suppose infection could result but it doesn't seem common. I cut the comb off one of my roos last winter because the whole thing turned black and it was black all the way through the tissue. He liked to dunk his whole head in the bucket when he drank and I'm thinking he froze his own head doing it. He hated having it touched while it was frostbit but otherwise acted normal and didn't complain much when I removed it. He seemed much happier a day later and it healed within weeks after spending months doing nothing but remaining tender and black. I did cut a little high so it wouldn't bleed much or cut a lot of healthy tissue and the few bits of black disapeared by spring. After that he was a normal roo except for looking like a hen.

There is a reason for dubbing in the north and you want to prevent it as much as possible but it's not something to panic over.

 

[Opa]

I had a beautiful Welsummer rooster that was kept in a heat coop at night all winter. Almost everyday I applied Dionne's Frost Protection Udder Balm to his comb and rooster. I became such a ritual that I sometimes thought he was enjoying it a little too much. However in spite of all my precautions he still managed to get severely frost bitten which resulted in his looking like he had been dubbed. Unless you kept them indoors all winter I don't think there is any fool proof method to prevent frostbite.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It is possible that's part of your problem -- although in a coop that size, with even half that number of chickens, I would still expect it to be somewhat warmer (and thus, aside from chickens' contributions, less humid) than outdoors, so I still dunno. The reason I am mentioning the number of chickens btw is NOT about crowding - you have plenty of space to avoid that -- but about humidity that they produce.

Can I ask how much of what type/location of ventilation you have?

See the thing is I have read so much posted here on the ventilation that it seems that all the insulation I did is kind of mute, since you need a flow of air. I do not have any air movement through the roost area in the back though, wouldnt that be considered 'draft' Its all a bit confusing trying to make a warm coup to go to that has cold air coming in.

No, insulation is still worthwhile. It preserves heat in the coop as best possible, even though you *also* do have some ventilation. Is it not worth wearing a winter coat if you're going hatless, or don't *zip* the coat?

In terms of ventilation, there are two things here, drafts that are bad -- i.e. anything that creates meaningful wind on the chickens -- and also air exchange in a useful sense -- which is when your air movement occurs in a sufficiently distributed and gentle way not to cause 'wind chill' where the chickens are. What you are aiming for is to have sufficient air exchange that humidity doesn't build up, but not doing it at a high enough velocity in a location near enough to the chickens' physical location to be causing a draft for them. Does that help any?

I don't know what arrangements you have, but probably the ideal situation for your type coop would be if the chickens are roosting at one upwind end of it and you could have a vent (not your only vent, but *one* of them) at least a foot square at the very tippy top of the opposite, thus downwind, gable end. This would vent out the very warmest air, which is what you WANT to be doing b/c that is also the air carrying the most moisture, but it'd be occurring across the coop from roosting chickens. In odd weather with a wind from the east (like here today, boy oh boy!) you would close that vent off with a flap. Vents lower down, e.g. under the eaves, are useful too, but in a very steep-and-high-roofed structure like yours they are not giving you as much 'bang for your buck', in terms of moisture removed per cu ft of air exchange.

If you're concerned, you could put a lightbulb in a reflector fixture (not a heatlamp, just a 60-100w bulb, perhaps red, with a good chickenproof wire guard over the bottom of it) over the roost, only for if you have another spell of 'hovering around freezing with lots of rain' type weather.

I still think it'd be worth putting an accurate hygrometer in there, though, to give you an idea of whether coop humidity is higher than outdoors (which is fixable, unlike the weather).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[ErieSpurs]

Nice looking Coop. And I love the swirly face

Perhaps try using stall dry to help dry it out. I agree that a hygrometer might be a good investment.

You gotta love those Ohio winters.

Good Luck.

 

[NYREDS]

Frostbite is pretty painful. If you're having a problem with it you might want to consider dubbing. A previous poster mentioned that a frost bitten male didn't like to have his comb touched while it was frostbitten. That's because it hurt. I'm unconvinced about the benefit of vaseline to prevent frostbite.

 

[nikischicks]

I may really want to go ahead and dub them as suggested, it seems it would be so much easier.
I have stall dry under their roosts as a sort of cat box type situation, I just scoop out the poop every few days.
Pat- I see what you are saying about humidity and not crowding now. I can do as you suggested with the vent on the other high end from where they roost, would using a small fan on low to suck out the damp air be of any help? And I totally understand what you mean about the vents under the eaves, I was going to do that but then decided it was just too close to the roosts and probably not work out so well.
I have a red light I used on them when they were chicks, I just dont want to make them dependant on one. With the crazy wind today we could go without power at any time. And its just not that cold yet for ohio so I dont want to baby them, they are just farm animals in the end no matter how much people baby them.
Akane- Did you dub them when they were already frostbit then? Thats ok?
And all mine are girls, some just have huge combs!

I appreciate all the help from everyone, I have done a ton of reading on here so I wouldnt be going into this blind, it has helped a lot.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Wait, then if you don't have a vent on the top gable ends and don't have eaves vents, where ARE your vents?

I wouldn't put a fan in though. You don't want that kind of air mvmt in winter. Passive ventilation is usually quite adequate, if the design is right.

Removing the poo from under the roost *every* morning, not just every few days, might help too.

Honestly it is sounding more and more to me like a humidity issue that you may be able to fix and prevent future problems.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Wynette]

Another thing to consider: quite commonly, a rooster won't breed when his comb is frostbitten, so you'll have egg fertility issues. I had a roo last year that got the tips of his comb frostbitten, and it took MONTHS for the tips to finally fall off. I had to separate him, too, because the girls were pecking at the tips. It's not worth it, to me, to have to separate my roo for months, so I now slather them up!