Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Arielle]

Apparently

No reason to ever feel this way among this bunch--

 

[Arielle]

Anyone elxperiencing any issues with combs and waddles in this wonderful winter weather?

 

[gjensen]

Anyone elxperiencing any issues with combs and waddles in this wonderful winter weather?

That is why I live in the South. LOL

if I did not, I would do one of two things. Cut the wattles and combs off, or get a breed that I did not have to. I am not being smart. I am serious. I would not want to hassle with it. For me or the birds.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Anyone elxperiencing any issues with combs and waddles in this wonderful winter weather?

Big time.

They do lots better with night time temps in the teens than they do with them in the single digits.

Working on ways to warm up my coops (if it is even possible) in the winter time. I didn't realize it got so cold here. We're two USDA zones different than where we were in California and it sure is a big change. USDA says 9a with average lows of 20-25 but now we're in 7a with lows of 0-5 degrees. Record temps for this week are -25 degrees. I hope I don't see that!

Does anybody have any ideas on how to warm a barn without using electricity? I know some will say to just breed for winter hardiness or that I shouldn't have gotten hot weather birds and brought them to such a cold place. Well, I already had them when I moved here and they take the intense heat very well. The cold, not so much. I'm not willing to give them up. I like them very very much and I would rather make some modifications to my barns to help them through the winters than to chop all their heads off.

I've thought about a hot bed like you would do for a winter sprouting/maintaining area for plants but I believe those need full sun to maintain temps. Also thought about compost. That makes too much humidity though.

When I lived in California, I had a barn that had interior walls as well as exterior walls and that air space made quite a difference in insulation value. We closed it up at night. In the morning, it was warm inside that barn. I never noticed any condensation anywhere and the birds never had frostbite. It got colder than 20 degrees on occasion too but that temp now would be a very welcome low temp.

I plan to make big windows with plastic coverings next year (spring) that can let the sun into the coop during the day making nice warm sunbeams for my birds to bathe in during the day. Putting on inner walls is probably my best bet and then closing it up at night? I've been trying to increase ventilation like everybody says I should and I've been seeing more frostbite on younger birds. Usually it is the older males (1 year +) with the bigger combs and wattles that suffer the most.

Or, should I make double walls as mentioned above and then have ventilation and sleeping boxes?

I'm ready to pull my hair out and I feel so bad for my birds when I can't even go outside in the evening to clean up uneaten food and close up the building for five or ten minutes without my fingertips burning because they are so very cold!

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I met a fellow here that has lovelies like peacocks and has a heated house for them. In mid Feb it was a little bit of heaven to step into the warm shed and see colorful birds greet me. barring that, can you use anything that is solar based. Clear roofing or plastic and have the rays hit dark earth or dark anything and collect heat during the day to realease at night??

THere is a new green house design for winter growing perhaps in the future might be beneficial to you. Based on digging down into the earth, a flat roof angled to catch the mid winter sun. Perhaps anything in this direction might help. Will see if I can find it in my notes.

 

[finnfur]

Big time.

They do lots better with night time temps in the teens than they do with them in the single digits.

Working on ways to warm up my coops (if it is even possible) in the winter time. I didn't realize it got so cold here. We're two USDA zones different than where we were in California and it sure is a big change. USDA says 9a with average lows of 20-25 but now we're in 7a with lows of 0-5 degrees. Record temps for this week are -25 degrees. I hope I don't see that!

Does anybody have any ideas on how to warm a barn without using electricity? I know some will say to just breed for winter hardiness or that I shouldn't have gotten hot weather birds and brought them to such a cold place. Well, I already had them when I moved here and they take the intense heat very well. The cold, not so much. I'm not willing to give them up. I like them very very much and I would rather make some modifications to my barns to help them through the winters than to chop all their heads off.

I've thought about a hot bed like you would do for a winter sprouting/maintaining area for plants but I believe those need full sun to maintain temps. Also thought about compost. That makes too much humidity though.

When I lived in California, I had a barn that had interior walls as well as exterior walls and that air space made quite a difference in insulation value. We closed it up at night. In the morning, it was warm inside that barn. I never noticed any condensation anywhere and the birds never had frostbite. It got colder than 20 degrees on occasion too but that temp now would be a very welcome low temp.

I plan to make big windows with plastic coverings next year (spring) that can let the sun into the coop during the day making nice warm sunbeams for my birds to bathe in during the day. Putting on inner walls is probably my best bet and then closing it up at night? I've been trying to increase ventilation like everybody says I should and I've been seeing more frostbite on younger birds. Usually it is the older males (1 year +) with the bigger combs and wattles that suffer the most.

Or, should I make double walls as mentioned above and then have ventilation and sleeping boxes?

I'm ready to pull my hair out and I feel so bad for my birds when I can't even go outside in the evening to clean up uneaten food and close up the building for five or ten minutes without my fingertips burning because they are so very cold!

Well maybe some radiant heat in sunlight in daytime to warm up the interior.
Then have small roosting boxes inside the barn that would retain the group heat.
Thats all I can think of without electric.
Its rare we stay in the teens and when it does I just use brooder lamp with thermo switch which keeps water in coop from freezing also.

 

[Arielle]

Here is the greenhouse -- it might inspire a suitable solution:
http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/build-underground-greenhouse-garden-year-round.html

I have put clear plexiglass in the roof of my horse barns and it helps to heat the barns.



Recently a family survived the extreme cold when stranded in the wilderness: heat stones and put them in the car at night. Perhaps 2L soda bottles filled with hot water overnight.

ANother person in NH uses 2 4 x 8 sheets of plywood to make an A frame house--

ANother person moved the rooster into a box at night-- the premise is put them in a smaller area so their body heat is held within the confines.

 

[Beekissed]

That looks like a lot of heavy machinery went into it! Neat idea, though. Lacy, a greenhouse type run connected to your coop might be of benefit. Some do it with a cattle panel construction and then line the walls with hay or straw bales to insulate and conserve heat.

 

[bnjrob]

Thank you Lacy. You must have picked up on that from your kids? I will ask mine if they know what t means. LOL.

Bunk is an old term - older than at least 40+ years. Haven't heard bunk used that way much in years and I don't have kids so I know I didn't pick it up from them.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Quote:

Well maybe some radiant heat in sunlight in daytime to warm up the interior.
Then have small roosting boxes inside the barn that would retain the group heat.
Thats all I can think of without electric.
Its rare we stay in the teens and when it does I just use brooder lamp with thermo switch which keeps water in coop from freezing also.

That's the other thing I was trying to think of... some kind of heat sink like what is used in a green house, but like you said, it has to have the sun hitting it. I'm trying to think if it would be feasible to get a few of those blue 55 gallon barrels and paint them black and have them in the coop in the sun during the day (after I get my windows built next year) and then move them under the roosting boxes to release their heat for the birds during the night. But one of those things full of water is probably going to weigh 800 pounds and I know I couldn't move it. Know of anything lighter that could be put in the barrels that will hold the heat?

Here is the greenhouse -- it might inspire a suitable solution:
http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/build-underground-greenhouse-garden-year-round.html

I have put clear plexiglass in the roof of my horse barns and it helps to heat the barns.



Recently a family survived the extreme cold when stranded in the wilderness: heat stones and put them in the car at night. Perhaps 2L soda bottles filled with hot water overnight.

ANother person in NH uses 2 4 x 8 sheets of plywood to make an A frame house--

ANother person moved the rooster into a box at night-- the premise is put them in a smaller area so their body heat is held within the confines.

I have seen that greenhouse and I love it! I plan to build one some day (I hope). I plan to make step sides and put straw bales on them to do straw bale gardening on during the extended growing season I would have. I was thinking that come winter time, I would set up some temporary pens in the thing for the birds.

How did you set up plexiglass for your roof? What about summer? Do you have something to cover it with? Do you have pictures? I will be changing the structure of my roof next spring so the sooner I learn about this, the better.

That looks like a lot of heavy machinery went into it! Neat idea, though. Lacy, a greenhouse type run connected to your coop might be of benefit. Some do it with a cattle panel construction and then line the walls with hay or straw bales to insulate and conserve heat.

Thanks everybody for all your helpful ideas... gotta get my brain to figure this mess out. Some kind of attached sun porch is an idea that is in the planning stage. Right now though, my husband is between jobs as his former employer closed their doors and money is tight. I am caught between a rock and a hard place here in regard to my birds. I'm hoping and waiting for future plans to come to fruition but in the meantime I think I will try making some individual sleeping boxes to cover my boys as they sleep on their perches. I have the best of the young boys and a couple of older boys in pens by themselves as future and current breeders. I have to let them grow up so I can see what I have. Anyway, in the future (hopefully next year) I won't be having individually penned birds but four smaller flocks where I have one cock in with about 6 hens.

For this year though... something surrounding them to hold their heat in.

Bunk is an old term - older than at least 40+ years. Haven't heard bunk used that way much in years and I don't have kids so I know I didn't pick it up from them.

I think George was referring to my "assuming" that everyone understood the term.