hey all,
My first winter here with chickens in IL. Current temp is -5 with windchill -21. They’re asleep in their coop right now, I added a huge pile of extra hay/straw shavings to their coop yesterday to give them more insulation. After reading many threads and posts on this, my coop is not heated or additionally insulated. There are no drafts but there is ventilation. Unfortunately about 2 weeks ago I woke up to two of my hens dead in their pen from a coyote attack. The coyote used one of my pallets as a ladder and snuck through in a small gap between my chicken wire on top. I’m still recovering from that and so are my 3 remaining hens (cinnamon queen, white crest polish, Black Star). My Black Star lost some of her feathers during the struggle so she does have a few small bald spots. She also has some black spots on her comb she’s had since I received her (2 months ago) but I now understand that may be a product of previous frostbite which means she’s more susceptible. Any recommendations? My other problem is yesterday a new problem emerged I had never thought of: my polish dunked her entire face into the bowl of water, freezing many of her facial feathers. I didn’t know what to do but knew I had to thaw her crest somehow. I held her close to my body outside for a few minutes and then into my house we went. I thawed her head with warmth from my hand and some paper towels. I gave her a quick trim and back out she went. I held her close to me for a couple of minutes outside again and then straight into the coop she went to snuggle with my other two. I really did not want to bring her into my house because of the temp shock but knew I had to thaw her head somehow. I’m hoping she’s okay and will update tomorrow. I plan on getting a different heated waterer so she can’t dunk her entire head in but can’t do so until after work (5p), any idea of what to do until then?
My first winter here with chickens in IL. Current temp is -5 with windchill -21. They’re asleep in their coop right now, I added a huge pile of extra hay/straw shavings to their coop yesterday to give them more insulation. After reading many threads and posts on this, my coop is not heated or additionally insulated. There are no drafts but there is ventilation. Unfortunately about 2 weeks ago I woke up to two of my hens dead in their pen from a coyote attack. The coyote used one of my pallets as a ladder and snuck through in a small gap between my chicken wire on top. I’m still recovering from that and so are my 3 remaining hens (cinnamon queen, white crest polish, Black Star). My Black Star lost some of her feathers during the struggle so she does have a few small bald spots. She also has some black spots on her comb she’s had since I received her (2 months ago) but I now understand that may be a product of previous frostbite which means she’s more susceptible. Any recommendations? My other problem is yesterday a new problem emerged I had never thought of: my polish dunked her entire face into the bowl of water, freezing many of her facial feathers. I didn’t know what to do but knew I had to thaw her crest somehow. I held her close to my body outside for a few minutes and then into my house we went. I thawed her head with warmth from my hand and some paper towels. I gave her a quick trim and back out she went. I held her close to me for a couple of minutes outside again and then straight into the coop she went to snuggle with my other two. I really did not want to bring her into my house because of the temp shock but knew I had to thaw her head somehow. I’m hoping she’s okay and will update tomorrow. I plan on getting a different heated waterer so she can’t dunk her entire head in but can’t do so until after work (5p), any idea of what to do until then?
