Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

Big roosting drama this evening.
Maggie secured the prime spot - up against the wall - and she glued herself to the wall.

Bernie tried her usual trick of jumping up and making everyone shuffle to the side but Maggie was prepared for her and wouldn't budge. This initially led to a long staring contest with Bernie below the roost on the platform beak to beak with Maggie on the prime roost spot.
No pecking just staring - just like cats do before they really go at it!

Bernie made her move but couldn't dislodge Maggie so she landed between Maggie and Diana. Bad mistake!

The two old ladies unceremoniously booted her off the roost entirely and she had to fly back up and get the end slot next to Diana.

Funny chickens!

Good for Maggie & Diana!!! Bernadette is feeling a bit too big for her britches! While I love Bernadette, she needs to respect her elders!

 

[RoyalChick]

h0w much is 'open' (i.e. fence/wire, as opposed to solid?)in your Chicken Palace? I know you have some large windows that you close in cold weather........

And, yes, I agree. Low teens or, if very breezy, upper teens is when I worry about them.

Well where they roost - the hen house if you like - is a room with solid walls.
In summer I can open lots of windows and a human size door into the runs as well as the chicken door into the runs. But I can close all of them in winter - I have started closing windows now as Maggie is a bit featherless.
But the issue is it is very tall - about 10-12 feet to the peak of the roof - and there is loads of ventilation up high - so any introduced heat just flies straight out the roof.

 

[Ponypoor]

Thank you. That is very helpful.
It is similar to what I settled on last winter. I set up an electric space heater (one of those oil-filled ones) when it got into the teens in Fahrenheit (which is about -7C).
I had originally decided I would only heat when it got to single digits in Farenheit (which is about -12C) but I didn't love how they looked at that temperature.
Hopefully I won't have too many nights at that temperature.
One of the problems with the size of the Chicken Palace is that it is very difficult to introduce heat. I even considered installing a heat lamp over the roost even though they terrify me!

This is the one reason that I made the Hen House small, it’s 4’ x 10’ and they only spend the night in there or lay an egg in nest boxes.

It’s fully insulated and easy to heat if I need to. But they generate enough body heat to keep it at or above freezing in there. On the most chilly nights I was tempted to heat it, and this winter I likely will.

I also thought of using heat lamps but they freak me out too much. Still thinking what to do this winter…

 

[Ponypoor]

Big roosting drama this evening.
Maggie secured the prime spot - up against the wall - and she glued herself to the wall.

Bernie tried her usual trick of jumping up and making everyone shuffle to the side but Maggie was prepared for her and wouldn't budge. This initially led to a long staring contest with Bernie below the roost on the platform beak to beak with Maggie on the prime roost spot.
No pecking just staring - just like cats do before they really go at it!

Bernie made her move but couldn't dislodge Maggie so she landed between Maggie and Diana. Bad mistake!

The two old ladies unceremoniously booted her off the roost entirely and she had to fly back up and get the end slot next to Diana.

Funny chickens!

Too funny! That’s just hilarious

 

[lightm]

I found this in an article here on molting. No source given but it seems like an indepth article. It says:

Do new feathers push the old feathers out?

It is not that simple. The key to new feather formation is the removal of the old feather. The presence of a well-anchored feather prevents a new feather from forming. When that feather loosens or is plucked out, a new feather immediately begins to form. Prior to molting, the blood vessels supporting the old feather dry up, and feather attachment to the surrounding tissue becomes loosened and the feather falls out. At this point, a new feather will begin to grow.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/feather-molt-an-in-depth-look-at-molting.74666/

Thank you RC for this very informative paragraph.

 

[Ponypoor]

Well where they roost - the hen house if you like - is a room with solid walls.
In summer I can open lots of windows and a human size door into the runs as well as the chicken door into the runs. But I can close all of them in winter - I have started closing windows now as Maggie is a bit featherless.
But the issue is it is very tall - about 10-12 feet to the peak of the roof - and there is loads of ventilation up high - so any introduced heat just flies straight out the roof.

Hmmmm

Can you put a smaller ‘room’ in there for night time?

 

[RoyalChick]

Hmmmm

Can you put a smaller ‘room’ in there for night time?

Hmmm. Difficult. It is well insulated and in winter it gets good passive solar heat through the glass door. It is reliably several degrees warmer than the outside at dawn when it is coldest.
What I think I could do is get a wall mounted flat panel heater and figure how to mount it behind the main roost at chicken height. I would need to use plywood to create a wall across the window glass - but maybe I could screw a board in at the start of winter - or figure how to hang it - and then mount the heater to the board.
Then they would have heat right at their sleeping height and they would benefit before the heat wafts upwards.

 

[bgmathteach]

Well where they roost - the hen house if you like - is a room with solid walls.
In summer I can open lots of windows and a human size door into the runs as well as the chicken door into the runs. But I can close all of them in winter - I have started closing windows now as Maggie is a bit featherless.
But the issue is it is very tall - about 10-12 feet to the peak of the roof - and there is loads of ventilation up high - so any introduced heat just flies straight out the roof.

Can you run a sheet or blanket horizontally across the coop/hen house above their heads where they roost? Not across the whole hen-house, as you still want some air movement/ventilation, but kind of like making a 'false ceiling' above where they sleep?

 

[RoyalChick]

Can you run a sheet or blanket horizontally across the coop/hen house above their heads where they roost? Not across the whole hen-house, as you still want some air movement/ventilation, but kind of like making a 'false ceiling' above where they sleep?

Yes probably could do that. But I think on the coldest nights I would still want to introduce heat.
It is free of drafts so it is an absolute temperature issue rather than an issue of drafts if you see what I mean.

 

[featherhead007]

Isn’t the palace up against the house? Can you pull some heat from the human living space, to share with the chooks?