for those experiencing the arctic blast....

[swimmer]

At the TSC I bought a black rubber type bowl. Very easy to dump out if iced over. If outside during the day and in the sun it shouldn't freeze up too fast. I bought one the size of a dog dish for $2.00. Might be worth a try.

 

[Ema]

it was -10 this morning when we finally got out to the barn all my eggs were frozen, half were cracked, kinda sucked, but I cooked them up and fed them to them. tonight its going to be about the same temp, that is the average temps here..I just have to figure out exactly how to keep the eggs from freezing, but the chickens seem to be doing well even in these temps. we get stretches were the temps are -31 F that should be fun!! :-/

 

[swimmer]

Same thing has been happening to our eggs. They freeze up pretty quick when it's this cold. My girls just started laying Sunday and now we've got a cold snap with temps below zero.Grrrr.

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
- 12 with snow here in Victoria!!! imagine that

no added heat source, draft free coop, livestock de-icers for the chicken's water
my coops are off the ground so they all go under there during the day, they are draft free as well, that is where I throw their days feeding of hen scratch too

I knew a fellow who worked for the BC Agriculture Dept in Poultry and he said that condensation (and humidity in the winter) can be a killer.
He has seen it cause nodules on the lungs. Whatever nodules are

 

[True Grit]

Quote:
- 12 with snow here in Victoria!!! imagine that

no added heat source, draft free coop, livestock de-icers for the chicken's water
my coops are off the ground so they all go under there during the day, they are draft free as well, that is where I throw their days feeding of hen scratch too

I knew a fellow who worked for the BC Agriculture Dept in Poultry and he said that condensation (and humidity in the winter) can be a killer.
He has seen it cause nodules on the lungs. Whatever nodules are

Is that Celsius? So 11 deg F. Still, awesome cold for Victoria. I didn't think you got much below freezing there. So much for my retirement plans!

 

[Chicken Delight]

We are just a little to the South of you and experiencing the same thing. Since temperatures are going from 70 to negative figures in about a week, I wanted to give my girls a little extra warmth. I had an extra 50W water bowl that turns on automatically at 40 degrees. We cleaned out the coop, put a nice layer of fresh pine on the bottom and have the empty water heater going inside the coop to add a little more warmth to the coop. This morning I got one egg in the empty water heater. I expect the girls should all be OK, but will be anxious to check on them tomorrow morning to be sure.

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
In those temps eggs will freeze in minutes. Don't work too hard on collecting eggs unless you're home all day and even then you will lose a bunch. We get -20's F every year with -30s, 40's, and 50's without wind chill every few years. Comes with living way up here. In January and February we have whatever Alaska/Yukon had a few days before. It just ends up here. Keep them fed, dry and draft free and we should be OK. I know you are a a bit north of me and farther east, but we get very similar weather. Did I mention that my wife and I scared the heck out of an entire restaurant in Hornepayne a few years back when we rode through on our motorcycles with snow coming down in a freak late August snow storm. The entire restaurant went silent when we came in soaking wet in full leathers. I'm not sure what freaked then out the most, that we were out in that weather, or bikers that far north. We really had no choice after starting in Ross Port the morning, then heading over to White River( home of the original Winnie the Pooh BTW) in the morning and heading north to Ont 11. We ate a big plate of Poutine (french fry's, cheese curds with gravy) with coffee and were back on the road. Headed east after hitting ONT 11 and ended up back in Nipigon for the night. Long ride for a day in that country. Great country you have up there. Very wild and open. BTW- didn't mean to hijack this thread at all. Just had to comment.

 

[Montana-Hens]

-24 here last night. The ladies in my coop have insulated walls, and a heated water dish, with what has always been sufficient ventilation. This am found frost frozen to the ceiling of the coop.

The ladies combs all looked fine.

Never had frost in the coop like this before but guess it was so cold in here the condensation froze before it made its way out of the vents. Today got up to 3 and they all got the spend time outof the coop, and I opened up the coop and the frost all disappeared so solved the problem for today (love that dry Montana air). Going to need to look at what made this all work wrong today for the first time, but we have another night of this wicked cold to get the through.

Can't wait until it gets back into the teens!!

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
- 12 with snow here in Victoria!!! imagine that

no added heat source, draft free coop, livestock de-icers for the chicken's water
my coops are off the ground so they all go under there during the day, they are draft free as well, that is where I throw their days feeding of hen scratch too

I knew a fellow who worked for the BC Agriculture Dept in Poultry and he said that condensation (and humidity in the winter) can be a killer.
He has seen it cause nodules on the lungs. Whatever nodules are

Is that Celsius? So 11 deg F. Still, awesome cold for Victoria. I didn't think you got much below freezing there. So much for my retirement plans!

yup it is the celcius temp, I still am not used to metric

Hardly ever gets really cold here, usually, flowers are still blooming well into December.

Some friends and I met a very nice couple from Texas (near the border to Mexico) and they recently retired here and are loving it.
Us Ladies were thinking that Southern Gentleman should have been included in the Free Trade agreement.

 

[rubyrogue]

Heidi, if my memory serves me we are both in the same town. Just follow what others have said on here. Right now the only thing different I am doing is checking water more often to make sure they havnt spilled it or it isnt frozen. Giving them warm oatmeal with raisins for breakfast and throwing their scratch out where they have to get out of the coop to get it. Just make sure their coop isnt damp from all the snow and they should be good.