Frostbite prevention

[aart]

Should I be applying quite a lot.

No, leave it alone.
Vaseline does not prevent nor treat frostbite.
Best not to touch the compromised tissue at all.

Here's some examples of serious frostbite healing up with no intervention at all:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/frostbite-in-sw-michigan.74597/

 

[Red Horse]

I'm glad it wasn't bad, I've seen some of the crazy pics on here and feel terrible for them. Where I am in Ohio it is 40F and rainy one day and 15F the next, ridiculous. That's what it did this week here! Miserable to frigid in less than 48 hrs.

 

[Red Horse]

No, leave it alone.
Vaseline does not prevent nor treat frostbite.
Best not to touch the compromised tissue at all.

Here's some examples of serious frostbite healing up with no intervention at all:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/frostbite-in-sw-michigan.74597/

Thank you, that's so helpful and makes me less scared! I know they can feel their wattles because they love me to rub them, so I wonder why they stick their heads in the snow like that! Maybe when the blood flow slows they stop feeling as much?

 

[Brabra]

Has anyone had any luck with something like this for their roosters?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/warm-winter-hats-for-roosters.1435559/

They're my first chickens and I spent a lot of time making sure they have proper ventilation in the coop (thanks Repecka!), but what about those nights when it's just so dang cold? They have nice wide, low perches to keep their tootsies warm but I'm hoping to avoid the inevitable fight with the hubs about bringing them into the mud room for a couple nights so my boys don't get frostbitten combs.

I'm in Ohio and the winters in this area can be anywhere from 20-30F all winter, to dropping down to just below 0F in just one night for multiple nights in a row, with or without wind chill. At least once per winter we will get those extra cold spells for a few days at a time. I don't intend to add supplemental heating to my coop since normally I think they would be fine except for those few extra cold nights here and there. I'm just doing an extra thick layer of pine shavings, turning them daily, and using a shop vac to replace them every week to keep moisture down.

Did you try the little hats? I was thinking of trying the same thing

 

[Red Horse]

Did you try the little hats? I was thinking of trying the same thing

Nope! I just made sure to keep the coop really clean and dry and that did the trick. They're much hardier than I thought and as long as you keep them out of direct wind they're fine. I have the kind of coop that's elevated and has a ramp, so when temps were below freezing I stacked straw bales around the outside to keep wind from blowing underneath... I stuffed straw-filled feed bags in the gaps and kept the inside filled with about a foot of coarse wood shavings that I mixed up daily. I zip-tied tarps all the way around the run with about a foot gap at the very top so moisture could escape. I gave them cracked corn about half an hour before bed, and a handful thrown into the straw of the run a couple times during the day just to keep them up and moving and scratching in an extra thick layer of straw. No extra insulation around the coop walls and no heat source inside the coop.

 

[Brabra]

Nope! I just made sure to keep the coop really clean and dry and that did the trick. They're much hardier than I thought and as long as you keep them out of direct wind they're fine. I have the kind of coop that's elevated and has a ramp, so when temps were below freezing I stacked straw bales around the outside to keep wind from blowing underneath... I stuffed straw-filled feed bags in the gaps and kept the inside filled with about a foot of coarse wood shavings that I mixed up daily. I zip-tied tarps all the way around the run with about a foot gap at the very top so moisture could escape. I gave them cracked corn about half an hour before bed, and a handful thrown into the straw of the run a couple times during the day just to keep them up and moving and scratching in an extra thick layer of straw. No extra insulation around the coop walls and no heat source inside the coop.

It sounds like alot until I think about knitting hats and then training them to keep it on thank you!