Heads up Texas!!!

[7L Farm]

Hard Freeze tonight in Texas!! I'm in South Central their talking low teens. Take care of the animals, wrap your pipes. I know you snow birds are laughing but people in the LONE STAR STATE aren't use to this type of weather . A little preperation go's along way. I have 4 biddies that are 3 weeks old so I'm gonna check on them alot. It's been cold lately & the biddies are snuggling together & seem fine.

 

[greenSearcher]

DH let the chickens out this am, and all is well, I keep reminding my self they are wearing a down coat and to quit worrying. Just because I am cold while wearing 2-3 layers and keeping the wood stove hot (the mesquite is good for something) doesn't mean the 'girls' are cold. Last glimpse out the window showed them sunning in the runs protected by the plastic windbreak. One good thing about this cold, IT WON'T LAST

Did my time in Cleveland with weather coming off Lake Erie. I was joking the other day about our 6 weeks of winter.

We live in North Texas, so we usually have about 6 weeks of this weather, but by the middle of Feb I should have the peas, brassicas and another cold weather veges planted. The girls can then circle and eyeball the garden through the fence waiting for the goodies to get ripe.

 

[BooBear]

Where I am at it is going to be in the 20s. The hutch is wrapped for them with thick fresh layer of pine bedding. So the Wyandottes should be fine. The Silkies are in the house in their brooder all nice and cozy.

 

[kristim23]

I'm in PA, and YES! this is funny to me!! It was 8 degrees here this AM. Batten down! Actually, we are expecting some big snow today, but where I am, we either get all or nothing!

I am so jealous of your "6 week winter"!

 

[babalubird]

Our farm, 100 miles from us, is also in Central Texas, around Hillsboro/Waco. I am worried about my horses, one getting pretty old. They have a barn to get into, one end open. Hope the wind and wet doesn't come in from that direction.

 

[mistymeadowchicks]

I'll throw my quick 2 cents in (I'm a General Contractor & very good friends w/ my plumber.) We've had several single digit nights, followed by teen & low 20's days so far here in NC. With freezing & plumbing: 1) Remove all hoses from hose bibs. The new hose bibs are anti-siphon which have to drain or they'll freeze & burst. 2) Insulating pipes is good, but it's still better to leave a faucet dripping HOT water--it freezes first! It doesn't have to be more than a drip (catch it in a milk jug or big pan, use it to water pets/plants with!), and works best if it's the furthest from where the water line comes into the house. Opening cabinet doors helps keep pipes warmer too. Also, keep in mind, it's usually not the first night that pipes freeze--it's when they never warmed up from previous day(s).

With chickens, they're unbelievably hardy critters--mine are in the snow right now trying to figure where the Heck the grass & bugs went! (They really appreciated their scrambled egg treat yesterday though!) Make sure chickens & all creatures have fresh WATER! Another BYCer suggested watering in a small bucket & adding fresh water several times each day--that's working great for me. I have multiple 1-gallon buckets & when one starts freezing, I just switch & bring the frozen bucket inside to thaw. As long as chooks have a draft free place to snuggle--they should be fine--a little perturbed maybe, but fine!

Sorry I can't send you tons of sympathy. Some of our coldest, nastiest weather usually hits in March when YOU'LL have your gardens started. I have a good friend who lives near Dallas--the last time we spoke, it was 27 degrees here & that turkey was wearing short sleeves & soaking up mid-60's sun! Good luck though--welcome to the REAL world!
Yvonne

 

[7L Farm]

Quote:
Hey, good advice thats why I brought the thread up cause alot of people in the south are not use to the weather being in the teens. Me included I'm gonna disconect the hose right now & later on this afternoon start dripping.

 

[Purple Veg*n]

I'm more worried about my strawberry plants than I am about the chickens. The chickens will be fine, they've got heat lamps. My husband insisted. He's very indulgent. The plants are covered by commercial row cover cloth and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[7L Farm]

Put some hay around the plants.

 

[HeritageHens]

Quote:
Yvonne, I wish I had known some of this a year ago when we had an abnormally hard freeze. On the second day of single digit temps, a line froze in our garage. I thought everything would be safe because I had covered the bib on the outside and the pipes were in a finished wall inside the garage. One broken ankle (me) and concussion (husband) later (water poured out of the garage down our steep driveway where we both fell trying to turn off the water at the street), we painfully learned our lesson.

Two other things: you may have a turn off valve inside. We had two that we didn't know about since we bought a pre-owned house. The levers were located under the sink in the kitchen for one bib and at the water heater in the garage for the other bib. I believe the correct proceedure is to turn off the valve, open the line from the outside to drain the water, closet the faucet and cover it. Does that sound right?

If your pipe does break, there is this slick gadget that you can buy at Home Depot that allows you to fix the pipe but I can't remember what it is called. You cut off the ends of the pipe around the hole, use sandpaper to smooth it down and slide this device into both end of the pipe. No soldering is required!

Get the turn off tool for the main valve and know how to turn off the water at the street/connection point! In our case, we had the tool but couldn't open the hatch as it was frozen shut (not to mention that by now I had a broken ankle and hubby had the concussion). We called the city and they were very quick to respond (to us and 64 others they said but we were the only ones injured).