Hello from Northern Ontario, Canada

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wendylj

wendylj

Chirping
Mar 11, 2018
24
51
54
Northern Ontario, Canada
Hi all. My name is Wendy and I'm from Northern Ontario. I have 2 grown children, from my first marriage, and 2 grandchildren. I live with the love of my life and have been with him for 21 years. We're actually thinking of getting married soon. We have 1 acre with lots of blueberries and raspberries in our backyard. I wanted to let my girls free-range this summer but we are having a hawk and weasle problem and have a lot of bush around our property. It's been a challenging winter here and the first one with my new chickens. I had 25 Rhode Island Red layers and 100 meat birds about 25 years ago and have now adopted 5 Red Sex Link layers. I'm a lot older now so that's plenty. I used to live closer to Toronto and had no issues during winter. The winters in Northern Ontario are definitely a challenge. We had -48 this past winter. I'm going to re-house my girls this summer in our old travel trailer so they'll be happier and warmer next winter. I had an issue with combs getting frost bitten this year. Does anyone know if the frostbitten part, which is pale yellow to white, will come back to it's red color or is that permanent now?
 
wendylj said:
Hi all. My name is Wendy and I'm from Northern Ontario. I have 2 grown children, from my first marriage, and 2 grandchildren. I live with the love of my life and have been with him for 21 years. We're actually thinking of getting married soon. We have 1 acre with lots of blueberries and raspberries in our backyard. I wanted to let my girls free-range this summer but we are having a hawk and weasle problem and have a lot of bush around our property. It's been a challenging winter here and the first one with my new chickens. I had 25 Rhode Island Red layers and 100 meat birds about 25 years ago and have now adopted 5 Red Sex Link layers. I'm a lot older now so that's plenty. I used to live closer to Toronto and had no issues during winter. The winters in Northern Ontario are definitely a challenge. We had -48 this past winter. I'm going to re-house my girls this summer in our old travel trailer so they'll be happier and warmer next winter. I had an issue with combs getting frost bitten this year. Does anyone know if the frostbitten part, which is pale yellow to white, will come back to it's red color or is that permanent now?
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Welcome! Yellowish white will generally return to normal, but if it's black it'll come off. Yes, frostbite can occur from humidity being too high in the coop, but at some point, exposed flesh is just exposed flesh. It has no magical antifreeze properties, and at -48, frostbite isn't unusual at all.

If you dislike the idea of birds getting frostbite, switching to cushion or rose combed breeds is a good way to prevent it. I just deal with it, because at this point in time not all my stock has small combs. I am hoping to cull the remaining single combed birds soon, though. Good luck!
 

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