hen on a nest in cold weather?

[CasadasHens]

Congrats to you both and hope the chickies do well

 

[kimslack]

Here are the two chicks and the mother....in the downstairs TV room. Its going to be zero degrees for the rest of the week. They will be two weeks on Thursday. Hopefully the weather will break soon and I can put them in the old grass catcher in the barn. Thank God there are only two of them.

 

[CasadasHens]

They are so beautiful!

 

[luvmypets]

O

Here are the two chicks and the mother....in the downstairs TV room. Its going to be zero degrees for the rest of the week. They will be two weeks on Thursday. Hopefully the weather will break soon and I can put them in the old grass catcher in the barn. Thank God there are only two of them.

Our one chick sits on mom like that and looks exactly like that.

 

[kimslack]

The chicks are now 3+ weeks old. By thursday they will be 4 weeks. I moved them today down into the coop. The coop is pretty large and I put a livestock waterer in there that I use for a brooder in the spring and then lined it with plastic grain bags and straw. The next few days are mild... in the mid 30's during day and 20's at night. I put a gore tex tarp over the top and some boards to keep the other hens out. I put some bricks on the bottom to keep the waterer elevated.

There is a cold front coming the middle of next week where it will be below zero at night.

I'll see how they do tonight. I'm sure they will miss the warmth of the tv room. But its time for them to be chickens. I hope they will be okay.
Kim

 

[CasadasHens]

Have they still got Mum with them?

 

[kimslack]

Oh yes.. they are underneath her now in the horse trough.

 

[icsd71]

My silkie hen went broody on me and I let her go ahead and set. She was determined no matter what I did. She did a good job keeping those chicks warm in this cold weather to. She is a good mom!

 

[kimslack]

Well the weather is in the low 30's now and in the teens at night and the chicks are doing well. I felt underneath the hen and the chicks seemed warm and snug. the weather is dropping this week into the low 20's and just above the zero mark. The chicks will be close to 4 weeks old. I'll watch them closely and see how my buff orp is as a good mom. Silkies are supposed to be some of the best moms but I think the buff orps are pretty good too.

 

[icsd71]

I am sure they will be fine. Let us know how they do.