How many chickens have you lost due to the winter so far?

[reveriereptile]

I lost my cochin roo a couple months ago and just lost my 1.5 year old male muscovy duck yesterday. We are going to give our hen to an uncle that has some of his babies from the summer so she won't be lonely since we don't want anymore ducks for now. I will say he was ugly but I loved watching how excited he got when taking a bath or being outside during the summer. He'd get hissing with his tail wagging.

 

[^_^ChickenCrew^_^]

Sorry to hear about your chickens .

I lost one in January because of an infestation of red mite. She had been a battery hen before anyway. Hope that answered your question.

 

[Must Be Losing It]

I lost a sultan two weeks ago. Not to winter conditions but a horrific egg laying episode w/ much more than an egg leaving her body. Poor little bird. But nothing else and I can smell spring in the air!!!!

 

[speckledhen]

None.

 

[freshegg]

none

 

[antiquebuff]

None, but I kept a lights on mine most of the winter and , wow, did it run my power bill up!

 

[Guinea Goonie]

I lost two cinnamon queens. I do not know about the one, but the other tried to find shelter under a proped up board. It got very cold that night and I found her dead.

I lost 1 or 2 others, but I do not think it was due to the cold. I think they just got old.

I lost two, a NICE silver laced polish roo and a silkie roo to a fox, i think. I miss that polish. I thought it got a leghorn, but she showed up with no tail feathers the next day. I lost a big cochin hen that day. I think she was run to death, but the predator just left her. I guess if they fall over dead they will not take them ?

Other than that, I have been extremely lucky. I am religous on putting up the birds at night. I will put their safety over just about anything else I do. They depend on us to keep them safe, fed, watered and able to see the light of day. If one is going to have an animal they need to take care of them. However, sometimes you mess up or the animal just dies. One is only human.

 

[chicken_angler]

I just lost only one hen this winter. She was very old (dont know her exact age) and she had already gotten frostbite on her comb because it was purple. I went out to lock the chooks up one evening and she was just laying there on the floor, and kinda frozen. It was like *5 degrees that day!

Cody!!

 

[chickiebaby]

Never lost a chicken due to winter. I am interested to understand what you mean by that. Is your coop really drafty? (see Pt's page on ventilation) or is there some other problem you could fix?

 

[NurseNettie]

We lost one hen. Not sure if she was sick or something got her, or if she got locked out of the coop one night. Either way, she was tucked up under the coop ramp one day-- and with the snow in other parts of the ramp, we haven't been able to get to her yet, so we'll likely never know the true cause.
Although it's sad to lose one, this being our first year with chickens, and the harsh winter we've had, I'd say we're lucky.

Edited to say--- because we don't know the true cause-- I can't say it was "due" to winter, rather, she did pass away "during" winter.