How much trouble is a single comb in winter?

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RezChamp said:
I live in Manitoba. An area called Central Interlake. For those of you that didn't study Canada(apparently most schools in the US don't as opposed to us up here having US in our Geography studies)Manitoba is pretty well dead center of Canada.
In the Interlake region the summer temps. Are somewhat regulated by the large bodies of water surrounding us. In the winter though....!!..!!
This winter I've already lost 4 W Leghorn roosters. I have 2 rIRs, 2 Buff Orps, a DarkBrahma and 6 Grazers left. Oh....All those are roosters of the breeds I have.
Mind you it's only gotten to -30*C whatever that is in F. As well, them WLHs were adoptees from the local Hutterite colony so they were a bit " not as tuff" as my open ranged birds.
All said last winter we had -50*C for a whole week. Even some of my Chanteclers froze their feet. These were lower on the pecking order so lower roosts.
Also they were in the old coop where the turkeys, guineas, geese and ducks stayed. The door goose door was always open.
My thoughts, no matter which breed we choose, where we live, what our coop is built like, there are always variables. We will always loose some birds to some thing or another.
I agree, ventilation is good. My coop has a fan(interior car heater) pushing fresh (dry)air(heated) into my coop through a clothes dryer hose hanging(right on the window)about half down the wall, half way from one end of the coop to the other. The old stale damp air is pushed out the chicken door.
My coop is off the ground about 2&1/2-3 feet with plastic tarps stapled to the wall and hanging to the ground. The tarps are weighed down with logs(and whatever) then banked with snow. Apparently 4 layers of plastic tarp has 5 times more insulative quality than dbl plywood. The "crawl space is heated with a 60 watt bulb inside a metal pail. It's worked so far.
I don't agree 1sq foot of ventilation /chicken. Not for my area anyhow. No matter the humidity, -50*C is gona freeze whatever it wants that ain't protected from the temp.
Another thing I've found works good, actually better, is lard as opposed to Vaseline. I've lived in these temps all my life and have seen both sets of my grandparents take ducks, geese, chickens and turkey as well as many other creatures through colder weather than most of us will ever experience.
Click to expand...

-30*C is pretty darn respectable! Even the family's place in Minnesota hasn't gotten that chilly yet. At -50* I'd expect losses no matter how hardy the breed or sturdy the construction. I'm impressed you can keep Leghorns at all. I'm fortunate to live somewhere pretty temperate compared to that. I'm at a balmy 3* C today and the chickens are all out sunbathing and dust bathing. I think they know this is a fluke.

I've seen some suggestions for putting covers on the ventilation so it can be opened and closed. I sent the hubby out today to look for vent covers that have the option to pull them closed so we can adjust as needed. Weather like today, they need to be full open. If we get a snap of -30*C (perfectly possible if rare), I'm closing it up tight as a drum for the night. At those temps, frostbite will be a secondary concern. My birds won't be used to it like birds living in Manitoba. But thanks for the lard suggestion. Anyone try bacon grease? I keep a jar of that, but afraid the troops will think it's tasty. I really dislike the smell of Vasoline.
 
Catie79 said:
-30*C is pretty darn respectable!  Even the
family's place in Minnesota hasn't gotten that chilly yet.  At -50* I'd expect losses no matter how hardy the breed or sturdy the construction.  I'm impressed you can keep Leghorns at all.  I'm fortunate to live somewhere pretty temperate compared to that.  I'm at a balmy 3* C today and the chickens are all out sunbathing and dust bathing.  I think they know this is a fluke.

I've seen some suggestions for putting covers on the ventilation so it can be opened and closed.  I sent the hubby out today to look for vent covers that have the option to pull them closed so we can adjust as needed.  Weather like today, they need to be full open.  If we get a snap of -30*C (perfectly possible if rare), I'm closing it up tight as a drum for the night.  At those temps, frostbite will be a secondary concern.  My birds won't be used to it like birds living in Manitoba.  But thanks for the lard suggestion.  Anyone try bacon grease?  I keep a jar of that, but afraid the troops will think it's tasty.  I really dislike the smell of Vasoline.
Click to expand...


Yes as a matter of fact I have used bacon grease and it does smell delicsious. My old people use it too. How they kept their chickens from eating eachother I don't know. Bacon grease does work though. Just gota watch them not to start eating baco flavoured chicken combs and wattles.
Mine loved it, this batch anyway. The older flock didn't really bother each other. Some of them were in my flock for 8- 10 years so there really no arguing who was sitting where on the roosts.
Darn stray dogs............:mad:
 
RezChamp said:
K. PM me? or public? Up to you.
jumpy.gif

See if we hatch some good ideas.
Click to expand...
Okey man i have few ideas lol and i need to devolop them thanks for help iwill Pm you for sure thx man
 
I have single combed roosters and I live in the mountains of New York State. I put plastic over the windows in the coop to stop the wind from coming in. When it is really going to be frigid, as it often is, I rub vaseline into their combs and it really seems to have worked. A good friend of mine told me to do this and I had black Minorcas and light brown leghorns for years and it worked. I do it every couple of days when the weather is very cold. Now I have a bluie Jersey giant rooster and it is working on him too.
 
here are the pictures of my coop heating element
the 750w heating element, this one is from a blanket warmer
the hardware to hold the element in place, I used 1/4"-20
4" chimney pipe for a hot water heater or boiler

drilled 2 holes for all thread
the 2 poles and a ground to the frame with insulated #14 wire
tighten the all thread on the element so it is centered in the pipe
I left about 5" of all thread out the one side to mount it on the roost wall
I then wired it up to my control panel
 

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