How severe does frostbite have to be for a comb to fall off?

[peepinator]

Hi Folks...

Just noticed one of my hens (a campine) and my big roo both have frostbite on their combs and my roo has a little on the edges of his big wattles. It isn't real black...just sort of whiteish/yellow....darkening slightly. I just wondered how severe the frostbite has to be before the tips of the comb will fall off. Is there a chance that it won't or is it a pretty definite thing that will happen no matter how severe the frostbite is? I'm just gonna be bummed if the tips of their combs die and fall off, they both have beautiful combs. Thanks for your help in answering my question.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think once they have the frost bite it will eventually turn blk and fall off. Sorry I wish I could tell you something better. You'll need to watch them closely for infection, and also that the other birds don't start to peck at it.

 

[peepinator]

Thanks Miss Lydia. Dang...I'm bummed. Their combs are so cool looking. Well, I put bagbalm on them yesterday...they don't look too bad...just noticed they were a little discolored, not bright red. The temperature here was below zero to 20 degrees for a few days. I went out this morning and reapplied the bagbalm...just to keep them protected from the cold, though it's above freezing now...but still very cold outside. Funny thing is, I have roosts in their coop which has heat lamps inside and then I have outside roosts as well and no matter how cold it is...they want to roost on the outside roosts. They're totally protected from the wind and weather outside though, you'd think they would want to be inside the coop when it's that cold outside. I don't get it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Chickens can take cold weather alot better than hot, as long as they have decided to stay outside I'd let them, They know where the warmth is if they need it they'll go to it. I don't even give my chickens or ducks heat unless in single digits. Most don't give at all. What your doing putting bag balm and or vaseline on will help so just keep it up. I've also heard that chickens with large wattles can get frost bite when they drink their water and the wattles get wet, don't know how you'd remedy that. Maybe you caught it in time. let me know how it goes.