Humidity and frostbite

[Sefirothe]

I posted this at the tag end of an old topic, but wanted to bring this back up as we have another cold snap coming.

How to mitigate frost bite with out adding heat?

I have temp/humidity sensors inside the run (which is roofed and blocked from prevailing winds by the coop/shed but with no other winterizing) and inside the coop. The coop humidity is always either a bit lower or a lot lower than the run. Which says to me my ventilation should be adequate.

We had a decent cold snap where the temp dropped to about 1F in the run and 3F in the coop. My brown leghorns with the largest combs have a bit of frostbite on the tips of the points of their combs. Everyone else is fine.

Not sure if there was something I could have done to prevent them getting a bit of frostbite other than adding heat. Which I don’t want to do.

 

[Sefirothe]

These are current conditions right as of now. We had a lot of rain last night and into this morning too.

 

[saysfaa]

I think good hydration is also important on the theory that the higher blood volume will push heat through the comb better than the blood volume of a dehydrated chicken will.

Another possible factor is whether you do supplemental lighting. Combs are bigger when the hens are laying. I don't know if that would make them more susceptible because of the size of the combs or less susceptible because of less blood flow through the comb (or maybe or hormonal factors).

My brown leghorns didn't lose tips of their combs. This over three winters, more northerly region than you are in (lows of about zero F at times but mostly in the teens F), not laying between late November and early February, and very well hydrated. But I've only had two brown leghorns, their combs are bigger than the Austalorps but I don't know how typical they are compared to other brown leghorns.

 

[Sefirothe]

I think good hydration is also important on the theory that the higher blood volume will push heat through the comb better than the blood volume of a dehydrated chicken will.

Another possible factor is whether you do supplemental lighting. Combs are bigger when the hens are laying. I don't know if that would make them more susceptible because of the size of the combs or less susceptible because of less blood flow through the comb (or maybe or hormonal factors).

My brown leghorns didn't lose tips of their combs. This over three winters, more northerly region than you are in (lows of about zero F at times but mostly in the teens F), not laying between late November and early February, and very well hydrated. But I've only had two brown leghorns, their combs are bigger than the Austalorps but I don't know how typical they are compared to other brown leghorns.

No supplemental lighting but they are both less than a year old and have just come into lay about a month ago so maybe that’s a possibility?

They have free access to a heated nipple waterer with multiple nipples so I doubt it’s dehydration.

Here’s the two of them in all their floppy comb glory along side my other cold hardy girls. I was supposed to get only one brown leghorn and the other was supposed to be a cream legbar. Ah well.

 

[Penpal]

One of the forum members knit little hats for her chickens. This I find is the best option for extreme cold if you don't wish to build a coop with an automatic heater than comes on when the temperature drops to a certain mark.

 

[aart]

One of the forum members knit little hats for her chickens.

I remember this, hilarious!
IIRC they stopped as the hats had to be glued onto the chickens.

I don't think there's much you can do to prevent FB, other than good ventilation, no open waterers, etc. I thought I had that part made with HN's, but they all noshed on the snow banks, which lead to widespread tho mild wattle freezes.
If you have show birds might want to heat the coop to avoid losing comb tips, otherwise it's not the end of the world.

Have had several serious comb freezes here, they all healed up fine with no intervention, tho it took several months.
Photo progression here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/frostbite-in-sw-michigan.74597/

 

[Sefirothe]

One of the forum members knit little hats for her chickens. This I find is the best option for extreme cold if you don't wish to build a coop with an automatic heater than comes on when the temperature drops to a certain mark.

I mean…I knit but. I thought those little chicken hats were all a joke more or less. Got a link to the post so I can maybe try to reverse engineer the pattern?

Good god trying to catch these two little bird brains to put them on will be hilarious. They are the most feral of all my feral chickens.

 

[Sefirothe]

I remember this, hilarious!
IIRC they stopped as the hats had to be glued onto the chickens.

I don't think there's much you can do to prevent FB, other than good ventilation, no open waterers, etc. I thought I had that part made with HN's, but they all noshed on the snow banks, which lead to widespread tho mild wattle freezes.
If you have show birds might want to heat the coop to avoid losing comb tips, otherwise it's not the end of the world.

Have had several serious comb freezes here, they all healed up fine with no intervention, tho it took several months.
Photo progression here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/frostbite-in-sw-michigan.74597/

Glued them on? Nope. Not going there. Tho I am going to try to find the topic just for my own entertainment.

I’m not even sure they are impacted enough to be losing anything. Nothings turned black yet on either of them that I can see.

I guess I’m just mostly worried about keeping them comfortable as possible. I’m not sure the coming cold snap will be as cold as the previous one so maybe I’ll just wait it out.

These two will for sure be my two and only large combed birds.

I can do more mitigation for the cold hardy girls on the occasional 95F days in the summer so should stick to cold hardy breeds I guess.

 

[aart]

Oh, another thought....no matter how much ventilation you have, if the outside humidity is high, nothing you can do about that.
I've found FB happens at temps that are not that low, in the 20's.

 

[Sefirothe]

With the impending polar vortex set to bring unusually cold temps for most of January…I broke down and ordered an oil filled radiant heater. It will stay on the storage side of the shed and only be used to keep temps above freezing at night.

I don’t think the Twins (they have names but they are the only two of the same breed in my diverse flock so get referred to together as the Twins) got too much damage from the prior cold snap and would like to keep it that way.

These pics were taken today.

Twin #1 (aka Bixby)

Twin #2 (aka Momo) and maybe slightly worse off damage wise.