I feel bad, make me feel better. Kicked the geese out of the hen house

[HeatherLynn]

Ok we have an ice storm on the way, that being said i am still kicking them out. They are ripping more hens feathers like mad men. One stupid, stupid, gander ( belongs to my mother so I cannot kill it) has decided since the female geese are not interested he will try to mate my chickens. He is HUGE and ROUGH. One of my poor girls is bloody at the moment and in this cold. So I put them in the fenced in garden. We built a pallet shelter. 5 pallents, barnsiding sheet roof, plastic wrapped, filled with straw. I know this is not as secure, or warm as my hen house but do you think they can survive with it? Is there any way to keep my geese and chickens together without bloodshed? They were find until the gander got a bit frisky.

One other issue, anyone know what I can do for frost bite. I have 2 roos with it pretty bad. Not sure why. They were supposed to be cold hardy also. No one else seems bothered. The coop is well insulated, vented, tons of straw on the ground, proper roosts. Because one is low rank in the flock he does tend to spend as much time outside as possible. he really goes in when its dark and thats it. I am going to sneak out with them tonight and do the vasaline thing. A bit worried because one looks pretty bad. The other looks bad but it does not look like frost bite so much as half his comb and the tips are purple. Its only on the coldest days. Any tips on what I need to change?

 

[midget_farms]

OK - geese live in the wild & dont have hen houses to live in. They do fine. There is a reason coats are made of goose down! they will be fine. Besides - they are waterproof - so the ice wont bug them either.

As for the frozen combs. These can hurt a rooster quite a bit. The only cure I've heard about is to cut the comb off. Sounds bad - but I've been told it hurts a lot less than a frozen head. Talk about brain freeze ; )

In any case - you are doing the right thing isolating the geese.

 

[Olive Hill]

Geese need a lot more room than chickens. They'll probably be happier in the garden. Mine sleep under the stars. Rain, snow, sleet, wind, etc. Doesn't bother them a bit.

As for the rooster, to my knowledge frostbite does not come and go. I think you've got something else going on. That said, the geese in the hen house can raise the humidity, which would in turn raise the chickens' risk of frostbite. Moving them out should help reduce as risk you did have going on. Proper ventilation will all but eliminate the rest.

 

[HeatherLynn]

The one with the really bad head stays bad I am sure is frostbite. He has a rose comb and it looks just awful. My huge maran boy his comb does not have the black on his. His has purple tips and today almost the entire back part is purple. The maran boys comb issues comes and goes. Not sure if he is just cold. No clue. The rose comb I am going to vasaline tonight.

 

[wood&feathers]

I have a few roos. Funny how their place in the pecking order determines the state of their comb more than rose/single. My Marans cockerel has a huge comb with only a few flecks of frostbite, little purple specks. I slathered it with vaseline a couple nights ago when we were going down to single digits and it has actually reddened back up. The two rose combed EE's look rough on their combs but I think it is mostly peck order damage - there are little scabs but no purple or black spots. My boss roo is an old fella who lost all the points on his single comb because he was bottom roo at a friend's place. I have to keep him slathered, because he likes it

 

[zazouse]

You don't really need to do this but you will feel better when you see them laying in this>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Get some leaves or hay and pile it up where you have them they will get up in them , mine never sleep inside and they are just fine, heck it was 25 degrees yesterday and they were taling a full blown bath. BURRR..


I put some hay out for my dogs cause they work the night shift and the geese got all up in there, then Elia told them to get lost and took his righfull place as king of the hay pile

they geese were protesting but he didn't care he's gotta work tonight

 

[HeatherLynn]

I don't feel too bad then. They have a roof over their head and windproof shelter on 3.5 sides and an entire bale of straw stuffed in there. They should be fine. Ok well I feel better about it anyway.