IA here

[pbjmaker]

Who's "we"? - you got a pet frog in your pocket or something???? I never wished for this!

 

[skyedobb]

My coop is part of a loafing shed/barn and my chickens have access to the inside of the barn besides free ranging outside. I didn't even bother with the pop door today or yesterday - they can go outside through the barn if they want, but shocking, they didn't!

When does everyone add heat lamps to their coop? I turned one on for tonight since we're supposed to get near zero. My coop isn't insulated but neither is it drafty and everyone seemed pretty comfortable a little while ago when I went out to lock the door, even with the extreme wind we're having right now. I want to make sure they feather out and I'm not one to pamper my birds too much, but neither do I want them to be too uncomfortable.

 

[laurielynn67]

As long as you do not have drafty coops they do not need heat lights. You actually have more problems with diseases and respiratory problems with heat lights then you do with out. Not to mention burning your coop down in the middle of the night when you are sleeping. I have raise chickens for 20 years in Iowa and I do not put heat lights on my adult birds in the winter. They are chickens, not children.

 

[pbjmaker]

I don't use a heat light either. We had very cold temps (negative teens) last winter and they all survived. Even my little serama who everyone says can't handle below 30 degrees. My coop is small and I leave it a little overcrowded in the winter - seems to help with the body heat factor.

 

[mrandmrschicken]

We managed to survive up here too. Lots of drifts. The day before the storm I went to Menards and bought a new heater for the garage... where the birds are, and it kept the heat at an even 40F on it's lowest setting. The birds had a party!

Hey Steph... guess what... another single Serama chick hatched yesterday. The folks bator sitting did not do a very good job. This one is white with darker streaks (it's name is Fuzzy). Almost the opposite of the one you have. Need bookends? This one was an interesting hatch. I went to move the shell to check another egg and half the shell broke off and he or she only had a little peep hole! It was a slightly early hatch but it is doing fine in his little dish rag cave under the brooder lamp. What a cutie.
Any takers?
Eric

ETA: Seramas are indeed a very cold hardy breed. Mine have been exposed to cold temps too and it never hurt one of them.

 

[pbjmaker]

My hubby told me to look on CL for a big bird cage today for Bear. He said it looks like we have a house chicken - I told him Bear WILL move outside this February/March. I might check with the neighbor though for a cage until then. She has lots of birds and I think she has some spare cages in her garage. I bet she would let me borrow one. So far Bear is not showing any sign of being a roo. She likes it when I hold her up near the heat lamp and she can "sun" herself like the chickens do outside in the summer. She stretches one wing out and lays down on her side. I'm afraid she will not know how to interact with chickens.

 

[skyedobb]

Hopefully I got to a hen in time this week. Noticed her acting a little punky for couple days, then she was standing off by herself fluffed with wings down. Uh oh, sign of a sick chicken. Picked her up, noticed an accumulation of feces around her butt, thought she might be poop-blocked or prolapsed....turns out she was my first egg-bound experience. Got her inside, washed off her poop, figured out the egg was stuck, got it out and trimmed off feathers that were too packed with poo to clean off. Put her back in with the others and she looked a lot better even just a couple hours later. For the past couple days she was acting more and more normal, but today she started acting off again. Just going to have to keep an eye on her... Her butt is a little bare and looks funny, but no one is picking on it or her, so I'm hoping that maybe she was just cold today and I'm making something out of nothing...

 

[mrandmrschicken]

They do fluff up and conserve energy when it's colder, even delaying egg laying. It is interesting that the longer a hen or pullet keeps an egg inside, the darker the egg gets.
I am curious skyedobb, how did you remove the egg. I have often been tempted on a couple of ocassions to see if this was a problem with my birds but did not venture into unknown territory!

 

[skyedobb]

They definately do fluff when cold, but while the others were walking around and talking, she was fluffed with wings down by herself - that's what made me think something was wrong. And then when I looked at her cloaca and saw a *huge* pack of poo (and the smell - wow!), I knew something was up, even if just packed poo. When I got her inside and started washing, I was feeling around in the area and actually felt the egg crack and some of it started leaking out from around the poo. After I got some big chunks of poo out of the way, some shell started coming out too. She had some prolapsed tissue with the egg and poo, so I just washed and pulled pieces of egg membrane/shell out, cut off chunks of poo that were too hard to wash, and kept cleaning until I felt like I had cleaned her enough. I sprinkled some sugar on her cloacal opening (helps retract prolapsed tissues) and lathered iodine ointment around the area, gave her a dose of injectable antiobiotics, and stuck her back in the coop. The egg definately didn't come out in one piece - like I said, it broke inside of her/inside of the mass of stuff at her cloaca - but with all the cleaning I did, I was able to get it all out and away so that she was at least able to poo afterwards. I'm not hesitant to dive right into things like this, and my husband helps, too. This being my first experience with this, I didn't know quite what to do, but just did what I thought was best. She was sick as a chick, too - I think is low woman on the totem pole and was being crowded away from food and water. When I seperated her and gave her her own food/water, she ate and drank like crazy. A few days of this, she got her energy back up and did fine with the rest of the flock afterward.

 

[mrandmrschicken]

All I can say is wow! What an adventure. Thanks for the info however.
I had a hen that the garage door appearently came down on a few months ago. I noticed a big yellow smear on the concrete and some liquid around that. At least thats what I suspected. One of my Vorwerks was not doing so well. I was advised not to dig around take out any broken shell, if that was the case, because it could cut her inside and make it worse, (they are banatms), and let nature take it's course. She had a very slow recovery and I never saw any broken shell anywhere, but the others could have drug it off too. She is finally begining to lay again. It was a close call however.