Thanks for the info Penny Hen. I have a five gallon bucket with two nipples waterers that have cups on them that a friend gave me. I just don't know if a heating element in a plastic bucket will keep the small exterior pieces from freezing....or how safe that would be. There are two heated dog dish waterers in the coop so access to water isn't a problem, just the long wattles of the cocks hanging down into the water as they drink.
We are at -16 F this morning...with a high for today now forecast at - 13 F.....going down to - 15 F tonight and a high tomorrow of + 11 F........a couple of days above freezing are in the 10 forecast
Heat Wave!!
Just to emphasize the point...........a drift near the chicken yard's 4 + foot fence..........
Its amazing what wind and snow can create! Hope that you get some significant melt in your days of above freezing, unless, of course, the chickens want to play "King of the Hill"!
Red, It sure looks like a cockerel to me...the wing bow coloring is what makes me think so. I have one very similar and he is now starting to crow...hatched Oct 10, so almost 3 months old.
My Oct hatchlings from Marys eggs are growing like the proverbial weeds ! All 3 cockerals are crowing. Yeah 3. The crested RC I thought was a pullet now has nice developed wattles, and is crowing. Another keeper for sure. He has a mix of blue and brown on his back and mottled on the rest. These four are the tamest I have ever had, pleasantly unreal. The one pullet is by far THE tamest ever, she loves to be petted and held, if I am not watching carefully she is in my hand whenever I open the door . Mary your chickens do have beautiful temperaments.
Gose is also very tame, gets petted every day. He is the ruler of his pen, all the pullets there are laying, nice medium size eggs.
Its winter here too, minus temps at night, and single digits days. But, no -25s like we had when I moved here 10 years ago. So , so far so good.Thankfully snow is only 3' deep, could be worse. Life goes on, I am waiting for a bit milder day or three to start dressing out some roosters, then I can get these youngsters out of the basement, and add a couple slightly older pullets by Isi. The pen has a heated waterer, I will add a heat lamp for them also. These are all late season hatched so they will get the benefit of some extra heat.
Everyone else was hanging out in the coop.......not the best place for pics but here are a couple of Forsaela's daughters........since Jake won't post any of his........
The only rose comb pullet I kept....Gaela:
The only mottled one I kept...Glora:
And the blue, non-crested pullet.....Glima:
Missing is Gola who was up in the rafters already.....maybe next time.......
.......and Galdur, older brother to the above pullets. He has a bit of damage to the front of his wattles from drinking from an open dish in this bitter cold. Anyone have a solution to this? I tried applying Vaseline but they are not easy to catch.....especially after they have been "doctored" the first time! Is this something that is just a "fact of life" for chickens living in the far north? Audun is also suffering with this.
On the waterer, do you have a metal feeder? I have found that my roosters would drink water, then go eat and his wattles would stick to the metal feeder. I've since switched to a plastic feeder during the winter and the issue has gone away.
Red, It sure looks like a cockerel to me...the wing bow coloring is what makes me think so. I have one very similar and he is now starting to crow...hatched Oct 10, so almost 3 months old.
Thank you for confirming my thoughts on the young cockerel, all. He hasn't crowed yet, but I figure that it's because he's around dominant roosters all day. That would explain why his comb and wattles have taken so long to redden, too. I am trying to find reasons to keep him for some breeding. It's so hard to let those pretty boys go.
I think we're about to inherit that huge cold vortex that's been over the east coast.
Red - He looks a bit like one of my younger cockerals. The picture is from this Fall, so he has matured a bit, but he is taking his time. He is the low-man in the pecking order and has not crowed yet at 6 months old.
Kelly, I do have a metal trough feeder that stays full of crumbles........never thought of the combo of the wet wattles sticking to it...
...thanks.
We are having a break from the frigid weather.....
I opened the outside door today but no one was interested in going out into the wide white yonder, except the cats......
The Icelandics are leading in the egg production department so far today.......this morning I collected two white eggs, Icelandics are my only white layers, and one brown egg (NH pullet).....we'll see if this warm encourages any of the holdouts to start laying.
Glima and Gaela enjoying a new layer of shredded leaves in the coop.......
