Illinois...

[Faraday40]

It was a quiet Christmas at home for us.
Both kids have strep. I fell apart Christmas afternoon. I fell asleep- something my body doesn't do when the sun's up. That's when my family knew I was getting sick. I dragged myself to the doctor on Dec 26th in hopes of getting some antibiotics..... But, it turns out, I have the flu, not strep. UGH! I can barely stay awake and when I am awake, I'm feeling miserable. Hopefully the Tammiflu med will bring me some relief.

 

[Samannemm]

Hi Sam.
So sorry about the coyote attack. Predators are very brutal (& hungry) in the winter. We just lost our fav silkie 2 weeks ago to a hawk.

As far as the cold, it's rough but with care your birds should be OK.
-Check on them a few times per day. Make sure they have liquid water in waterers that are not too big. (You don't want wattles to fall into water.) Raising the waterers & using small openings - like chick waterers - helps. I like heated buckets with chicken nipples. The horiz nipples leak less and are my favs.

Keeping birds dry is another key to preventing frostbite. The coop must be draft free but also have good air flow. Vents at the top to allow moisture to escape & work great. If you close everything up, the vapors from respiration will crystallize in the air & cover their fleshy combs. When we have below zero temps, you may get a little frostbite on some roos but hens are usually OK. Some Vaseline or Bag Balm on a rooster's comb & wattles may help prevent it. I only apply some when night time temps dip below zero. Once you see a little black on their combs, it's best to leave it be & heal on its own.

Here's what happened to one of mine who had some minor frostbite on the tips. I did nothing and took pics of the natural healing process.

Spoiler: frostbite pics

Jan 21, 2016
I noticed white tips on comb & edge of wattles. Then the the turned black after 1-2 days.
View attachment 1219753 View attachment 1219754
Feb 6, 2016
View attachment 1219761

Feb 9, 2016 The black tips fell off & pinkish scar tissue was underneath
View attachment 1219764

Feb 17, 2016
The new comb was slightly more rounded than it was in fall, but after a month, he looked much better.
View attachment 1219773 View attachment 1219774 March 15, 2016 - 2 months later = perfectly healed. I think the warmth of temps brought back the nice red color of his comb.
View attachment 1219781

Sorry about your silkie I lost a cinnamon queen, polish, and buff Orpington. Cinnamon queen was just gone but the others were just left there dead without very noticeable wounds, necks may have been broken. I did just go buy a heated waterer with nipples today because my polish dipped her entire head into the bowl yesterday and her crest was all clumped and frozen. Had to defrost her indoors and give her a haircut. Didn’t want to bring her indoors with my house being 70 and outside being -15 with windchill but I had to in order to defrost her head. She was okay and went back in the coop fairly quickly. Ventilation is good, but unfortunately my main source of ventilation is at the top of the coop where they like to roost at night. I try to keep it to the side so it’s not directly hitting them but humidity in my coop is only at 51%. Unfortunately with work I left before the sun rose and didn’t get home until it set. Tomorrow I will have more time to spend with them in the morning and do a thorough check. I left their coop door open today, although yesterday I left it closed. I’ll probably leave it open again tomorrow because it’s supposed to hit the teens and be “warmer.” I’m too nervous about frostbite to leave the water in their coop each day. I don’t have a heat source for them besides a lot of bedding. I may go and get a heating pad for them but I don’t want to take the chance of a coop fire. Thank you for sharing those pictures and info! They’re really helpful!

 

[Samannemm]

Here's what frostbite can look like if you close everything up. This was a lav orp in the same coop as the one above - but I closed the windows- thinking I was making it warmer for the birds.

Spoiler: Tank's frostbite pics

Fall pic before frostbite
View attachment 1219784

Jan 10, 2014
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Jan 18
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Jan 28
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Feb 20
View attachment 1219789
End of Feb we got another arctic blast with -40'F nights.
March 20 the second round of frostbite began healing.
View attachment 1219790

*Sadly, this boy became unpredictable & wanted to attack the pooper scooper. My children were very afraid of him, so he went to freezer camp. We had several great roosters since, so I don't regret the decision. Since then I learned that leaving the window a crack open actually helps prevent severe frostbite like this. Also, birds with extremely tall single combs will get hit worse. Pea combs are wonderful in N IL!

Thank you for sharing! Glad he healed well! Stinks that he was so aggressive. I had a rooster and had to rehome him because he was so aggressive and started getting very protective over the girls so he started roosting at 4a every 20mins until around 9a!! I tried everything I could find to correct it but I think the neighboring rooster trying to have a roosting battle with him was unhelpful. He’s in a new happy home with even more girls now.

 

[Samannemm]

It was a quiet Christmas at home for us.
Both kids have strep. I fell apart Christmas afternoon. I fell asleep- something my body doesn't do when the sun's up. That's when my family knew I was getting sick. I dragged myself to the doctor on Dec 26th in hopes of getting some antibiotics..... But, it turns out, I have the flu, not strep. UGH! I can barely stay awake and when I am awake, I'm feeling miserable. Hopefully the Tammiflu med will bring me some relief.

Sorry to hear that

 

[cavemanrich]

Ventilation is good, but unfortunately my main source of ventilation is at the top of the coop where they like to roost at night. I try to keep it to the side so it’s not directly hitting them but humidity in my coop is only at 51%.

Welcome to Illinois.Thread.

Consider lowering the roost.
I also have Polish girls. They use their hairdos like mops. I have in the past sent them to the barber.(myself) Pix is only fair but shows the service done.

 

[Faraday40]

Poor Polish!

DD tried some funny headbands on her silkie.

 

[Samannemm]

Here’s my polish

 

[Faraday40]

Thank you for sharing! Glad he healed well! Stinks that he was so aggressive. I had a rooster and had to rehome him because he was so aggressive and started getting very protective over the girls so he started roosting at 4a every 20mins until around 9a!! I tried everything I could find to correct it but I think the neighboring rooster trying to have a roosting battle with him was unhelpful. He’s in a new happy home with even more girls now.

Glad you found a nice home for your roo. There are some really great roosters out there, so there's no reason to tolerate a mean one. Even Tank wasn't "mean." He was more "unpredictable." Sometimes he was fine & other times he'd full attack the pooper scooper. He once chased my 3 yr old (didn't hurt him) but that would not be tolerated. My kids were afraid of him, so it was easier to start over.
Now my kids understand that roosters are just birds. We train our roos to sleep inside the garage at night. They are used to being picked up & carried to their nightly cage and back outside in the morning. Because of this, it's easy to bend down & pick them up before problems arise. They know that humans of any size are above them in the pecking order. (Hard for them to look tough when being carried. LOL) They also don't fear humans, because we're always gentle with them. They sleep in the garage to keep the crowing down. They can crow all they like, but we can barely hear them. They get put outside around 8am when all the neighbors are awake. I like how our roosters protect the flock and ours don't really crow much. If I hear crowing during the day, it's usually because of some perceived threat. (Sometimes real, sometimes because the neighbor got a new power tool. LOL)

 

[Faraday40]

Here’s my polish

Looks like your Polish hen was getting a "spa day."

 

[Faraday40]

Sept Chicks are 14 weeks old today.
I have 4 remaining:
Male with gold leakage, named "Dinner" because I think that's all he'd be good for.

Female

Female

Male (I hope)


Two females with ?male in front

My biggest concern for the ? male is that he has no pointed saddle feathers yet. Even when I part the back feathers, I cannot see any pointed feathers. If anything, the new growth looks sort of square. A minor concern is that he does not have the comical leggy look that most teen cockerels have. His wattles say male & the comb is bigger than the two females, so I'm still predicting male.

"Dinner" has been growing saddle feathers for 2 weeks now. They look cool with gold lacing around the edge of each feather.