INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

Yes.  We got a pair of Yorkshires from Janet.  They are fun, and the setup to keep them in was easy to put together.  Stop by when it's warm and we can show you both the pig and the bee setups.


I'd like to see your pig setup sometime! We lost our freezer pork guy when his youngest finished 4H so it's been tough finding them for a reasonable price the last couple of years! I've always said I'll never raise pigs but I'm really considering it these days!!
 
That kept going through my head— " a murder of crows" — I know I've heard that before...
For anyone else who wasn't sure what the heck
@ellymayRans was talking about: A Murder of Crows ~ Crow Facts | Nature | PBS
My hens definitely listen to crow's warnings!
What is the problem?

Frostbite doesn't occur unless it's cold. In my situation, my coop ventilation and humidity levels are good. I haven't had a chicken with frostbite in the three years I've had chickens. In Screech's case, two days ago the skin on her tiny, bare head began showing some signs of the initial stage of frostbite—she had a lack of appetite, which led me to notice a few small translucent white areas on her head. I believe this flare-up was caused from exposure to our recent extremely cold temperatures. Before winter began, I was concerned about her head being bare. Her head feathers are periodically plucked by the hens who think Screech doesn't follow proper protocol. Since it's never been a bullying or vicious situation, and Screech's skin has never been punctured, I didn't feel like isolating her was a good solution.

Now that Screech's bare head has shown signs of exposure, I decided today to bring her inside to give her skin a break. Other than her skin, she's acted fine since bouncing back from electrolytes the first day. It's supposed to be 45 degrees here on Monday, so that would be a good day to transition her throughout the day from inside to outside temps. She's such a people lover that she was fine hanging out inside. DH's office had a snow day, so he was home, too. I put Screech in a towel lined small dog kennel for the night.
Below: While DH was watching TV nearby, Screech found a nice spot to take a nap!


It reminded me of my hens digging through a bowl of seeds with their beaks and "cherry-picking" their favorite ones!
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Are you sure it is frostbite and not just dry skin? To me it seems unlikely that only one hen would be showing signs of frostbite. They all have naked exposed combs and wattles, and if they are all roosting at the same height they should all be experiencing the same temperature/ventilation.

Just in support of Pipd's article, I also don't believe in heating a coop and have had zero frostbite or losses so far this winter :) I have a huge shed coop and there is a ton of space for moisture to rise, so I think that helps in my situation.
 
TGIF for sure, DH is flat wupped. His company keeps running late hours when the weather is letting them work (commercial construction) I agree, I have not seen birds die from "just the cold" here either as far as I know. Usually if it happened its a bird that won't coop up. I feel it contributed to my pet turkeys death, but BB variety turkeys are known to have a weak heart. I talked to a friend tonight that lost some scovys, but she feels its because they would not coop up to stay warm. If the temps drop below zero I am checking on my scovy every few hours if they aren't cooped. I have hauled my entire scovy flock into the unheated porch before! Thats just not possible for everyone to do. I research breeds and watch those more at risk with severe cold.
Aw, I hope your DH gets lots of rest this weekend! The only chicken I've ever lost to the cold was because she lost pretty much all her feathers at once. My experience has been that if a bird is struggling in the cold, it's because of an underlying cause. One hen was very, very old, another was sick, stuff like that. Miss Elly, my current roommate, had just recovered from her crop impaction and hadn't had the chance to regain all the weight she lost when we were hit with this last cold snap, on top of being stressed into molt by the whole event... Point being, I've never lost a bird or even had one struggle because of 'just the cold', either. There's always another cause behind it. I won't even pretend to know what Muscovies need for wintertime, though, let alone basically anything but chickens and Guinea fowl. My only real winter experience is with them. :) I've only had my little Call Ducks for a little over a year, so I can't say with confidence anything about them yet. Thus far, they haven't had a problems with the cold either--other than not liking the snow on their widdle toes, the poor babies. :rolleyes: Frigid, icy water is fine, but snow is too much, I guess. Editing to add, I've never had Seramas or Modern Game bantams, either, and I've heard that both are cold sensitive--thought I should mention that in addition to the above.
Editing to reflect who this is directed toward. Just noticed what I thought I quoted is still in the reply box! @pipdzipdnreadytogoWhat are the dimensions of your coop and how many birds? Just trying to get an idea of how much ventilation you have in relation to the coop size and birds. I have lots of windows but I can't leave them all the way open all the time. I'm in the city and they get noisy, in the middle of the night! And not just the roos. I never realized how light it is in the winter, but it is lighter than summer. With no foliage on all the trees and bushes there is nothing blocking the extremely bright streetlight in our alley. I do believe ventilation is the key. And I discovered the kids had closed things up tighter than they were supposed to for the 2 nights the frostbite showed up. I need to somehow cut vents in right up under the roof where the light will be blocked.
My coop is in two sections; an 8x10 'main coop' and a 6x8 addition with a doorway about 2 x 4.5 feet between them. Right now, there are 32 birds living in it, though normally it would be 33. I'm not sure what to do about your noisy gals, other than maybe strategically hanging something to block the light from the street lamp? Poor birds must be so confused! I agree, pictures would help. Also, I like seeing other peoples' coops! :D It does sound like too much ventilation was closed for those nights. Any issues since discovering this?
[COLOR=8B4513]What is the problem? [/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Frostbite doesn't occur unless it's cold. In my situation, my coop ventilation and humidity levels are good. I haven't had a chicken with frostbite in the three years I've had chickens. In Screech's case, two days ago the skin on her tiny, bare head began showing some signs of the initial stage of frostbite—she had a lack of appetite, which led me to notice a few small translucent white areas on her head. I believe this flare-up was caused from exposure to our recent extremely cold temperatures. Before winter began, I was concerned about her head being bare. Her head feathers are periodically plucked by the hens who think Screech doesn't follow proper protocol. Since it's never been a bullying or vicious situation, and Screech's skin has never been punctured, I didn't feel like isolating her was a good solution.[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Now that Screech's bare head has shown signs of exposure, I decided today to bring her inside to give her skin a break. Other than her skin, she's acted fine since bouncing back from electrolytes the first day. It's supposed to be 45 degrees here on Monday, so that would be a good day to transition her throughout the day from inside to outside temps. She's such a people lover that she was fine hanging out inside. DH's office had a snow day, so he was home, too. I put Screech in a towel lined small dog kennel for the night.[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]Below: While DH was watching TV nearby, Screech found a nice spot to take a nap![/COLOR]
Frostbite doesn't occur unless it's cold, you're right. However, except for cases of extreme, extreme cold like those nasty -20 cold snaps we had in the past couple winters, it doesn't tend to occur in chickens unless the cold is combined with other factors. One of them is poor blood circulation, which is why large combs can be hit harder by frostbite than others. Another factor is moisture. A few things to think about when it comes to moisture: Even if the coop has plenty of ventilation, if a bird is spending a lot of time holed up in a nest box or similarly boxed-in location, there may be a buildup of moisture around them there. As well, I've noticed on very cold nights that some of my girls will tuck their faces under their wings, and frost will build up on their feathers around where their face is from their breath escaping. With Screech's bare head, that frost could build up directly on her skin as well. Moisture does not necessarily mean the humidity of the air, either. I don't know about your girls, but mine seem to love to throw their water around and sometimes it ends up all over the place. And, even during the cold we've been experiencing up here, the sun was out a couple days ago and snow was melting and dripping in a few places around the chicken yard. Any of this could have landed on exposed combs and skin and frozen in that cold. People keep naked neck chickens without issues in much colder conditions than we get here--talk about exposed skin! I, myself, had a hen a few years back who also suffered from 'hen pattern baldness' for a few winters, no problem. When I have had issues with frostbite a few winters ago, I reevaluated their living conditions, mainly in order to make sure there weren't any sources of excess moisture in their coop. Have you changed anything at all in your coop this season versus the past few? Different bedding? Change in roost height? Any kind of renovation that may have affected how air flows? As ChickCrazed pointed out, you have other birds that are not having problems; does Screech perch somewhere different from the rest of your girls? Also, just want to say that Screech is about the cutest little birdy there is, sitting by the fire. :love But I'm almost as biased about Cochins as I am about Dorkings. She seems awfully content there, you may have to write up an official eviction notice to convince her to leave! :lol:
 
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Getting excited for baby chicks. I just ordered some Cornish cross and white laced red Cornish. My plan was to hatch sex linked olive eggers but I don't think it's going to pan out. If it does it will be on a small scale. I've not had good luck with my cream crested Legbars and my roo I was going to use is limping :(

So what's everyone hatching/selling this year?
 
Love the cornish chickens. Ive only seen pictures of them but they remind me of little tanks. You'll have to take some of pics when you get them. I would love to see.
 
I intend to hatch some silkies, modern game bantams, lavender orpingtons and some of my Polish.

I have a pair of MW turkeys, hopefully I can hatch a few of their poults.

All of this will be small scale to build up my flocks. My first hatch is due around Feb 1st. Looks like I have 5-6 silkies developing and 7-8 barnyard mixes.
 
I'm a terrible chicken mom. Noticed a silkie cock limping, so caught him and found a bad case of bumblefoot. I can't believe I let that happen. The only possible excuse, and a weak one at that, is that he is black and in one of the bottom coops in the shed, where he tends to hang out at the back.
I handle most of my birds regularly, but my poor old bod doesn't let me reach back into those low coops--most of the chickens will come to the door hoping for treats. So he has spent the day in a tub in my shower stall, first with Dawn to clean him up, then in Epsom salts, and finally bathed him and bedded him down in a tub with shavings--still in the shower stall to prevent any escaping. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do about the feet--he's had enough trauma for today. Didn't affect his appetite, though.
 

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