It's going to be super cold.

[furbabymum]

Go to Hopkins alternative livestock web page.... He has easy instructions. I used a 2x4 and on the wide side attached a thermostatically controlled pipe warmer tape. It's to keep pipes from freezing and turns on when it's under 32 degrees. Attached it using fencing staples. Then I used scrap carpet and covered it. I did it all myself and it was pretty easy

Thank you. I believe this would be easy for me to do. First I need an electrician to come out though. The wiring to our barn has always been crappy but it's totally not working now. I think we'll need to be rewired. So no heat right now. Way too far away from the house to run an extension chord. It sucks as watering the poultry has become a huge ordeal now. lol

 

[furbabymum]

Has anyone here read how you can stack terracotta pots,holding them together upside down with a long bolt,and then placing a small candle under the pots,to generate heat all day long? The pots will store the candle heat,and the bolt holding them together transmits the heat between the 3 pots. It's very,very cheap radiant heat all generated by one or a few small candles.There is videos on you-tube how to build these.Each pot must be slightly bigger than the next,and the bolt needs to be long enough to be just above the candle frame.Granted around peas,you may need to construct a wire enclosure around the pots,but it's amazing how hot one small candle can create for many hours at a time.

This is amazing. I was just looking at google pics. Looks like you can use a regular old light as well. I would imagine this would be a fire hazard though? I have rafters they sleep in. Perhaps I could screw it to the rafter.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

As long as they cannot knock over the pots or the heat source it will work.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

It got down to negative2 degrees here the other nite with a slight "warming" breeze,making the wind chill 22-25 below zero. My coming 2 year olds was the only peas that resuse to go inside at night,so like the good owner I am,I went out and picked each and every one of them up and moved them indoors,where they have been since. We had 8" of snow here Friday eve,and they would have stayed outside all night again,even tho the doors to the inside coops were open.I've had a few marans get frostbitten and lose their toenails,,but not my peas,if I have to intervene. My back killed me the next day,as the outside pen they have only has chicken wire for a top and it's only about 5' high,and picking up 40 peas,one per trip is exhausting especially when AARP has your mailing addy.

 

[casportpony]

It got down to negative2 degrees here the other nite with a slight "warming" breeze,making the wind chill 22-25 below zero. My coming 2 year olds was the only peas that resuse to go inside at night,so like the good owner I am,I went out and picked each and every one of them up and moved them indoors,where they have been since. We had 8" of snow here Friday eve,and they would have stayed outside all night again,even tho the doors to the inside coops were open.I've had a few marans get frostbitten and lose their toenails,,but not my peas,if I have to intervene. My back killed me the next day,as the outside pen they have only has chicken wire for a top and it's only about 5' high,and picking up 40 peas,one per trip is exhausting especially when AARP has your mailing addy.

Sorry, but that's kind of funny! I'm only 5'3" and my back hurts when I clean my pens with the 5' roof.

-Kathy

 

[MinxFox]

Goodness I think I would freeze to death where you all are. It is 49 degrees out and that is cold enough for me. I get cold very easily. I am glad I don't have to worry about rounding up my peas.

For those of you that have to worry about getting them to go inside at night so they don't freeze, I really am thinking what Josh from Rocking BAB told me was a really interesting tip about if you have a dim light on at night inside the peafowl's indoor area, they will roost where there is the most light so they will go inside if there is a dim light for the night. I told him we keep a light on at night near the pen incase if a predator gets in the peas can see their way around the pen to get away, but he told me not to have an outside light, just an indoor light. I just thought it was a neat tip although I sure don't have electricity wired to the pen.

 

[cstronks]

I know an owner of peas, so I sent him a text to get his opinion, and he said that in -15 degree weather he would bring his birds in. I personally do not know much about peas, but my buddy's family has kept them for nearly 50 years, and they don't seem to have confidence in them being a cold weather bird.

With that said, there seems to be a mixed opinion in this thread between bringing them inside and outside. Best of luck with whatever you choose

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Kathy,,when you reach,or have reached the age of 49 yrs old,the mailbox suddenly becomes home for AARP mass mailings. Seems if you ignore them,they soon figure out your just a postage expense and your dropped by the wayside.Minx, If I turned on a small lite inside these two coops at nite,one would sit inside the opening and not allow anyone else to get inside.Squatters rights first come,first squat happens here.I find it interesting too on my outside perches inside my breeding pens,each night in my bssp pen the lineup is exactly the same in order.Roadtrip the peacock is always in the middle with my two bssp hens next to him,my silver pied/split to b/s next on the right,and the silver pied younger hens always on the outside edge of the perch.My Taupes is diffrent,the hen always sits on top of the cover of sheet metal over their feed,and the Taupe male is always on the perch alone.Every pen has a diffrent order and for the most part only the IB pen mixes it up each night.

 

[zazouse]

Frenchy you are right about the AARP thing, been getting their mail for years, still don't know what i would use it for, i don't go many places not even the doctor, trying to keep life as simple as possible

My peas also have a roosting order and when one decides to roost in their place some head pecking can occur 25 foot up in the air leaving a pea way out on a very thin limb, it don't happen often once the younger peas learn the rules

 

[furbabymum]

I didn't bring them in and they were fine but I was honestly worried. I think come spring and summer I'll be doing construction to make the tack shed "coop" area of my barn more weather secure. It does snow in it right now. It's the bloody wind here. Blows snow through cracks you didn't even know you had.