Looking for Winter Advice- What do you wish you had known

[LilyD]

Okay first off I don't use a heated dog waterer I have two coops and that would make my electric go way up. My solution instead is the same one I use for my horses. I have a mud room in my house where we take our outdoor gear off and I have two water buckets for each coop and stall. I will change out the water buckets each feeding for one that isn't frozen on days that are really cold. I have a sled that I bring right up to the spigot outside so I can fill them up. Then I bring in the frozen buckets for about 30 minutes until they start to defrost and then I dump the ice outside and stack the buckets for next feeding.

I do have lights in my coops more so for light so they will lay rather than for heat and my next step is to get a timer for them so that I can have them come on early and go off after dark when the chickens are all settled. So far my bedding hasn't changed. I use fresh pine shavings and change them out twice a month when they get really dirty so that I can put in fresh. Nesting boxes are changed every other day and also use lots of pine shavings. Other than that the girls go outside and graze on the grass in the bare spots of the yard. I do give them extra treats and I tend to warm them up but other than that they seem to do well on their own.

 

[girish]

Hi, I am new member here. I have a single broiler chicken - a cockerel - and I would be really grateful for any advice, since I am in a little fix.

The back story and I will keep it brief: I live in New Delhi, India. About 5 months back, some people cycling through India couch-surfed at my place and left behind a 10 days old baby broiler chick that they had picked up from the side of the road. I did not want to raise a chicken, because I live in an apartment. But there wasn't much of a choice since they couldn't take it back to Belgium with them.

So, now the chicken is 5 months old, has no social skills when it comes to other chicken and has had a relatively pampered life. It took much experimenting to arrive at what would work for his diet. He has been eating kitchen scraps, raw vegetables and a cereal which we call Bajra (Pearl millet - Pennisetum glaucum) in India, which most people feed their chicken.

The dilemma I am facing: I wanted him to have a regular chicken life, live free range, and be with his kind so I took him to a friend's farm yesterday. Winter is setting in, and although Delhi winters never go below freezing temperature, they can be bone-chilling. From what I have read about most Broiler breeds, it seems they really don't have much of an immune system. The farm I have left him at has other chicken, but he is really scared of being with them, and has been hiding in a corner and almost not eating anything (they feed their birds bajra).

I am worried that he might not adapt to that environment fast enough to benefit from the body heat generated by sleeping with the other chicken at night. The coops at the farm have concrete walls on three sides, a front wall/ door of wire mesh and mud floors. The night temperatures will be down to 3 degrees Celcius in a day or two.

I just need to know what his chances of survival are, given the facts I have just mentioned. Grateful for any advice.

thanks

Girish

 

[whitejerabias]

Subbing for all your great advice!