Losing your Girls to cold weather.

[radiodog]

True, but I read that modern's do not have the fluff other birds have that help to keep them warm. Lesson learned....always go with gut feeling. If she were stressed being inside or at least in the garage, could have gotten her through this cold period. sigh

 

[silkieroo]

First off let me say I'm very sorry for your loss!

Second modern games are very sweet but they were made for the heat not cold and since she was new she didn't probably have anyone to cuddle with so... She died. The only reason i heat my coop is because i have modern games. Please don't beat yourself up about it! Learn from this mistake!

Maddie

P.S. as spartacus 63 said it could have also been an underling reason.

 

[radiodog]

she was in with 3 fat and fluffy oeg hens that had accepted her...I would check at night and all 4 were snuggled up together on the roost bar. she had nice body weight but I did notice her crop felt empty. maybe something else was going on. still sad....she was just a beautiful bird. i worried about getting a modern late fall - just another gut feeling i should have listened to....

 

[silkieroo]

Well if she was cuddeling with the others it was probably an underlying illness. did you quarintine her?

 

[patandchickens]

Bear in mind that it is hardly ever possible to know whether it was COLD that killed a chicken... and in most cases it probably isn't (or anyhow not cold alone). People say "well I found her frozen solid" but, ah, you know, that would happen no matter WHAT killed the chicken

In many cases it is likely to be an unrelated death (chickens sometimes drop dead suddenly from egg-laying or other problems in ANY season of the year) or a chicken who was ill (which can come on suddenly and/or be hard to notice, see previous parenthesis about similar things happening ANY season) is pushed over the brink by extra cold-stress.

The only thing you can know for SURE is cold-related is frostbite.

If a chicken's crop is empty in the evening when she goes to roost, that suggests there is more going on -- either the other hens not giving her access to the feeder, or some physical problem. That alone, or in combination with cold, can certainly kill a chicken.

Pat

 

[teach1rusl]

I agree that most birds who actually die from the cold probably had some underlying illness or condition. Or vise-versa, maybe fighting the cold lowered resistance enough to allow another stressor to overtake them??? Maybe in these cases, had the bird(s) not been so cold stressed, they might have lived??? I guess unless you have them medically examined afterward, you'd never know. Of course I'm sure it can get cold enough for shock to set in with a fully feathered healthy bird - death, but I don't know what that temp. would be.

I have seen some very ugly results of frostbite (

including the loss of entire feet - NOT in my birds), but the birds lived.

 

[blake101]

I have 6 RedStars, the temp tonight is going to be around 13-14 degrees. They will be in shelter out of the wind, but with no heat. Should I be worried?

 

[kittycooks]

@radiodog: sorry about your loss.

@blake101: I live in Minnesota. We put the brooder heat lamp in the coop with a 100 watt night heat bulb (from the pet shop reptile area). My birds go sit under it occasionally to warm up. Sometimes at night I would move the birds to that area of the coop but the next morning they were always back at their favorite roosting perch in the run.

I wrote an article about winterizing here:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5727226_winterize-chicken-coop.html

 

[Count Orloff]

Quote:
I also bought a Modern Game pullet only a few days ago. She nestles up with the Buff Orpingtons and they keep her warm. You are right though - they do not have much meat to them. They are warm weather birds.

 

[blake101]

Wind chill below 0 degrees last night and they were just fine with no heat.