Maine

[Mainechick168]

I'm so bummed out today. my sister's dog died this morning. after having a wonderful christmas the dog ate something it should not have and it got stuck in his intestines. things were just so against her. her area got pounded with snow making it not possible to get out and he wasn't a young dog either. I'm glad he at least got time to spend with his family over the holiday but what a horrible thing to happen.

that is so sad poor dog. Those things are so tough to deal with.

 

[ashandvine]

I thought of you all when I took this. It was this moment of beauty that I didn't expect in the severe winds and harsh cold here. My son shoveled a path twice to the cottage only to find it completely erased by the winds later. The chickens were not as impressed by the sunset but they never are, always too busy jostling for a roost.

 

[hoppy]

pretty but I still hate snow- now if it was warm snow..... I guess that would be water, wouldn't it...oh well.

I thought of you all when I took this. It was this moment of beauty that I didn't expect in the severe winds and harsh cold here. My son shoveled a path twice to the cottage only to find it completely erased by the winds later. The chickens were not as impressed by the sunset but they never are, always too busy jostling for a roost.

 

[Gallina Sarda]

What a beautiful pix Ashandvine!

 

[buckabucka]

Sorry about your sister's dog, Hoppy.

I may try the bag balm, ashandvine. This rooster and I do not get along all that well. If I use it, I will just do his comb tips and maybe some of his wattles. He is in the hoop coop, so he still has access to plenty of dirt. And while it is very cold out there at night, the coop warms up nicely on sunny days, even with the large amount of ventilation.

Even though I am constantly worried about the chickens being too cold, I know that they are very hardy. One winter, on the really cold below zero nights, we got in the habit of shutting the pop doors to conserve heat. Normally, we leave the pop doors open all the time, because the run is super secure. Anyway, DH went out and closed the pop doors for me, since I didn't get home until after dark. The next morning, I went to put water in the run, and there was one of my Welsummers. DH did not realize she was still out there, so she was locked out. She was alone on the outdoor roost, 13 below zero. I was horrified and expected her to be frozen to death, but I picked her up and she was fine. She did shiver a little, but then joined the others for breakfast.

Nice sunset photo, ashandvine! I was actually watching that beautiful sunset too. We don't have a great view of the western sky here, but we were at a friend's house. They have big picture windows facing west and a nice view. It was very pretty and lasted a long time.

 

[CoopChick719]

Originally Posted by hoppy So sorry to hear about your sister's dog, Hoppy! Such a terrible shame.

I recommended once that a woman try knee sock nylons or dress socks or a toddler sock on her bird but she had too many. The sock can be cut like a ski mask for your rooster and fit down on to cover the comb but leave a large opening for the face, tucking snug under the wattles. Not all birds like/tolerate it. Still, there is your weird facts for the day.

Another thing is you could put bales of hay in your coops to reduce the area their bodies need to generate heat to fill. The bales act as insulation, space takers and can be used through the warmer months for their boxes. I plan to put a few bricks I am going to warm on the wood stove in a bucket and put that out there either on a slate tile or hanging tonight. It might not be a lot of radiated heat for them but I have to do something more given the temps that are predicted.

I need to edit to add that the bird's trachea is very near the surface under its chin and you have to be very careful putting anything around their necks etc. I like the nylons for this reason over socks. They go on pretty easy and they are long with a loose cuff vs the elastic cuff of socks.

Thank you Ash for the interesting facts on comb/wattles protection & chicken ski masks. If Rite-Aid is robbed by short, feathered robbers, we'll know where to look!

I like your idea on the warming bricks on the stove. Kind of like the old-fashioned bed warmers. I was thinking about something similar using clay pots like on this link minus the candle of course. http://www.ehow.com/how_12094083_make-heater-made-candle-clay-pot.html

Yeah, i thought we were gping to have a good winter for the birds being able to use body heat for the coop until we had the predator cut our flock from 16 to 9! Now i am a little more concerned, but hopefully we will pick up some large fowl birds soon!

I know what you mean Anna. I've only got 6 birds. I still worry even though my coop is insulated.

 

[CoopChick719]

Beautiful picture! Did anyone else notice that it was not completely dark at 4pm tonight? Very cool!!

 

[Mainechick168]

I thought of you all when I took this. It was this moment of beauty that I didn't expect in the severe winds and harsh cold here. My son shoveled a path twice to the cottage only to find it completely erased by the winds later. The chickens were not as impressed by the sunset but they never are, always too busy jostling for a roost.

That is beautiful!

I feel your pain on the shovelling. I have shovelled the path 4 times in the past 2 days because of the wind!

 

[annabananaandfamily]

I seriously almost peed my pants when i went out to the coop this am. I was expecting to find very angry chickens since i wouldnt let them out yesterday. Instead i found 2 eggs!! 2 real honest to goodness eggs! I was so happy i could have kissed the chickens. But i think my wooping and yeehawing tipped them off because they all spread out to the far corners of the coop and gave me the evil eye. I skipped happily through knee deep snow back to the house and woke up the whole house to show them my treasures. The pre-teen girls were not impressed.

 

[hoppy]

I seriously almost peed my pants when i went out to the coop this am. I was expecting to find very angry chickens since i wouldnt let them out yesterday. Instead i found 2 eggs!! 2 real honest to goodness eggs! I was so happy i could have kissed the chickens. But i think my wooping and yeehawing tipped them off because they all spread out to the far corners of the coop and gave me the evil eye. I skipped happily through knee deep snow back to the house and woke up the whole house to show them my treasures. The pre-teen girls were not impressed.