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I haven't had an egg in weeks. I had some young birds outside and finally caved and brought them into the garage this morning. I think the one silkie was ready to give up and die. They have a heat light on them now, so should be fine. Poor little things. I shouldn't have left them out as long as I did :(
 
Cluckies said:
I'm ready to go south!  So tired of the cold already, I think I was close to getting frostbite this evening myself :/ .  Can't seem to keep a waterer unfrozen, bought a heated poutry waterer today at fleet farm, I don't hold out much hope though, says it is good to 0 degrees, cripes!  I have bag balm here, should I use that instead of the vaseline on the crops and waddles?  I've not had any cracked eggs yet, my nesting boxes are insulated maybe that helps with that?
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I bought one of those about a month ago and I've already moved on to a plastic 5 gallon bucket, horizontal poultry nipples and a $39 bird/stock tank heater from L & M. Works great! That one that claims down to 0 was actually freezing at 5-10 for me.
 
duluthralphie said:
'LOL..We lived in Florida for 11 years......

You sound like younger us...

BTW There is a certain pleasure to be eked from calling friends in Minnesota when the weather is like this,,,,while sitting in your pool.. 
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Yes that will be me someday......

I have a work friend down in Texas right now that likes to taunt me by texting me photos of him lounging around the pool, at the beach, etc. He's going to be in for a rude awakening when he heads back north next week.
 
jailerjoe said:
Yes that will be me someday......

I have a work friend down in Texas right now that likes to taunt me by texting me photos of him lounging around the pool, at the beach, etc. He's going to be in for a rude awakening when he heads back north next week.
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He could come back on a warm day like this. I am so happy to see my thermometer go above zero!

I had a terrible day and most of it was because of the cold. Everything I touched went wrong, would not start or broke. Let me assure you picking up the recycling in the cold yesterday after it spilled all over the yard was not fun.....

Hopefully today will be better, maybe it will be such a good day I will not say one "gosh darn" all day long... and maybe I will get unfrozen eggs!
 
duluthralphie said:
Quote:
I live in North Central Florida. I retired a little over 5 years ago. I have a friend who moved a few years ago to MN from FL. She got tired of the cold and snow and recently moved back to the south. I was born in northern Michigan but my family moved to FL when I was young because my mother had health issues and they thought the weather in Florida would be better for her. Around 40 years ago my brother met a gal that was from the same area we were originally from in Michigan. They fell in love and got married. They lived in FL for about a year and she wanted to move back to Michigan to be closer to her family. They bought an 9 acre farm there. They had a coop for their chickens but the chickens preferred the barn. Now my brother is retired and his wife is still around 2/3 years away and no more chickens. They want to come back to FL for the winters and go back to Mich for the summers. It does get pretty hot here in the summers, the main difference is when the heat comes here it lasts for the summer. At times it can get hotter in the northern states in the summer months but usually it doesn't stay for months and usually there is some relief between the hot spells. Good luck all with your retirements and future retirements. I think I work harder now that I'm retired than before I retired but I don't have a time clock and can take breaks often. lol
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cmom said:
I live in North Central Florida. I retired a little over 5 years ago. I have a friend who moved a few years ago to MN from FL. She got tired of the cold and snow and recently moved back to the south. I was born in northern Michigan but my family moved to FL when I was young because my mother had health issues and they thought the weather in Florida would be better for her. Around 40 years ago my brother met a gal that was from the same area we were originally from in Michigan. They fell in love and got married. They lived in FL for about a year and she wanted to move back to Michigan to be closer to her family. They bought an 9 acre farm there. They had a coop for their chickens but the chickens preferred the barn. Now my brother is retired and his wife is still around 2/3 years away and no more chickens. They want to come back to FL for the winters and go back to Mich for the summers. It does get pretty hot here in the summers, the main difference is when the heat comes here it lasts for the summer. At times it can get hotter in the northern states in the summer months but usually it doesn't stay for months and usually there is some relief between the hot spells. Good luck all with your retirements and future retirements. I think I work harder now that I'm retired than before I retired but I don't have a time clock and can take breaks often. lol
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You bring up something not many up here mention.

We complain about the cold, but to me the heat is worse down there than the heat is up here. I hated walking out of the house to be hit with that heat. It would take my breath away.

The only thing I miss from Florida is Grunt fishing, Mackerel, grouper and scallop season. We have our place rented out down there. We may winter there in the future, but right now I am happy with my chickens and complaining about the cold. I do miss the gyros (we lived in Tarpon springs area). Not a lot of gyros in Orrock area.
 
Here is the thing about heat and cold.... When it is cold, you can keep putting more clothes on. When it is hot, there are only so many you can take off before someone calls the police.

As for water, when it gets subzero and nothing else is working, use rubber pans from a farm and fleet store. They come in different sizes. You flip them over, stomp on the bottom to break the ice and fill them up again. I use heated dog bowls inside but I am working on some heated nipple waterers.
 
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