Minnesota!

[Cluckies]

Colder than a well diggers *****.

Sorry about your Guinea Ralphie, very sad.

Mine are all 10 months old. I have 1 Buff orp, 1 golden comet, 2 SLW, and 2 EE. Only the BO and the comet are having frostbite issues, the others have no comb to speak of. I do bag balm on those two everynight. After battling this frostbite, I'm with you, only small comb winter hardy birds for me from now on. It is too much to worry about. I hung a seedling mat behind their roost against the wall, it doesn't get really warm, it is suppose to stay 10-20 degrees above ambient temp, and it doesn't radiate. So

. This morning at 4am it was -14 outside and 0 in the coop. As my coop is insulated, it is hard to say if it is really doing anything at all, it is still plenty cold, maybe just takes the edge off a bit? They were all facing the wall when I checked on them and cleaned their poo from under the roost this morning, (usually it is half and half) so maybe they can feel something at these extreme low temperatures though.

My chickens haven't stayed inside even one day yet. but my run is enclosed on 3 sides and open to the south, so it stays wind free in there. I keep the pop door open, they can decide where they want to go.

my BO, golden comet, and 1 SLW are laying. Along with just 2 days ago I got my first egg from one of the EE. The other EE quit laying a couple months ago. As did the SLW (she is molting).

Try and stay warm!

 

[duluthralphie]

I did not mean to give the impression I really miss that guinea fowl. I like them but they are not "pets" to me, like some of the chickens and turkeys are. Matter of fact if I had, had a gun with me after chasing him/her on Monday night I would have shot her/him and hate him/her myself!


I just hope it was the same guinea fowl that was always playing that " I don't wanna go into the coop game" every night and not a different one each night...

If I thought it would do any good I would put up a sign for the rest of them saying " Red, a guinea fowl died here playing the stupid stay out of the coop and tick off the farmer game"....

It is a shame to lose any animal, but it happens when you raise them free range in a the middle of a wildlife refuge.

 

[justplainbatty]

I did not mean to give the impression I really miss that guinea fowl. I like them but they are not "pets" to me, like some of the chickens and turkeys are. Matter of fact if I had, had a gun with me after chasing him/her on Monday night I would have shot her/him and hate him/her myself!


I just hope it was the same guinea fowl that was always playing that " I don't wanna go into the coop game" every night and not a different one each night...

If I thought it would do any good I would put up a sign for the rest of them saying " Red, a guinea fowl died here playing the stupid stay out of the coop and tick off the farmer game"....

It is a shame to lose any animal, but it happens when you raise them free range in a the middle of a wildlife refuge.

Don't feel too bad. I used to have six guineas and they had no problem wandering into the coop to eat every day but at night it was the same game to get them into the coop. Then, instead of staying on my 20 acres, one, then another and yet another ran into the road and committed suicide by car. I gave the last 3 away. Guineas are big time stupid compared to chickens!

 

[justplainbatty]

I will. BOSS is just short for black oil sunflower seeds. You can probably get it at TSC or any feed store.

How silly of me not to know that, I give them black oil seeds all the time!

 

[Chickenchick11]

How silly of me not to know that, I give them black oil seeds all the time!  

Don't worry about it. I had no clue what BOSS was at first to.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Ralphie. We just want to be supportive in case there was some thread of attachment you had to the poor bugger.

I think guineas would be neat for bug removal around my place...
But I've heard they are loud.

I have no interest. And people have said I would become interested in ducks, geese, goats, alpacas....nope. No desire so far. Just a Chicken Nerd. Love the chooks. I might like a Turkey...but it's a no-go for my spot here. We've got Blackhead in the swamps around me. My plate is full and my cup runneth over already.

 

[duluthralphie]

Way off topic, but I had my first flock of the inter of Junco's at my feeders today! I know they are snowbirds , but they looked so peaceful with the lightly falling snow today, I had to share it.


And beings I am talking about wild bird feeders, Does anyone else here feed them? Has anyone else noticed a lack of gold finches? I normally have literally hundreds and this year I have only had a few very sporadically.

Now to chickens, and turkeys.

This weather has my birds all screwed up. I got 4 eggs today and I did not go out until 10:40, normally I have around 20 at 9am.

My turkeys never go into the coop except for Ethel and the one the other night after the owl incident and the dearly departed guinea fowl, that no ones misses. Today I noticed I had 3 turkey hens inside the coop, I did not notice last night when I locked them up.

I have a double door for humans on my coop 4 feet apart. I leave the outside door open normally unless I want to run a bird into the "sally port" to catch for some reason. Everyday I have a bunch of hens that try to run out the human door as I enter their area through the second door. I try to go fast and make them use their door. Today 3 went through the human door. I opened the chicken door and collected my 4 eggs and went out. The 3 chickens were in the sally port area. This is normal as they like to pick at feed I spill on the floor there. I have to reach down and gently push them out the door.


There was almost a whole inch of new snow out there, scary stuff. I am pushing them out gently one at a time, they are resisting, and trying to get around me and back in. One even went between my legs, when I turned to get her out the other two came in. It was a real Laurel and Hardy moment. I finally let the two back into the coop to the other chickens and they were happy. I had one Plymouth Rock that stayed outside, she was really chewing me out though, even as she munched on her bowl of sunflower seeds! I had one other Plymouth rock that went out the chicken door and stood there blocking the other birds. I have no idea if they will ever get outside today...

It might be one of those you "had to be there moments". But it struck me as funny so I decided to share it with my Minnesota bird friends...



Oh P.S.S. I did notice even my little Plymouth rock hen has a spot of frostbite on her comb...dang weather!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Before I had chickens I fed the wild birds. But then I ended up just feeding White Tails and Bears( in the summer.) Pretty expensive to keep up to those guys. I love a flock of Juncos on the ground picking up what the others have dropped. They are neat.

My mom feeds birds...I'll have to ask her about the finches. If she's noticed that. But she also has a neighbor with a Feral Cat issue that spills into their property and raises havoc with her birds. She has one survivor chickadee with a bald head right now. She thought it was a genetic anomoly because it's head looks so small. I told her it was a cat chew toy to be sure and probably just narrowly escaped.

 

[Chickenchick11]

Way off topic, but I had my first flock of the inter of Junco's at my feeders today!  I know they are snowbirds , but they looked so peaceful with the lightly falling snow today, I had to share it.


And beings I am talking about wild bird feeders, Does anyone else here feed them? Has anyone else noticed a lack of gold finches? I normally have literally hundreds and this year I have only had a few very sporadically.

We feed the wild birds. I haven't seen any Gold Finches but we usually only get about 5.

 

[coldupnorth]

Only thing I've seen at our feeder that last 2 weeks has been Juncos and Chickadees. I only feed in the winter, especially when it is cold and snowy. We also have a feral cat problem, thanks to our neighbor and have lost our population of bluebirds and bob-olinks to them. Life is really tough on these cats between the predators and lack of food. I can't imagine their life expectancy is very long.