Thanks bobbi-j.
I think he had a good night despite the cold. He got down and pecked at the Boss on the added 2 inches of new pine shavings. I watched him and his toe. It looked good at first but then I looked at it again and it seemed pale to the 2nd knuckle a bit. I did pick him up and massage it for 5 minutes in the coop. I put him down and he went back to it. Went back to the house for an hour and came back to get some eggs and he was up on the roost with the girls fluffing around his feet. So at least he's protecting it. It still flexes and moves which is heartening.
yah, I dunno. I've got some beautiful Kentucky bluegrass hay out in my run. It's so light and fluffy...but maybe it's breaking down enough now that I need to get more and deepen it yet again. I'm picking up two more bales of it today. Maybe he jumped down wrong off the roost and his blood flow was comprimised to that toe somehow; a wet dropping that stuck on his foot too long and froze there....? combination of events or conditions. Hard to say.
I'm glad that I noticed it yesterday, nonetheless. Searching other threads on this problem and I'm in a better boat than some.
. I am in SE Minnesota near Rochester. I built my first coop and got my first chickens last fall. I have a pure Welsummer trio, and 2 pullets and 5 cockerels from a flock of several breeds of hens with a black copper Marans roo. I have them in an insulated, ventilated 6x8 coop with a 250w red light on a christmas light timer so it turns on at dusk and turns off at dawn. with 6 boys in the coop, the red light seems to keep them from pecking at each other during the night. They free range during the day.... when it's not below zero! I have to laugh when I look at where this chicken adventure has taken me and my family. I thought I was just going to be producing food for my family. Ha! I could never have guessed how much more it would be! My 8 yr. old son spends at least an hour in the coop every day loving up his birds, talking the hens through laying, taking our Welly roo for a ride in his big Tonka dump truck..... You name it, he does it! Almost daily we have the reminder discussion about how 4 of those boys are going in the freezer as soon as it warms up. Ugly day that will be! In the meantime, we have become chicken obsessed and currently have 13 Welsummer and 16 Marans eggs in the incubator. We have never done this before either, and have eggs that were shipped, so I'm going to consider anything over 25% hatch rate a success! So, that's my chicken story. Nice to find other MN flocksters out here on BYC. Hope all your birds are staying warm! I keep waiting for my son to ask if the birds can sleep inhis bed with him when it's cold... 
