Need Advice on Freezing, Windy Weather

[lazy gardener]

Been to the Maine thread? Yeah, this wind and cold are brutal. I got blown all over the road to and from work today, and it's supposed to get down to 10* tonight. I have yet to wrap my run in plastic, but that helps a lot. Hoping that next week will be warmer so I can get the job done without freezing my nose and ears off.

As long as you have good ventilation that is not breezy in your coop, you should be fine. When the weather moderates, if you don't have a couple of windows in your coop, you might want to cut some in. They provide ventilation, temp moderation, and of course natural light which is very important.

As for the sneezing chicken, it sounds like she got a bit of feed stuck somewhere. It's a fairly common occurrence, though distressing to hear and watch! I had one girl that did the high pitched whistling sneeze all night long. Next morning, she was perfectly fine. As long as there is no discharge, and she is acting ok, it's just a matter of watching to be sure there are no new developments.

 

[HoopyFrood]

Also afraid of this cold snap tonight. It'll be 16 by 7am.

Yep! We're expecting about the same for most of the early morning.

I just wish these girls had a chance to harden off before this hit! I made a non-heated, non-insulated coop thinking there would be a transition from light frost to deep freeze. Nope.

Not the first time I've been wrong (far from it). Almost certainly won't be the last. C'est la vie

 

[greggooo]

Yep! We're expecting about the same for most of the early morning.

I just wish these girls had a chance to harden off before this hit! I made a non-heated, non-insulated coop thinking there would be a transition from light frost to deep freeze. Nope.

Not the first time I've been wrong (far from it). Almost certainly won't be the last. C'est la vie

I hope that this is it for the sudden cold snaps. I was hoping that this temperature wouldn't hit until January, when they were older. Mine are just over 4 months. It's scary.

 

[HoopyFrood]

I hope that this is it for the sudden cold snaps. I was hoping that this temperature wouldn't hit until January, when they were older. Mine are just over 4 months. It's scary.

Exactly! We're trying our best not to be nervous nellies... but it can be hard. At least the girls (except Charley) seem in good spirits! I think they'll be fine. I've expanded the wind break and they are spending time both outside and in the coop. Time will tell...

 

[HoopyFrood]

Been to the Maine thread? Yeah, this wind and cold are brutal. I got blown all over the road to and from work today, and it's supposed to get down to 10* tonight. I have yet to wrap my run in plastic, but that helps a lot. Hoping that next week will be warmer so I can get the job done without freezing my nose and ears off.

As long as you have good ventilation that is not breezy in your coop, you should be fine. When the weather moderates, if you don't have a couple of windows in your coop, you might want to cut some in. They provide ventilation, temp moderation, and of course natural light which is very important.

As for the sneezing chicken, it sounds like she got a bit of feed stuck somewhere. It's a fairly common occurrence, though distressing to hear and watch! I had one girl that did the high pitched whistling sneeze all night long. Next morning, she was perfectly fine. As long as there is no discharge, and she is acting ok, it's just a matter of watching to be sure there are no new developments.

How in the world did I not see this?! Apologies and thank you @lazy gardener for the advice! I had not seen the Maine thread - I didn't know there was one. I'll have to go look for it.

The plastic wrap is a very interesting idea. How heavy of plastic sheeting do you use? Does it hold up in the wind very well?

I don't have windows in the coop per se. But I have a lot of vents with covers. I open and close various combinations of upper and lower vents depending on prevailing wind direction in order to maximize ventilation without letting breezes in. So far today they have shared time between outside and in the coop.

Charley (the sneezing one) is grumpy and occasionally puffed up. But she is eating and drinking. She's foraging (scratching and pecking) and acting normally otherwise. No discharges yet. We've applied VetRx to her nostrils and have a waterer with a little Rooster Booster and Nutri-Drench in it. We'll be checking in with them (and keeping a very close eye on her) at least once every hour. It doesn't seem like there's much else we can do until there is a change in symptoms.

They eat only layer feed in their run/coop. But we let them "free range" twice a day normally. Charley did seem obsessed with eating aspen leaves and white birch (or aspen) bark for a bit. So if something is stuck it's almost anyone's guess what it is. I've noticed they seem to have a strong inclination to eat things they shouldn't, like wood chips.

Some people put stock in olive oil to "lubricate" the GI track. Any thoughts there? I've heard some people massage it to help, but I'd be very worried about causing injury.

 

[HoopyFrood]

The temperature is above freezing and the wind is dying down! After my second reconfiguring of the wind breaks we devised a permanent "sun room" wind break in the run using an old garden window. We'll set it up on concrete blocks and wall it with heavy burlap. I'll post a picture here after we've built it (hopefully tomorrow).

Charley is doing great! After I posted my last message I very gently felt her throat, crop, etc. I didn't detect anything abnormal, but I'm not very experienced with such things. We just added some Rooster Booster and Nutri-Drench to the outdoor waterer figuring that couldn't hurt anything. We continued the vigil and made sure she was eating and drinking normally. She was...

It now is almost certainly NOT a respiratory illness; but was very likely a partial blockage in her GI system somewhere. She went from grumpy and relatively quiet to her usual spunky and talkative self in very short order!

She is berating us incessantly about being locked up in the run instead of being let out to free range. We hope to get them out in the next hour or so. She is eating and drinking vigorously and is full of energy. She sounds a little hoarse, but she had a rough go of things lately. We will continue to monitor her closely . But hopefully she is making a full, speedy recover.

As an afterword - the ground surface was frozen solid for two days and we had no free-choice grit available. The ground hadn't been frozen before! An oversight on our part. We just picked some up and added it to the offerings in the coop.

I'll update more as needed. Thank you all!

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

This was my project for today. Three tarps folded in half and weighted with random conduit I found. Hoping to stop the wind from roaring under the coop and cooling off the coop floor.

 

[HoopyFrood]

View attachment 1184297
This was my project for today. Three tarps folded in half and weighted with random conduit I found. Hoping to stop the wind from roaring under the coop and cooling off the coop floor.

Nice! I will post some pictures of my ghetto wind breaks once I get the new sun room shelter up I thought about the tarp/plastic solution, but wondered how loud it would be and how long it would hold off shredding in the upcoming storms... I'm hoping a heavy burlap solution will be better on both counts. But we shall see!

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

The tarps were cheap. $1.70 each. If they shred I can't complain to much. LOL

 

[greggooo]

The tarps were cheap. $1.70 each. If they shred I can't complain to much. LOL

I picked up a roll of 10 x 25' plastic from Tractor Supply. Then used a staple gun and put it on the run to block some wind. I WANTED to make something for the chicken door. You know, like those plastic slats that hang infront of freezer doors and such that you push through but block the cold air?.... They let me know that was a bad idea.