New Flock isn't laying or roosting - please help

[BigBlueHen53]

Gah! Sorry about the duplicate posts! I think I fixed it.

 

[Henrybelle]

Here is a pic of some of my girls the day they arrived. We still have snow on the ground, but it was plus 2. I don't think they had ever touched the ground before. The poor girls are so terrible looking with their bear bums, and scruffy feathers.View attachment 2038184

Wow what kind of chickens are those, their combs are huge! Did they get any frostbite?

 

[sneakytoes02]

Wow what kind of chickens are those, their combs are huge! Did they get any frostbite?

Some of them did get a fair bit as it got very cold here this winter, they are leg horns, but even so, their combs seemed realy big to me as well. The frostbite parts have started to slough off the ones that got it. Some didn't get any frostbite. I'm thinking the ones that got it must have gotten wet from the waterer.

 

[gtaus]

They do look very nice, and hooray on the eggs! A little kitchen scraps is fine, but think of it as cake and ice cream for your kids. A little bit is the key. If you give them too much, they'll miss out on the balanced nutrients of their formulated chicken feed and may become overweight. Enjoy your chooks!

I gave my chickens some kitchen scraps the other day. It had some meat scraps in that bucket. One chicken would grab a meat scrap and start to run away with it. Another chicken or two would be running after the first trying to steal it away, or wait for the first to drop it on the ground to eat it, then snatch it away. Anyway, I shouted out to Dear Wife to watch the chickens running after each other. That's what I call "fast food."

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I gave my chickens some kitchen scraps the other day. It had some meat scraps in that bucket. One chicken would grab a meat scrap and start to run away with it. Another chicken or two would be running after the first trying to steal it away, or wait for the first to drop it on the ground to eat it, then snatch it away. Anyway, I shouted out to Dear Wife to watch the chickens running after each other. That's what I call "fast food."

We call it chicken football.

 

[gtaus]

Some of them did get a fair bit as it got very cold here this winter, they are leg horns, but even so, their combs seemed realy big to me as well. The frostbite parts have started to slough off the ones that got it. Some didn't get any frostbite. I'm thinking the ones that got it must have gotten wet from the waterer.

I just made it through my first winter with 10 chickens of 10 different breeds here in northern Minnesota. I was concerned about frostbite on their combs and some of my chickens with larger combs did get some frostbite. All seemed to have recovered well without any intervention on my part. That was important to me. I don't want to raise chickens that are not hardy for our climate.

My chickens spent a good 2-3 months in their coop and never went outside into their snow covered run. Fortunately, I was expecting that so I made the coop about twice the recommended size of 4 square feet per bird. They all made it through the winter just fine without picking, pecking, or bullying each other. I think the larger coop helped.

As to frostbite, I was surprised to find that outside temps can be very low while at the same time the humidity can be relatively very high. It can be -20F outside and the humidity can still be at 60%. I know that low temps and high humidity can lead to frostbite. When it snows, the humidity measures about 100%. I was very concerned about the high humidity in the coop, but fortunately I also put a temperature/humidity monitor outside the coop for comparison. The inside coop and outside temp and humidity were always within + or - a few degrees. So I figured my ventilation had to adequate.

Just for comparison, inside our forced air heated house, when the outside temp is -20F, our inside the house humidity drops to about 10%. So when I saw the outside chicken coop at -20F and humidity at 60%, I was expecting massive frostbite. However, there is no way to dry out the outside air and as long as the unheated coop humidity and outside humidity were with a few degrees, then the rest is up to the birds to see if they can handle our winters. They did.