No heat in the coop and dead bird

[Ashley McDaniel]

Wh

Where in Indiana are you? We haven't had a wind chill that low yet - at least not in my area (NE).

Southeast, Brookville, close to Ohio

 

[Ashley McDaniel]

Wh

Where in Indiana are you? We haven't had a wind chill that low yet - at least not in my area (NE).

Also should add that we are located right next to the lake...

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

It looks like we are under the same wind chill advisory. It should let up a bit tomorrow, but the frigid temps are definitely sticking around for a week.
I think there are differences in coops along with their location - like if you have a wind break near the coop.
I think when I set my coop up, I placed it in a good spot to at least break the wind from the west as we get strong winter winds from the south and west where I am. Maybe that's helping in my situation.
However, I didn't look at my chickens feathers before they came down off the roost. So, they could have had crystals. I didn't see any evidence of ice crystals in the coop though.
This chicken rearing is a tough job....

 

[Chullicken]

Coop is 4x8’, 5.5’ tall sloping to 4’ tall and enough roost space for everybody. I made sure all were roosting last night.

We Yankees call that a 'salt box' coop..=)

 

[PirateGirl]

Now that your birds' bodies are stressed, they need extra TLC from you. Stress causes weakened immune systems and other illnesses to surface. I lost two birds to "cold" before. In reality it was a combination of things likely that severely stressed their systems. Now that they are stressed they likely do need a heat source of some sort until this cold breaks (just like any sick bird). Make their food extra appealing because they will need every calorie they can get. Warm milk mixed in with their regular feed. Some scrambled eggs. Some ACV in their water. A vitamin pack or electrolytes in the water wouldn't hurt. Don't overload them with treats, but warm oatmeal or warm water or milk in their regular food will make it more enticing to them and they will consume more. There are many ways to heat a coop, some area certainly safer than others. I will leave this to you to decide. In the past I had nights where I found I slept better with a sensitive bird in my bath tub than I did with a heat lamp in the coop worried about consequences. Yes people say not to heat, but some birds in some environments need some extra help from us (I too learned this the hard way and in a short time had lost birds) we do our best and follow best practices that work for the majority of birds, but every situation is different. I hope the cold snap comes to an end soon, and your survivors will be all the stronger for it. Oh, an afterthought, but maybe do a check for mites/lice too in your coop, a bird who is already compromised by parasites would have a harder time handling the cold possibly. It doesn't hurt to look.

 

[bobbi-j]

I'm in the same situation. I'm in Indiana, it's _2 this morning and was -7 last night and the forecast isn't showing any relief from this for another week. All of my birds are getting frost bite on their combs and wattles. I'm really considering adding heat at this point as well. Sorry for your loss. Good luck.

Before you add heat, think about this. Your chickens have been growing their "winter coats" since it started cooling off in the fall. They don't get to take them off if they get too warm. It would be like you putting on all your winter gear and going outside for awhile. It's not so bad because you're all bundled up, right? But when you go back in, you get to take off all that gear. Because if you didn't, you'd be quite uncomfortable.

The frostbite is primarily a moisture issue, although I will say that sometimes it does get *that cold* that it happens no matter what the humidity in your coop.

One coop is 12 sq feet and there are 3 under a year old silkies (they are small). It's quite a lot of space for 3 little birds. There are 2: 5 inch round holes in the top of the coop walls that are screened. Should be plenty of ventilation, yet there is frost on my birds.

My 2nd coop is 16 sq feet with 2 full size hens. They had less frost on them, only between their shoulder blades where they tuck their heads in and breath all night long. Same ventilation for them.

I don't have silkies, but I would guess that they are more susceptible to cold since they don't have actual feathers. I don't know if they grow down or not. Could any silkie owners enlighten us?

One problem with adding heat to your coop is the chickens can get dependent on it. What happens if your electricity goes out? You have cold, miserable birds that may not be able to regulate their own body temperatures.

 

[nminusyplusm]

I do deep litter and gas turned bedding and added fresh yesterday.

Nobody has frost bite.

This was a young silkie.

I have a vent about 4”x36", and 6”x12”.

I have other vents but they currently have plastic over them.

How many birds do you have?
Your current venting only adds up to 1.5 sf. You should have 1 sf per bird.

 

[nminusyplusm]

Keep in mind size of vent openings don't mean a lot unless you know if it's a passive or convection venting system. Now think about this, if you have a vent or two vents at same height then they are passive venting. Small exchange of air and relative to size of hole as to how much air circulation/exchange you get. On the other hand there is convection venting where vents are lower on one side and higher on other. In this way smaller area of vent holes are needed as the air is sucked in low end and blown out hot/high end. It creates a natural pumping of air that is much larger flow of air than passive venting.

The real number for venting of poultry is 0.5 cubic feet of air per minute per bird. So it doesn't really matter how you attain that, passive or convection venting, but the bottom line is you need that much air exchange per bird per minute to keep your coop dry and clean air quality. A classic passive system is Woods style coop where the entire front of coop is wire, for that to work the coops are 10 or so feet deep to keep drafts off bird roosts at back wall. Convection it opening area along the eave albeit holes or 2 inches along entire length to draw air in and push coop air out top eave or out the gable vents. It's vastly more efficient, requiring far less vent area.

True, I incorporated convection venting by putting the always open un-pop door in the corner away from where mine roost but I think 1 sf of passive is a good rule of thumb and harder to screw up for people starting out.

 

[Ashley McDaniel]

Thanks Bobbi-J. I will try adding some holes for proper ventilation to see if that helps. But I agree, with the cold temps, plus the extreme wind chill temps, some things are just to be expected. Do you think I should just put everyone in my garage? The extreme cold temps are supposed to break on Monday as the forecast is showing that it will finally get up to 30*F. My garage has a gravel floor. I'm currently housing 3 twelve month old Silkies and two 3 month old Silkies in the garage.

 

[Ashley McDaniel]

It looks like we are under the same wind chill advisory. It should let up a bit tomorrow, but the frigid temps are definitely sticking around for a week.
I think there are differences in coops along with their location - like if you have a wind break near the coop.
I think when I set my coop up, I placed it in a good spot to at least break the wind from the west as we get strong winter winds from the south and west where I am. Maybe that's helping in my situation.
However, I didn't look at my chickens feathers before they came down off the roost. So, they could have had crystals. I didn't see any evidence of ice crystals in the coop though.
This chicken rearing is a tough job....

Amen sister lol yes, it looks like Monday is going to be 30*F A real heat wave lmbo