No heat in the coop and dead bird

[Altfrizzle]

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.

 

[Ash_lie]

How many birds and how many square feet of ventilation?
I live in a different climate so I will not be seeing 0 degrees here, but I will be seeing the teens and I have 75 Sq Ft of ventilation with the windows closed, more when opened. I think it was something else besides the cold, maybe the cold was a contributing factor but not the cause of death.

I would not heat the coop.

Gary

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.

 

[Ash_lie]

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 2”x3’, and 2”x6”.

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

No frost bite here either... Just frozen ice crystals on the girls feathers. My silkies afros are crystalized and a little on their backs. My big girls only frosted between shoulder blades where they tuck in and breathe all night. Anyone with a large comb gets a barrier salve.

 

[Altfrizzle]

Oohhh, you're probably on to something. I imagine my Miss Fifi got an icy face from tucking her head and breathing.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

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.

2 5" round holes is less than one square foot of ventilation. 1 square foot per bird is the minimum recommendation. You need to open up that coop, just make sure no drafts directly where they roost which may be a challenge in those tiny coops.

Good luck

Gary

 

[Ashley McDaniel]

Other than cock birds or Mediterranean class birds with large combs you should not be seeing frostbite on your birds. If you do it's a sign that your coop is too humid- not vented adequately. Cut holes/open up your eaves to allow fresh air to come in low roof line to exit the high end of slant roof line. If a pitched roof then holes each gable end too. This cold dry air will push the humid air and ammonia in coop out. Well ventilated and dry is the key for livestock housing.

Thanks for the advice. I have a slant roof, walk in coop, we built it off the side of our shed. Above the gate/door entrance there is an 8 inch opening under the roof for ventilation, and a small door left open to go out into the run. however I recently put them into the actual shed, it has wood floors that I covered with a thick layer of straw, I change this frequently, keep it dry, remove water before roosting, etc. The wind chill right now is -27, has been like this for two weeks, once I seen the frost bite on my head cock, he's a White Leghorn, I though that putting them in the shed would keep them warmer until the weather breaks. A couple Rhode Islands, and one other rooster also have a touch of frost bite as well. There is not much ventilation in the shed, so I'll go out today and fix that issue. Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Robert 1234]

Good morning to all. Sorry for your troubles with the cold.
I'm in Alberta , Canada ... And cold... -31 ugh .
I have smaller ( box type ) buildings for my chicken house.
( 4x4x8 )... I found that smaller buildings hold the warmth from the birds better as there roost is closer to the ceiling at the back wall . I have my three little buildings wired for lights.. I will use a brooder light in cold winters like this one. When really cold ( in the past )... My larger birds would have frost bite on their waddles and combs.
I also had a lose this winter ... A little white bantam rooster. Good luck everyone . Keep warm thoughts

 

[Egghead_Jr]

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.

 

[MrsMistyReal]

My deepest condolences for your loss

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Wh

Thanks for the advice. I have a slant roof, walk in coop, we built it off the side of our shed. Above the gate/door entrance there is an 8 inch opening under the roof for ventilation, and a small door left open to go out into the run. however I recently put them into the actual shed, it has wood floors that I covered with a thick layer of straw, I change this frequently, keep it dry, remove water before roosting, etc. The wind chill right now is -27, has been like this for two weeks, once I seen the frost bite on my head cock, he's a White Leghorn, I though that putting them in the shed would keep them warmer until the weather breaks. A couple Rhode Islands, and one other rooster also have a touch of frost bite as well. There is not much ventilation in the shed, so I'll go out today and fix that issue. Thanks so much for your help.

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