Opinions of cold climate chicken keepers needed

[ejtrout31]

its going to be -30 to -45 tonight

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Just a bit of unintended humor heard on a local weather forecast tonight, paraphrased: Wind chills could get down to -50 Wednesday. But temperature will be back to the 30's on the weekend. That's an 80 degree temperature jump. Um, no.

 

[aart]

Just a bit of unintended humor heard on a local weather forecast tonight, paraphrased: Wind chills could get down to -50 Wednesday. But temperature will be back to the 30's on the weekend. That's an 80 degree temperature jump. Um, no.

But possible Depending on air temp and winds dying down.

 

[RustyBucketFarmGirl]

So my 6x12 coop was venting through the tops of a window but it was getting drafty in extremely cold and windy days. Expecting temps and windchill below 0 this week and figured it was safer to get the cold handled vs the vent. Thoughts?

I have already determined that i need to install a better vent system but it won’t happen right away.

Into coop is the back half of a 12x12 shed. It is raised up on cement block to avoid flooding which is extremely common in my areA. But when the weather gets cold it really makes it cold in there. I keep it pretty clean but the bedding keeps getting frozen solid! I break it up with a twisting garden claw and throw more bedding. Is that enough or will i have to address the floor freezing?

 

[Clairenh]

Yo, I'm back with a nighttime thermal photo. This shows how hot they make the wooden roosting bar they sit on. Interesting seeing the difference between the chickens with the combs and wattles, and the fluffy insulating face on the ameraucana! (excuse the husband's spelling of the bird. He did not know. )

It seems like the exposed skin parts are brightest yellow. I am guessing the whole bird would look yellow if all the feathers were gone. This probably demonstrates how much the feathers hold the heat in, it does not escape to show up on the image.

 

[Clairenh]

We had at least a 60 degree swing last week, if you count wind chill. Crazy.

On a side note, I found the first 100% reliable weather source, PAST weather, lol.

 

[Clairenh]

Wow! Cool!
We could hang it on the wall but the only place that it would fit is right alongside the perch. And I mean that wall is close enough to the perch that the poop on the poop board is right next to the wall. The other 3 walls either have nest boxes, a window, or doors. I'm thinking of standing it up on some bricks or 2 x 4 pieces. But I think first I'm going to try it out during the day tomorrow and see if the wood shavings get hot. Our deep freeze nights are going to be Tuesday and Wednesday here, so I've got some time.

Can you move the roost a bit? Our roost is about 7 inches from the wall, so they could touch the panel if they wanted, but I imagine they have enough sense to not do that. After we installed it we joked how it looks like they have a sweet flat screen TV in there.

 

[Grits&Eggs]

If you have large combed breeds, coat their combs with Petroleum Jelly to help ward off frostbite.

great advice!!

 

[Grits&Eggs]

the heater works well since there are no open flames and they won't get on it.

also found out yesterday my de-humidifier works wonders keeping the coop 10 degrees warmer than the outside temp and removing all the moisture and circulating the air - win-win-win

 

[aart]

also found out yesterday my de-humidifier works wonders keeping the coop 10 degrees warmer than the outside temp and removing all the moisture and circulating the air - win-win-win

Have you no ventilation?
Not that FL is 'cold climate'.