Pipd's Peeps!

[Crazy Maizie]

He's acting fine. But, he is shaking his head. The shed has some ventilation. Just not adequate if I moved a whole flock in there. 2 bantams would probably do ok. I think. I will check on them shortly. It's where I brooded my chicks after they got too big for the 1st brooder. But, we had pretty mild temps compared to this.

Did you move birds this time around?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh, okay, then that does sound like it would be fine! Yeah, this is pretty brutal at the moment. Not the coldest I've faced with my flock, but definitely not fun.

I did, but before we actually got to this cold. I generally just preemptively bring my two Old English hens inside when it's forecasted to be this cold because they are so tiny and seem to really struggle. Any time it gets down below like 15°, they just huddle and shiver and seem woozy and unsteady on their feet, so I just don't risk it with them. It's weird, because the boys seem to do fine, just the girls struggle. And I also brought Gwenyth, my naked neck bantam, inside with them because she's already half-naked and decided now was the appropriate time to molt and be even more naked. So I opted not to take the chance on her getting too cold in this as well. Everyone else is doing fine, though, thankfully!


Editing, strike that, I've just brought one more in. Louis, one of the Khaki Silver Duckwing OEGB boys, I think I've mentioned before has a bum leg that he can't put any weight on so he hobbles around on one foot. Well, he was laying on his side out there tonight at coop closing time and seems pretty worn out, so I went ahead and brought him in just now. He struggles to perch, so ends up sleeping alone a lot, despite that I try my best to make sure he's snuggled with the other three OEGB boys, and I think that two nights of negative temps without any buddies for warmth just took its toll on him as a teeny-tiny little rooster.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I'm keeping an eye on my 2 oegbs as well. The oegb rooster is the one with issues. The cochin bantam has a few spots on his comb, but it's not bothering him. They have lots of straw in their pen and all the birds have been grouped together in an area that gets the most sun when they aren't in their coop. So, it's like a walking furnace. The oegb hen is always with the group, but the little rooster is an outsider of course due to the bantam cochin rooster. With another brutal day today, I am glad that I don't have to work so that I can monitor them better.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hopefully your OEGBs get through this last super frigid day okay! Supposed to be double digits above zero tomorrow, practically a heat wave! Sounds like you have them well set up to handle the cold, though!

Yeah, the Cochins take this kind of cold like champs. I have 3 or 4 with dusky tips on combs and that's it. The pullets are still piling instead of perching, waking up covered in frost from their breath coming through their feathers all night, and still running around like normal in the cold despite that. Good ol' Cochins!



...Speaking of Cochins, I made an absolutely massive mistake with mine last night.

The outer coop where part of my breeding Cochins are housed is generally the first coop I close every night and the first I open every morning, simply because it's so far removed from where the other coops are that it's easiest to get it out of the way first. Well, last night, all of those Cochins were still out in their pen, so I thought, okay, I'll go close up the other coops and come back to close them last. Went back up to the rest of the coops, got everyone nestled down for the night, got the one and only egg out of the boxes, found Louis lying on the ground and grabbed him to get him set up inside, and then took off all my gear and snuggled down in bed under all my blankets to warm up before going to sleep.

You might already have guessed my mistake just from that. This morning, I suited up, headed out to the outer coop to open them up first as always, and realized... wait a minute... the Cochins were already out and about in their pen! I never went back and closed them up last night!!

Everyone is fine! Not a feather out of place, no signs that any predators even took notice. Thank goodness! But man, mistakes like this always get me worked up about what if I hadn't been so lucky. That's every blue pen bird for my silkied Cochin breeding program except for two cockerels. Had anything come by and found that coop open and the birds vulnerable, I very likely could have been forced to start over almost entirely for that pen, setting my breeding program back immensely. Took me a bit for my heart rate to get back to normal after that!


Louis is already doing better this morning, for the record, and was even crowing, to which one of the two OEGB girls, not sure which one, was responding with her very best crow and sounding a bit like a dying chipmunk or something. Loony birds!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Awe. Anytime I do anything out of order, I double check. Especially these days at my age now.

I had a wyandotte rooster that was new to me and one night he didn't make it into the coop before the door shut. I didn't notice. He spent the night out under the coop perched on the base. It was a pretty cold night too. I felt so bad. The pen and everything was different back then and he could have easily been a nightly snack. I lost him to frigid weather later on that winter because I didn't think to cover up some holes I put in for extra air during the warmer months. He perched right in front of that area. So it would have been a major draft coming in. I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure that's what did him in. I felt pretty bad as he was a really good rooster. He came from a lady that really pampered her birds and their set up was kept pretty toasty even in the fall.

So far my crew is fairing well. They took advantage of the warm temps When I checked the cameras today they were all over the pen like normal - not congregating in the corner like they had been doing the past few days.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

How's it going? Looks like a few of mine have frostbite - different coops also.

My muscovy drake usually gets it on his caruncles, but not this time. So who knows what is going on. It's so weird.

Also, I just peeked at my camera and my OEGB rooster is snuggled up with the bantam cochin hen. Now I know why he's always in trouble with the bantam cochin rooster.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Awe. Anytime I do anything out of order, I double check. Especially these days at my age now.

I had a wyandotte rooster that was new to me and one night he didn't make it into the coop before the door shut. I didn't notice. He spent the night out under the coop perched on the base. It was a pretty cold night too. I felt so bad. The pen and everything was different back then and he could have easily been a nightly snack. I lost him to frigid weather later on that winter because I didn't think to cover up some holes I put in for extra air during the warmer months. He perched right in front of that area. So it would have been a major draft coming in. I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure that's what did him in. I felt pretty bad as he was a really good rooster. He came from a lady that really pampered her birds and their set up was kept pretty toasty even in the fall.

So far my crew is fairing well. They took advantage of the warm temps When I checked the cameras today they were all over the pen like normal - not congregating in the corner like they had been doing the past few days.

Yeah, I've been doing things in proper order, but still double-checking that coop every night since. Definitely don't want to risk losing any of those birds!!

Even though it was a while ago now, I'm sorry to hear about how you lost that Wyandotte rooster It's always the worst feeling when something like that happens, but we're only human and mistakes happen. (I know, funny that coming from me as much as I beat myself up over things!! )

How's it going? Looks like a few of mine have frostbite - different coops also.

My muscovy drake usually gets it on his caruncles, but not this time. So who knows what is going on. It's so weird.

Also, I just peeked at my camera and my OEGB rooster is snuggled up with the bantam cochin hen. Now I know why he's always in trouble with the bantam cochin rooster.

Doing okay here! Wyatt definitely has a touch of frostbite on his wattles, and a few of the younger boys have a tip discolored or two on their combs, but no major frostbite to report over here. Sorry to hear you've got a few with it! Those temps were pretty rough. Looks like we got back down there again last night, too. I haven't been out to check yet this morning, but since I was aware of the temp drop I made adjustments again last night, moving birds together and emptying waterers. Hoping things are looking okay in your neck of the woods this morning, too!

That's too funny about your OEGB boy! They do always seem to find just who has the extra fluff to nestle down into! I can just picture Cheddar giving him the stink eye the whole time, though

 

[Crazy Maizie]

The oegb is going to lose at least half of his comb. But, he's doing well otherwise. The others had tips affected, so nothing major. Next year or even the next round, I think I will put to the two oegbs in the heated garage. I'm just nervous due to the differences in temps. The garage is at 60 F, but it feels quite different when the outside temp is negative.

Glad to hear your birds faired pretty well!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aww, I'm sorry to hear that! Glad he's doing well despite it, though. If you move them into the garage preemptively before we get to brutal temps, they should adjust fine to that temperature. One thing I also noticed this year is that, when I brought Louis in during the bitter cold, the bedding I put down for him had also been outside, so it was very cold and had to warm up as well. I wonder if that helped him adjust a bit better to the warmer room?

Speaking of Louis and the girls, I think they're going to go back outside today while we're well above freezing. Louis, especially, I'd like to get back out there sooner rather than later so that the other boys don't completely forget him and reject him.

I might have to bring Mona in in their place, however. She seems to be coming down with a sour crop. Her crop has been bloated for a couple days now and doesn't seem to be moving. She's pretty shaky, but seems to be rallying today, so I'm not honestly sure if I should bring her inside or not. Maybe she just needed the warmer temps as well to get things moving?

Editing, Mona passed away yesterday afternoon, January 31, after about a week of fighting whatever was causing her crop to bloat and stop emptying.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Not sure what happened, but when I opened coops this morning, I found one of my pullets looking like she'd been in a heck of a brawl. Her face is swollen and bruised, her head partially scalped, and she was covered in dried blood when I found her. I'm like 90% sure she was completely fine last night, no one acted like there had been a predator attack yesterday, and the coop was closed up tight with no signs of predator infiltration, so it almost has to be that another chicken beat up on her. She's one of the pullets that Perdita raised and taught to perch, so she was up on the roosts last night. She was perched next to Trixie, who's a wicked little witch, and the injury is on the side of her head that Trixie would have been closest to... But Trixie has no blood on her, and I'm just having a hard time believing, even as wicked as she is, that she would do something like this. I really don't know.

For now, I've cleaned the pullet up and moved her to the brooder where the OEGB girls and Gwenyth were during that cold snap in January. She's in good spirits, appetite's good, she was preening herself, and her eyes, though puffy, both appear to be fine, so I think she'll be okay. She just looks pretty rough at the moment. Pictures in a spoiler for anyone that doesn't want to see them. This was after I'd cleaned her up as much as I could.

Spoiler: injury pictures