Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MrsNorthie]

Some people get BYC fatigue and rather than post they are leaving or having a rest they just stop posting. BYC has changed since I joined; many more chat threads and fewer ongoing threads about chickens.
There are other people like myself who really are not interested in idle chat and can't find a thread that for want of a better description, called a home thread.

@TropicalChickies always has some really good chicken chat, and was hoping to hear that her baby made a full recovery.

 

[fuzzi]

Some people get BYC fatigue and rather than post they are leaving or having a rest they just stop posting. BYC has changed since I joined; many more chat threads and fewer ongoing threads about chickens.
There are other people like myself who really are not interested in idle chat and can't find a thread that for want of a better description, called a home thread.

That's why I lurk here, for chicken chat. The other chat threads are fine, but I am too busy with Real Life to catch up on dozens of posts when I get home.

I love seeing your little bunch.

 

[BDutch]

He is hanging in there.

He got a report yesterday that he has blood clots in his lungs and two areas on his liver.

Wishing you and your husband all the strength in the world.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

We weren't single digits, but the teens over night and this morning. Everything outside was frozen, so we were thawing waterers and replacing with warm water. We delayed letting the chickens out until the temps got above freezing. The coop stayed comfy.

You bring up an excellent point about the apiary, we don't get many days below freezing, but we are going to have to really plan where to put ours. My grandfather kept bees in Vermont, when I was very young and don't remember what he did, but the always survived the winters. I have more research to do!

Unfortunately beekeeping is more complicated now than in the days of our grandparents thanks to new challenges like mites, pesticides, poor queen fertility due to genetics and husbandry practices, etc. We've spoken with countless old timers who stopped keeping bees at scale because of the frustrations of the last 2 decades. Those who still keep big apiaries have adjusted their methods in surprising ways to accommodate significant turnover and losses.

That said, small-scale beekeeping is an important pursuit and totally worth doing!

It's hard to say how much hive placement matters. We have a shaded apiary and one in full sun. There are many supposed pros and cons, but the bees seem to compensate for different conditions. Because of that, we normally don't wrap or feed.

We've overwintered with minimal losses for 3 years. However, last year saw our hardest freeze since keeping bees, and we had the first hive starve in late fall due to rain washing out vital nectar flows, so we're trying new things to hopefully effect a different outcome than last year.

The best advice I have for keeping bees is to collaborate with other humans. Get to know neighbor beekeepers and go to area beekeeper meetings. It's amazing how much more we can accomplish when we collaborate. We miss out on a lot when we silo.

Anywho, some winter-honey-bee reading:
https://www.honeybeesuite.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-overwintering-success/
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-widespread-belief-honeybees-naturally-insulate.amp

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Tax for bee talk:

Splendid Starla Longtoe warms one of her snow-muddy feet as she views her empire from the roof of a run.

These are her tracks. Can you tell why she's named Longtoe? The wavy middle toe cracks me up.

Here the Langshans have convinced Eula and Raisin to join them in a sunbeam out in the snow instead of staying on dry dirt in the coop run. It's not because they love sun but because chunks of snow have been falling off the coop roof. For some reason, the Langshans in particular are very freaked out by that and have banned the coop for the afternoon. Stilton and others were unphased and back in the run having supper at this point, but it took a lot of scratch bribes to lure these girls back in so they could eat before roosting.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 40s.

Have a great day!

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Cold at -5 and rather grey most of the afternoon. Everybody was hungry. C had fed them yesterday, but probably not enough to leave much for the morning
Dig and Mow, being young and fit cope with the cold although I doubt they are exactly comfortable. Henry ate as much as he could and went off to roost an hour earlier than the rest. Carbon and Fret spent the second hour in the coop extension and were roosting long before sundown. I took 700 grams of food and most of it was gone by the time they went to roost. I have a bit to say about this in the article I'm working on. Bear in mind nobody is laying eggs, so that's quite a lot of feed.
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There's a stark difference in how our younger, 10-month pullets are dealing with the cold vs. how the nearly 3- and 4-year-olds are.

The olders barely leave the coops until temps crest 20°F/-6ish C. They have heaters keeping coop temps a little over freezing, and they appear perfectly content staying on the roost most of the day. With plenty of breaks to eat, that is. They've consumed 5 days of food in 4 days.

Meanwhile, the pullets want to be out and about. At one point in the coldest weather, I confined them in the run on dry ground because their little peach-colored feet were turning dark red from playing in the snow, and I didn't think they were taking the frostbite risk seriously enough.

 

[SimpleJenn]

There's a stark difference in how our younger, 10-month pullets are dealing with the cold vs. how the nearly 3- and 4-year-olds are.

The olders barely leave the coops until temps crest 20°F/-6ish C. They have heaters keeping coop temps a little over freezing, and they appear perfectly content staying on the roost most of the day. With plenty of breaks to eat, that is. They've consumed 5 days of food in 4 days.

Meanwhile, the pullets want to be out and about. At one point in the coldest weather, I confined them in the run on dry ground because their little peach-colored feet were turning dark red from playing in the snow, and I didn't think they were taking the frostbite risk seriously enough.

That tracks with mine! 5 of my 6 are out stomping in the run most of the day. My one that has a crest poof stays inside the coop unless she wants the food or water in the run. But she tends to stay in the coop more often.
Granted, mine are in an enclosed system so they only get snow on their feet if they go in the run extension! All are under a year old.

 

[ManueB]

Unfortunately beekeeping is more complicated now than in the days of our grandparents thanks to new challenges like mites, pesticides, poor queen fertility due to genetics and husbandry practices, etc. We've spoken with countless old timers who stopped keeping bees at scale because of the frustrations of the last 2 decades. Those who still keep big apiaries have adjusted their methods in surprising ways to accommodate significant turnover and losses.

It's exactly the same here although our climatic conditions are very different.
Old timers remember a time when they used to just sulphur and kill an agressive colony to take honey- there were so many bees around they were sure to replace it.
Now some of them are convinced the water is poisoned because there is so much colony collapse disorder, our sudden bee death.

We've overwintered with minimal losses for 3 years. However, last year saw our hardest freeze since keeping bees, and we had the first hive starve in late fall due to rain washing out vital nectar flows, so we're trying new things to hopefully effect a different outcome than last year.

A cold winter for us is a normal or mild winter in many parts of the US, with two or three weeks at -10c/15f. The bees have actually had better years when it was the case, because that means a summer with less mites, varroa and hornets. Ours do have an open shelter very much like the photo in your first link.
The worse for them has been the unusual variations - abnormal warmth too early in february, trees budding too soon, getting all the bees out and about, followed by freeze killing everything.
And the drought, which means nothing to eat.

There's a stark difference in how our younger, 10-month pullets are dealing with the cold vs. how the nearly 3- and 4-year-olds are.

The olders barely leave the coops until temps crest 20°F/-6ish C. They have heaters keeping coop temps a little over freezing, and they appear perfectly content staying on the roost most of the day. With plenty of breaks to eat, that is. They've consumed 5 days of food in 4 days.

Meanwhile, the pullets want to be out and about. At one point in the coldest weather, I confined them in the run on dry ground because their little peach-colored feet were turning dark red from playing in the snow, and I didn't think they were taking the frostbite risk seriously enough.

I also see the same here. Last year as pullets they were out and about ; now as 18 months old hens they won't come out if it's -5.
Our winter this year is very mild, but last year it was colder than usual and my three years old ex-batts only came out of the coop for one or two hours in the afternoon. This year they are out most of the day as we have had very few mornings below freezing.

I think there are individual differences though. My bantam Merle has been unwell when it's below freezing, even as a pullet.

I have trouble understanding those posts where people claim their chickens are not fazed at all by the cold. Or maybe it's dry cold with sunshine and no wind ?

Weather tax. This year's hatch has only seen one day of snow- totally strange.
First time ever yesterday it rained in january in the highest village in our valley, at almost 2000m/6500 feet.

 

[fluffycrow]

By normal people standards, we don't experience winter. This terrible picture for example, was taken today

. Still, the younger birds are enjoying themselves slightly more than the oldies. Beautiful photo, ManueB