MaxineMarie
Hatching
- Feb 25, 2021
- 1
- 0
- 2
We have free range chickens that coop up at night. We also had a recent cold snap with record lows and lots of snow. It was very hard on everything, however it seems we will likely loose half of our flock. We cooped them on the coldest days, made sure to thaw the water several times a day, cleaned out the coop right after. We did not put a warming light in the coop as we were just unprepared for this many days of below zero here in OK. So my question is... could they have caught a cold, from the cold? It does not seem to be spreading more like some got sick and some did not. Some of the symptoms are frost bitten crowns, snotty noses, swollen mucky eyes, and one that seems to be wheezing.
We have added a bit of apple cider vinegar to the water, made sure the coop was cleaned out, and keeping water and food out for them... I'm pretty sure the last of the sick ones will be dead by morning, but if they are not what can we do, and more importantly what can we do to prevent this in the future - besides adding a heat lamp which I'm not sure would have been enough anyway... but it would have helped.
We have added a bit of apple cider vinegar to the water, made sure the coop was cleaned out, and keeping water and food out for them... I'm pretty sure the last of the sick ones will be dead by morning, but if they are not what can we do, and more importantly what can we do to prevent this in the future - besides adding a heat lamp which I'm not sure would have been enough anyway... but it would have helped.