Silkies and cold weather

[Hennypen]

It is really cold and my silkies were shivering in the coop. So now they're in the house in a large dog cage

and they need to go back outside soon. How do you house your silkies in cold weather?

 

[racuda]

I see that you are in Georgia. Really, your Silkies should be fine, unless they are babies. How old are they?

 

[Hennypen]

6 months

young but not baby babies

 

[robin416]

My Silkie coop is heated. And in Summer it has AC.

The problem happens when the weather can not make up its mind what its going to be. Here we can go from shirt sleeve temps to bundling up like its Antarctica. This causes problems for birds, especially younger ones.

Since putting a heater in your coop is probably not an option you could try hanging lights about a foot off the floor where they can hunker down to get warm. I use red spot lights in bell lamps.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

We hang the heat lamps as well....and for the same reason. Daytime temps will be in the 50's and nighttime in the mid 20's with a 20 mph wind. We wrap tarps around the pens on the north, east and west sides and they have plenty of nesting boxes to snuggle up in together.

 

[Smoky73]

Quote:
Holy toledo....are you serious? Heat lamps in FL?

Good gosh, my birds would think everyone elses place is paradise. We get well below freezing during the day and below zero at nights and...I have actually had FROST on my birds, IN the coop with doors shut and I still do not put heat lamps out there and everyone does fine. LOL, still laughing, I just cannot believe heat lamps in the south would even be necessary unless you had day olds.

 

[Bat Cave Silkies]

I also suspend heat lamps for my Silkies; they live in a barn that is insulated as well as a house. They don't "need" the heat, but it makes ME feel better......they look alot more comfortable, continue to eat well and be active, continue to lay and make "happy noises". They're my babies....

 

[robin416]

I think the thing to keep in mind is how stable your weather is. Two days ago it was 7 first thing in the morning, it stayed in the teens all day. The next day it stayed below freezing. This morning? Its 50 degrees out there. Tomorrow it probably won't reach freezing. With birds like highly bred Silkies that kind of whip sawing temps can have an affect. This is the time of year you will read more and more about birds having health issues because they have no chance to adapt to the temperature.

In January and February when our temps get cold and stay there its a whole different story.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

None of my silkies have heat lamps on. Some of the coops have regular small watt light bulbs so they go in their coop at night. The youngest silkies I have are 3 months or a little bit less than 3 months. None of them have heat lamps. I do consolidate the younger birds together. But I have not had any problems with shivering birds, birds dying from the cold, etc. Last night it was probably around 13ish degrees. Yesterday it only got up to around 17 degrees.

 

[Smoky73]

Quote:
I certainly agree, its not the cold for a length thats the issues, its when its 50 one day and below zero the next thats the issue. So, the worst time is early spring and early fall/winter when things are never normal.

Also, Ihave one pen that has my white and a few other colors in it, well I let them outside int he nice weather, the pen is too large, (10x25) I think and if I do not physically go out there and make each one go in the house, they get "lost" out in the huge yard and forget how to go inside. I darn near lost a white pullet several days ago due to this, she was skin and bones and probably had not made it inside all week, but, who can tell? so that pen is so large they are inside now and I think I have 15 in there, 5 of which want to brood and the pen is 10x10. (inside) so, I think they will just have to stay in. BTW, she is inside the brooder house recovering and expected to make a full recovery after a while. Its just the time and mainainence we have to deal with by having such a pampered breed of bird.