South Louisiana Temps Dropping & Chicken Owners

[LynneP]

Gosh what a difficult question to answer. And you're right, my chickens and I would 'swoon' in your kind of heat.
I would think that whatever you design, having panels that can be used during a hurricane or a snow situation might be wise...

 

[Tala]

Yeah, my house isn't insulated AT ALL, and I'm inside, with a heater on, non-essential rooms closed off, wrapped up in blankets, and still freezing my southern-acclimated arse off.

All y'all Northerners are welcome to come down here in midsummer, when the humidity is up around 99% and you'd swear you could drown in the hot, wet, thick air. God I can't wait for summer. I HATE being cold.

I was planning on doing an "open" coop as well... basically just a roofed run with some roosts in, and putting up corrugated metal roofing as "walls" on 3 sides of one end for wintertime. I've been wondering if that would be sufficient in a small (4'x12') run, or if I'd need to put up a 4th wall to prevent drafts? It's been a bit stormy this winter so far, with some brisk winds.

That's me! I'm wearing clothes that I'm comfortable outside in, sitting at my computer and not hot.
I swear my heat needs some servicing or something coz.....

I also have an open air coop. You can see it on my BYC page https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=27985-open-air-design-coop it has a roof and a westerly wall, the rest is fence. They have been doing JUST FINE in the weather so far, however temps as low as 8*F with north winds gusting to 25mph are expected on Thursday night.
Rather than wait for all that to hit us, I went out today in decent weather (uh, it's 35*F I think, but with the sun it's practically balmy out there!) and I put up a tarp on the north side of the coop. I zip tied it to the fence so hopefully it won't flap around too much. I'm not terribly afraid for the cold, and the open air design provides plenty of ventilation, but they do need some wind protection at those temps!!!
Other than that though, "winterizing" my coop = me putting out heated dog bowls. They seem to be doing great with it!

Winterized coop: Tarp on back (north) wall and heated dog bowl

We have no signs of frostbite and my chicken's only complaint seems to be that the ground is semi-frozen so there is no place to get a good dust bath!!!

 

[LynneP]

Tala- nicely done. If you wanted to to toss some bedding out on the run you might find your hens will be more active through scratching it. I put some on the snow for them.

 

[Tala]

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Well after I cleaned out the baby coop two of the Leghorns promptly went in for a dustbath in the pine pellets. Whatever works I guess!

 

[Chicken Chaperone]

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DFW is going to be in the SINGLE digits on Thursday!

yuck

I know so many people have it so much worse in other places but darn! that's cold for us!!!! ::sigh::

 

[Joz]

Quote:
Well, the only time I've ever seen snow stick here was for about 5 hours last year. Just having a sloped roof should take care of any possible snow-related issues.

Hurricanes, on the other hand... I'd probably bring the chickens inside in a kennel for the storm, and remove any panels from the coop that were removable. Lightweight metal panels that catch wind could tear loose from screwed-in connections and fly off to break goodness knows what on neighbors' houses. I don't know how many screws it would take to resist 130mph winds. In case of flooding, the girls would probably live on the porch and pray for the absence of raccoons until the water subsides.

 

[Chicken Chaperone]

Quote:
Bravo for you!! It sounds like you've been thinking it through and getting ready and your animals will be all the better for it! Well done!

We're scratching and hustling here to try and winterize and get ready for what they say'll be the coldest temps for us this year. We've got a heat-light-tin thingie for the water dish, some extra plastic for sealing up drafts and I'm ready to give up my beloved heating pad if the hen asks for it so you know it must be love!

If freezer camp is ever going to be in the cards for our little girl (and I pray it'll never be..) I want it to be on our terms- not mother nature's!

 

[gritsar]

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I have some neighbors that have that basic set-up and their "winter hardy" birds do just fine with it.
We designed our coop with the old commercial broiler houses in mind. Very large, hardware cloth-covered "windows", one 4 ft. high by 8 ft. long and the other 4 ft. high by approx. 5 ft. long. We took the wood that we cut out to make the windows to create shutters that can be easily opened and closed. I close them when the temps. drop below 40 degrees and are going to stay that way for awhile. Otherwise, the shutters are open.

 

[catdaddyfro]

Joz wrote: All y'all Northerners are welcome to come down here in midsummer, when the humidity is up around 99% and you'd swear you could drown in the hot, wet, thick air.

God I can't wait for summer. I HATE being cold.

I gar/oan/tee/ya there.

I can't wait either for the temps to get back to normal(89to99)* and around the same percentage of humidity.
I've been cold for 3 months now and sick with sinus problems longer than that and havn't gotten a thing that realy needs to be done for the upcoming breeding and hatching season. Just barely got the ol' gals coop wrapped with viscuine on the outside and stapled paper feed sacks on the inside walls as all this mess will have to come down in a couple of months or less because it'll be hotter than heck before you know it.

Alot of people especially the northerners really don't know how these cold temps mess things up down here in the southern states and yes its still cold even if ya'll don't think it is, believe me I've been in what ya'll call cold before also. I used to live in Norteastern Colorado and people it gets just as cold there as some places in Alaska, so don't tell me about cold. The winter I was there it got to minus -35*/wind chills of -65* now people that's cold and we had to feed about 500 Mama cows twice a day no matter what and manage the farm as they can't just coop up in the house as most everybody does in the cold weather. And yes I remember when it got back to just freezing+32* it was a heat wave but still everything is frozen and still the same pain in the @$$ to deal with. There is a diference the way 32* dry cold feels compared to 32* wet cold like we have here feels, been in both.

I've also lived in Northwest Ark. and the winters of 2000 and 2001 the earth came to a stand still for two solid weeks both years, couldn't do S#$@T because of the snow and ice. So I say the H@#ll with cold weather and welcome the warm/hot weather. Now that's alivin', as all the earth is beautiful and green everywhere, its alive, you can plant a garden, hatch lots and lots of babies and they grow like weeds as this is natures normal growing season, AND the chickens lay eggs like there's no tomorrow.


Anyway what I'm trying to say cold is cold whether its 20* in the south or-20* in the north, its all bad and honestly I can get more done on a scrotum soakin sweatin' day than most any body could get done in a month in their beloved cold and icy miserable weather.


BTW a month ago was getting more eggs than I could sell or give away. The past two weeks I've gotten 3 lowsy eggs, so see even the chickens don't like it as they've gone on strike. This is the first year that I've had my hens completely quit me. I've always been the guy everybody got eggs from because nobody was getting eggs all winter.

At least this afternoon it's gonna be in the mid forties and 40 in the morning, before the really cold hits thurs. night 16* so I'm gonna do some more weather proofing for the gals and hope that they don't freeze their "guevos"(not so good in Spanish)off.

catdaddy

 

[chickenlittle32]

Yes, the damp cold is totally different...hurts ya everywhere...I was born in NY and know the differences as well...I would honestly have to walk to school in the snow...no big deal...now down here..where it rarely gets below 70*....yeah this is totally new for us....Beginning of Dec...we had SNOW!!! Now it is supposed to rain tomorrow and then get even COLDER!!! Be in the teens for the weekend....

Catdaddy, I was about to say hens don't have guevos...but it has 2 meanings...so...your hens don't have either at the moment...LOL no but really, sorry you aren't getting any eggs here...I totally understand what you mean...I am getting guinea and turkey eggs...but only 1 or 2 chicken eggs...Hope you all feel better and try to stay warm!!