Surviving Minnesota!

[Molpet]

Thank you

Happy birthday

 

[jerryse]

Happy birthday

Thank you

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I feel like i been "surviving Minnesota" here lately. Wind chills of -5 today.
If ya'll could keep your artic conditions up there that would be great. Southies did not sign up for this.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Pretty harsh considering it was 59 on Thursday!

 

[saysfaa]

Well, we are having potatoes for breakfast.... because the door latch (to the house door) froze during the night. The baked potato fixed it.

The chickens and chicken coop are fine.

 

[gtaus]

I feel like i been "surviving Minnesota" here lately. Wind chills of -5 today.

Well, I live in northern Minnesota. Our local weather has forecasted actual temperatures of -16F tonight and expected cold weather like that for the next 5 days. If we get any wind with that, the wind chill temps will be around -30F or worse. It's not the coldest temps I have been through, but it's still darn cold.

The chickens seem to be doing well in their unheated coop. I am giving them extra cracked corn a couple times a day. I read/heard that cracked corn heats them up and helps them through the cold temps. I have never lost a chicken in cold weather, but this year I have one older hen that never got all her feathers back after a molt. I don't think she can keep herself warm by herself anymore. I see her huddling up with other chickens to keep herself warm.

I do have a metal heater base for my waterer, so they have fresh water at about 40F available 24/7. I think that helps a lot, especially in this cold weather.

 

[jerryse]

-15 and -38 wind chill. On a positive note there are no flies, skeeters or snakes out today. No mail Friday or Saturday and garbage not picked up due tom the weather.

 

[Molpet]

-15 and -38 wind chill. On a positive note there are no flies, skeeters or snakes out today. No mail Friday or Saturday and garbage not picked up due tom the weather.

I'm 2 degrees warmer. No mail Friday but they made it Saturday. Lots of frost quakes and trees are cracking too.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Well, I live in northern Minnesota. Our local weather has forecasted actual temperatures of -16F tonight and expected cold weather like that for the next 5 days. If we get any wind with that, the wind chill temps will be around -30F or worse. It's not the coldest temps I have been through, but it's still darn cold.

The chickens seem to be doing well in their unheated coop. I am giving them extra cracked corn a couple times a day. I read/heard that cracked corn heats them up and helps them through the cold temps. I have never lost a chicken in cold weather, but this year I have one older hen that never got all her feathers back after a molt. I don't think she can keep herself warm by herself anymore. I see her huddling up with other chickens to keep herself warm.

I do have a metal heater base for my waterer, so they have fresh water at about 40F available 24/7. I think that helps a lot, especially in this cold weather.

-15 and -38 wind chill. On a positive note there are no flies, skeeters or snakes out today. No mail Friday or Saturday and garbage not picked up due tom the weather.

Yeah but You northies signed up for that kind of weather. I did not!

 

[gtaus]

Yeah but You northies signed up for that kind of weather. I did not!

True enough. But I have also lived on the East Coast where people complain about hurricanes, and in California where people complain about fires and earthquakes. I have chosen to live in northern Minnesota, but I don't give up my rights to complain about the extreme cold artic blasts that we get once or twice a winter.

Anyways, we made it through the worse bit of this cold weather spell. Tomorrow will see a high of +1F! We expect to see a high of almost +20F this coming weekend.

I am feeling my age, however. I have to tote my daily chicken feed out to the backyard to feed the girls. The last couple of days my lungs were burning as I breathed in that -30F wind chill air. I can't handle being outside for very long in those temps anymore before I get a chest cold. Fortunately, it only takes me about 5-10 minutes to make the round trip to the coop and back.

You take the good with the bad. The past few extremely cold days I have been eating lots of fresh eggs. I don't get many eggs in winter, but the past few days they all have been frozen solid and cracked. Dear Wife and I have been eating lots of scrambled eggs, egg-ham-and-cheese breakfast sandwiches, and baking stuff with all those cracked eggs.