The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

Hey LG, For your 100W flower pot heater did you just turn the pot upside down & run the lightbulb through the drain hole? That's what I've been thinking about doing. I've been stuffing the nesting boxes w/shredded newspaper & shavings in case anyone gets bumped off the roost. I found one of my Sizzles in a box last night. I was going to put her on the roost but she was cozy & warm so I stuff some extra shavings around her and let her be.

That would certainly work, but you'd have to do the wiring at either the plug or the socket end. I started out with 60W and a cinder block. The 60W was mounted in a ceramic light socket, the kind that's meant to be mounted on the ceiling. My hubby built a 2 x 4 base to hold the block up off the floor of the coop, drilled a bit off the block to allow the cord to come through, and hot melted a ceramic tile to the top. It didn't put out enough heat, so I did 100 W in a clay pot. I had to put bricks on the floor under it b/c the 100 W puts out a lot more heat. So, at best, my set up is cobbled together. If I had to do it over again, I'd do it your way, and build a sturdy base for it to sit on, just be sure the chickens can't peck on the cord. There's a hard plastic corrugated tubing that they make designed to slip over a cord for extra safety. I'm not at all pleased to have heat in the coop, and plan to remove it, or at least turn it off after this immediate cold spell. You take a huge risk when you add heat to a coop. For the immediate moment, it's a risk I'm willing to take, but I wouldn't recommend it! Do as I say, not as I do! I guess it eventually becomes a moot point, as I plan to brood chicks in the coop this spring.
 
So I would be curious to know what sort of temperatures cause this sort of frost bite and what sort of shelter they were in.
I have never had a frost bite problem but we have been unusually cold already so it makes me a little nervous as I am getting ready to put my breeders in pens and they have nothing but wind breaks really.
So how cold for how long is too cold
well, I'm in Minnesota. Have had two weeks+ of weather hovering around 20 or 30 degrees below zero, and wind chills up to -40 below.
In the coop, temps were as low as 15 below zero.

there are windblocks underneath the coop (haybales forming corners) with hay about 8 inches deep to insulate from the frozen ground.

But, the frostbite happened inside the coop, which was pretty well ventilated until I left the coop door shut one day when the windchills were particularly wicked. That night I saw frost crystals in the coop for the first time. The frozen combs appeared about a week earlier.

These were roosters, and one hen has some tips that are black. Roosters were plenty warm, just couldn't keep those huge combs and wattles thawed.
 
I feel a little silly bringing this up right after frostbite and snow problems, but my coop floor floods when it rains. One problem is that the roof leaks, but water is getting in some other way too.

My coop is pallet walls, sheet metal roof, and dirt floor.

I use DLM for bedding (dry leaves, pine straw, shavings when I have them, etc.) I use mostly pine straw in the nesting boxes with some small leaves and I use large leaves with some pine straw on the floor. I also add DE (lol that's been flooded, so IDK how effective it's going to be wet, if anyone does know please tell me).

I've been thinking about digging a ditch on the uphill side, which is the front. Any other ideas?
 
What is the easiest way to cull some extra cockerels for the freezer? My grandparents always used an axe, but I'd rather not do that.....
Also, has anyone ever processed Bantam Cochins? Is there even enough meat to put forth the effort?
 
Never had one w/ frostbite, it would be exceptional where I live in eastern central Oklahoma.

New Photo, K!
highfive.gif
 
What is the easiest way to cull some extra cockerels for the freezer? My grandparents always used an axe, but I'd rather not do that.....
Also, has anyone ever processed Bantam Cochins? Is there even enough meat to put forth the effort?

I've posted this before, but this is my favorite video on processing:

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I feel a little silly bringing this up right after frostbite and snow problems, but my coop floor floods when it rains.  One problem is that the roof leaks, but water is getting in some other way too.

My coop is pallet walls, sheet metal roof, and dirt floor.

I use DLM for bedding (dry leaves, pine straw, shavings when I have them, etc.)  I use mostly pine straw in the nesting boxes with some small leaves and I use large leaves with some pine straw on the floor.  I also add DE (lol  that's been flooded, so IDK how effective it's going to be wet, if anyone does know please tell me).

I've been thinking about digging a ditch on the uphill side, which is the front.  Any other ideas?


We trenched around our coop to do two things. The first was to bury hardware cloth as part of the predator protection. The second was to install perforated drain pipe. Then we back filled the trench with River Rock. Home Depot sells the pipe.


Here in NW Oregon it does rain ... We put the coop in a place so as much as possible water will drain away instead of toward the coop.
 

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