The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TeaChick]

You do realize 80 (f) isn't even luke warm!!!!

There is NO WAY I could survive your weather

My sentiments exactly!!!
And I miss my flip flops!

NO WONDER I'M COMPLAINING!!!!!!!

Seriously!!!!!
Your weather sounds about like mine; I'm ready for spring!!!

 

[TeaChick]

I have had the wood stove cranking for hours and it's only 73 in the house.

I put 3 layers on to go outside and check the girls again. Stella hopped down again. Apparently she thinks I was bringing another bed time snack......
Some snow got in from the winds so I blocked up one side of the open end at the north end. The big girls are on the roost 5 ft away directly in front of it standing up. Guess the wind isn't making it in the coop to them

I didn't think it was just the snow from winds coming out of the west.

Edie is so poofed up she looks triple her normal size. Her & Lucy are cuddled close and Lucy was purring when I came in

At least I know their warm & happy (yes I checked feet all are toasty warm)

The heated water bowl is keeping the water unfrozen. Will have to see in the am if its still working ok. Tomorrow more shavings, big bowl of bird seed in the coop and small bowl of FF in the heated dog bowl that I can fill several times before work. Think I am going to put tarp on fence as well to block winds from west to see if they venture to the food crate tomorrow.

We have the central heat on and we haven't gotten it up to 60 all day!!! <teeth chattering>
I've got to get DH to check out the "chimney" (I can't even spell it

) and set up the wood stove in the corner of the living room. With all the branches that fall around here, that's free heat!!!

IMO, it's too cold to be out when your nose hairs freeze.

hehehe
I agree!!!

 

[TeaChick]

x2, nothing feels better than cold fresh air when the woodstove gets too hot - for me, thats about 72 degrees, and I have to open the porch door

I know, seems a bit of a waste but it is only for an hour or so and a good fire in the stove heats the place for hours.

Its the extended - 20's that get to me. I have had a heat lamp in one end of the coop for about a week or more now. It still stays -10 to about 5 above zero in that end of the coop. And when it has been closer to -30 outside, the inside temp at that end of the coop is -15. I don't have a thermometer in the other half of the coop, but it is definitely a little chillier in there.
Had to carry booster around yesterday, poor bugger was trembling the whole time.

I'm not looking forward to Mon night colder temps, it is -19F now.....

Wow! How is his comb doing? Is he all better and I missed it?

Haha! That's exactly what I've always said! My kids always moan and tell me that's gross when I say it. But seriously, we all have nose hairs!

One of mine did that tonight too when I sprinkled some dried meal worms in the DL for them to find in the morning. I was surprised she could see well enough to find them! She didn't stay long before she went back up onto the roost.

Mine didn't go outside at all today - I think the snow plus the wind freaked them out. So I did bring in some ff inside the coop for them, and also a bowl of snow (I figured that was safer than a bowl of water on the DL, plus it's already frozen!). It was cute watching them eat the snow! I was happy with myself for thinking of this solution to frozen water!

When it's this cold, the ff freezes pretty fast, but instead of giving them just dry food, I mix dry with the ff so it's sort of semi-moist when I give it to them. Then what they don't eat right away freezes and the next time I go check on them, I smash it into little chunks. They eat those, and I don't have to worry about it freezing more. Right now, they have a couple pans of frozen chunks of ff to eat in the morning (plus the meal worms!), so even if they don't go outside, they'll still have something to eat and keep busy.


I know. I'm worried about Sunday night. They're predicting -12F for us, and then a HIGH of -3F on Monday! Yeesh! I'm a California girl, so this is going to be a new experience for me, since we've never been this cold since moving to IL 17 years ago. (I'm from Miami, so the "cold" I get, lows=20s and highs =40s, is way colder than I want to endure!!! Never mind IL!)

I can't seem to get my coop draft-free, so I do worry about the cold temps plus the wind. It seems like air gets in around the edges of the windows I've blocked off, and it's too cold for tape to stick (I just shook my head, never heard of that.) so I can't seal up the edges. Also, air comes in around the doors (both the pop door and the people door, which is just a storm door, so air comes in around the sliding window in it as well as the edges of the door) . Maybe I need to switch which side of the coop has open windows and which side has blocked off windows, so the open windows are on the same side as the doors. I could probably do that Saturday since the high is supposed to be above freezing (maybe the tape will stick!). Boy it sure helps to think things through as I write them! (me too) I'd been worrying about this all day, and the simple solution didn't come to me until just now!

I still can't figure out how much ventilation I need, though. It's such a small coop (6' x 6') that I can't really have too much open without the air breezing in on the chickens, especially when they're on their roost. The roost is about 4' off the floor (less now, with the DL!), and the low point of the roof is 5' (the peak is 6-1/2'), so the birds aren't too far below the windows. So I really don't want to have too much window open, or it will blow all over the girls, but of course I don't want to have it too closed up either, especially with them spending so much time inside today! Maybe I should dump some more pine chips to cover up the new poop tomorrow. That might scare them outside too! (I like this idea.)

Oh, hey, I have two laying now! I can't remember if I posted that yesterday or not (good grief!). I got to watch Ethel lay her first egg, and I managed to convince her to do it inside a nest box! I think my birds aren't impressed by the plastic Easter eggs,(mine aren't impressed with the golf balls) but when I showed Ethel the egg Dina laid (I held it out to her and let her peck it) and let her watch me put it into a nest box, that seemed to convince her to lay in there. She scraped around in the box for about a half hour, then sort of half stood up and I heard a clunk (she'd scraped a spot down to the wooden floor of the nest box). And there was her egg! It was a nice size too, a little bigger than the ones Dina's been laying. And she laid another one today. So here we go! Yay!!!

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!!!

 

[TeaChick]

K. I'll put some plastic up over all the windows & openings except for two triangles up at the roof peak on the door side.

Yes, I know I should have a coop page!


Here in the first picture you can see the windows that are boarded up and the windows that are open. In the second picture, all the windows on the near wall are covered, either by wood or plastic.


This is the inside, with the roost on the right (and the decoy eggs in the nest boxes!). I think I'll put plastic over all those open windows, so the three sides of the coop that you can see in this picture will be (more or less) airtight and insulated. The roof is pretty well insulated, since it has about 5" of dirt on top, plus snow on top of that!


This is the the inside of the coop looking out. I think I'll leave that far right window covered in plastic and undo the plastic on the little triangle window (the wildlife camera is in that one, aimed at the nest boxes). If that's not enough ventilation, I can uncover part of the plastic-covered window. I built that little structure over the pop door opening so that air coming in around the edges wouldn't blow right on the chickens on the roost above it. Hopefully the air gets deflected so the girls don't get their feathers ruffled! A bonus is that I can easily scrape off all the poop that gets on there overnight, and toss it out into the run. When it's frozen, the poop just pops right off the vinyl!

Just for fun, here's a side view. The windows on the door side are under the "porch" roof, so they're more protected anyway, so probably better to have them open to air than the ones on the other side (which are open now). Luckily last night, even though it got to 5F, there was no wind, so I think the girls were fine. They still haven't come out yet today, though! But good little Dina did lay me an egg (ninth day in a row!).


OK, I'm gonna try just having a little triangle open up near the roof on one side and see what happens. Maybe I'll lay down some more wood chips too.

Are those your nest boxes hanging off the side? Are they insulated? I guess the girls don't mind if they're not? Mine are inside the coop, but the doors that open to the outside aren't insulated, so I'm guessing it's not very toasty in the nest boxes. Plus, there's probably some air leaking in around the edges of the doors on the back of the boxes.

That's ridiculously low, in my book. And an 80 degree swing is also unreal.

The roof is pretty well insulated, since it has about 5" of dirt on top, plus snow on top of that!
I feel like an idiot for asking, but why the dirt???
If I'm ever a chicken, can I come live at your house? And if I were your chicken, I'd lay you an egg every single day too!!!

Also, I need a saw. I have to use what I have the way I have it.

I have frozen liver I can try. I'll bring her in the house for the night and try to perk her up.

Fingers crossed...

and

 

[delisha]

Do any of you that get really cold temps (let's talk F here as I'm math challenged)...say below -20 F (That's NEGATIVE 20 F)... put any heat relief in your barns or hen houses?


Aoxa - I think you said the barn was warmer inside than your outside temp. Is that due to the heat the animals are generating or do you have some kind of heat in there?


Now I know all the reasons not to heat. I'm just curious if any of you WI or CN people (or other very cold temp areas) ever have a line you draw at which you do something about heating.

This is one of those discussions going on all over right now with temps hitting just below 0 F. in many areas of the country and people are freaking out about their birds and even talking about bringing them inside the house.

I just want us all to hear from you in colder areas about your experiences and practices.

we are -27 F here with the wind chill..Inside the coop is around 0. I have many windows to let in the sunlight. I also have a sun roof.





This is baby..she is my old momma..she just kicked her 5 week old chicks to the curb and is back to nesting today..

coop door is always open unless the snow is blowing in. They need to come out to eat and drink. That bucket is a drink station. They can drink water and stay out of the snow. I do toss Boss and ther goodies in the DL to keep them busy indoors since they do not go out a much as normal.

I have a silkie with wry neck

I'm not sure if I should cull or treat with something. Advice anyone? When she gets worked up she has her head tucked way under her belly. She can eat and focus enough to keep her head the right way during that time.

24 hours..
Vit E, selenium, and liver.
If improvement in 24 hours she should be OK.

 

[SallyinIndiana]

I think it was mentioned before, but what are some good ways to use the chicken bones after roasting the chicken?

 

[armorfirelady]

I think it was mentioned before, but what are some good ways to use the chicken bones after roasting the chicken?

I give mine to the girls to pick clean and when they are done with them throw them into the compost pile

 

[suncatcher]

Still reading, but wanted to subscribe to mark my place!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Be sure to chime right in! It might take you a long time to catch up

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
AFL - when you give them a turkey carcass, do you have any concerns that they might get a small piece of bone or something that would get stuck in the crop or hurt them in any way? I still haven't been so bold to give them a cooked carcass for fear of bone splintering or some such thing.