Think it's too cold for your chickens? Think again...

[cluck-cluck]

There's a special knife at Lowe's and Home Depot that will cut it or the lowcostmetals place will cut it for you for something like 5 cents a cut.

I know I'm really late, but thank you all. I ended up just buying a sheet at HD today and a knife. I hope if I build the frame strong enough it will keep out any predators. We ate our first egg today, and it was delish! I think I've only had backyard eggs once before in my life back in the 70's at my Uncle's house. I don't completely recall the taste and I'm pretty sure it was a goose egg, LOL, but I did find it was a deep orangy yellow yolk and tasted quite good!

I just looked at the weather, and it's supposed to be cold and windy tonight, but it's midnight, so I hope my birds will be ok. I need to make a cover for some of those vents to protect them from excessive winds!

 

[groverlvchx]

Cabin Fever is starting to hit. Here in MN we have 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Construction. Right now it's Winter.

 

[PeepinChicken]

-8 degrees here this morning with a windchill of -20 still no frostbite, but my girls are

they are tired of being cooped up lol. Tomorrow it is supposed to get above freezing with sunshine!!!!!!!!

 

[bruceha2000]

Cabin Fever is starting to hit. Here in MN we have 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Construction. Right now it's Winter.

No mud season? Lucky!

Bruce

 

[countrygirl74]

Cabin Fever is starting to hit. Here in MN we have 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Construction. Right now it's Winter.

That's why I live in Arizona!

Where we live we get all 4 seasons - winter we get snow (can get several feet just north of us, but we usually don't get more than about 6 inches on the average) but also lots of cold sunny days. In Spring everything starts turning green and flowering - love it! Summer can get hot and humid (yuck - hate humidity) when the monsoon storms come in. Fall - leaves change (although around here they don't stay on the trees long because we do get a lot of wind - and definitely not as beautiful colors as back east, etc.) I visited Tennessee once in the fall and our fall now seems like a feeble attempt. We live in a valley with open prairies and mountains with pine forests around us. I love the fact that I can travel within 2 hours in any direction and see an entirely different landscape - from pine forests to desert and huge saguaro cacti. I wouldn't be able to live anywhere where it was cold for so many months of the year, even if it is beautiful! So, our 4 seasons are short and small but we get a taste of it all.
Lately it's been sunny, clear, and cold - highs in the 30's and the low last night was 5! By the weekend we'll be back up to the upper 40's and teens to early twenties at night. I bet the chickens will be glad for that!

 

[blondiebee181]

We are near 60* today! The girls are now all muddy! Maybe it will keep them warm tomorrow when its back to the 30's, lol.

30s? Boy I'd give anything for 30s....

 

[blondiebee181]

Cabin Fever is starting to hit. Here in MN we have 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Road Construction. Right now it's Winter.

Ahahahahaaaa!

 

[hillfloweranch]

ETA 12/10/10: This was posted in response to a FaceBook post from someone in Florida that had two 250w heat lamps on their birds and it hadn't even dipped to freezing yet. I am not going to tell you NOT to add heat, but if you do, understand that you are restricting their normal acclimatization and will likely have to continue to pamper them through the winter. I personally cannot afford to heat all 4 chicken houses, and with careful observation have determined that they are perfectly fine down to 0F with so-so housing, and lower with properly set up/insulated housing. That said, continue reading!

It dipped to 0F this morning. I knew it was coming, so I added fresh shavings to the pen, added a pile of hay in the corner, wished them well and said good night.

Did I run around running extension cords from the house to plug in 500 watts of heat? No.

Did I add any heat? No.

I have ~ 20 12-16 week old juveniles in a hoop run - this is my "grow out" pen". The pen is about 10'x16', and is covered by your average tarp. Black plastic covers the areas that the tarp misses, but the end with the wooden door is open 1" chicken wire. It's not insulated, it's somewhat draft free, but with 20 mph winds, nothing is really draft free. And did I mention no heat lamps?

All my babies were running around this morning like it was a summer day. 0F, no signs of frostbite, no signs of suffering... well, except for the fact that their water was frozen solid and they were thirsty... but they're happy now with fresh water. The adults were happy with fresh water, too.

Did I mention it was 0F? And no heat?

I'm just saying... SO many people ask when they should add heat. I understand... I'M cold! But I'm not wearing a down coat.

I, for one, can do without a $600 electric bill for one month. Want happy, healthy, safe birds this winter? Hold off on the heat.

you are so right...I worried about my birds it's been in the 20s with 40-50mph wind gusts...it's the high desert the wind is the only consistency, yet every morning I go out they're happily running around scratching, my daughter did have to use the shovel to break the 2" thick iced over water trough..but they are doing great..amazing!

 

[hillfloweranch]

-8 degrees here this morning with a windchill of -20 still no frostbite, but my girls are

they are tired of being cooped up lol. Tomorrow it is supposed to get above freezing with sunshine!!!!!!!!

I know right!?? it's California

I think the people are frozen and the animals are laughing!

 

[jabina]

I am actually sort of freaking out -- I have two hens, barred rock and EE, and it is COLD today -- hovering around 30 all day, snowing now, and tonight will be 10 (all F)-- I think the coldest its been for them (I'm in New Mexico). Its been pretty cold the last few days so they have been building up a tolerance for the cold; they are active and peck and eat all day so they aren't too cold to run around. The coop isn't insulated and not very big. The girls are on the roost tonight (sometimes they only want to sleep on the floor). Its snowing and I've made a fringe door out of a cotton tshirt to limit some of the draft coming in from their smaller door.

Do I need to protect/insulate them in any way for tonight, or should just leave them be? (I'm not going to heat them with any electric means because I don't have anything to do so at this point but maybe there is something else I should be doing?

Thanks!