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

[wyododge]

Amen to that ^^^^^

Pretty much the same here, not near as beautiful, not near as big, and not as cold, but would not change it for the world. I will however change it for my wife. She is a southern girl, and just can't deal with the heat...

I think I would have to add a little supplemental heat at much below the mid -30's. But here there is only about a 3 week span that we get down there...

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

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I use to live in Fairbanks. If you've never lived there you just can't even imagine how beautiful it is. When we moved to Indiana, I thought it was colder here then in Alaska !! LOL!! Plus my garden is awful here, what wimpy vegetables !!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

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I didn't know you don't have skunks... that's fantastic. If I never smelled another skunk ... or found one in a trap...

 

[peterlund]

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I use to live in Fairbanks. If you've never lived there you just can't even imagine how beautiful it is. When we moved to Indiana, I thought it was colder here then in Alaska !! LOL!! Plus my garden is awful here, what wimpy vegetables !!

Just because I am un-informed, but what gardening can be done sucessfully in Alaska? (beside tree farming ) And isn't your feed costs high? Never mind energy (heating) costs .... Don't get me wrong, I hate the expense living here in the land of taxes... Just curious!!!

 

[PHILMAN]

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Sounds like I want to move there ! Great place never been there . Maybe someday .

 

[frostbite]

The gardening is excellent, for those who like that kind of thing. I tend to kill plants, not much of a green thumb here, I do great with animals, not so much with plants.

However, even though our growing season is short (June 1-August 31, sometimes late into September) the days are long, we get 21 hours of sunlight during the summer, so stuff grows like crazy. We have a farmers market, we have a state fair, we have huge cabbages, we have flowers everywhere, we have beautiful summers. Gardening is huge here, and there are lots of commercially grown potatoes, barley, brome hay, carrots, and greenhouse tomatoes.

Yes, some things are more expensive. It's well worth it.

In the meantime, we have no state income tax, and most locations have no sales tax either, so that certainly helps, and residents get a check every year for their share of the oil royalty fund dividends, it's been running around $1000 per year and more the last 10 years. That helps too.

Now don'tcha all move up here at once....

 

[goldnchocolate]

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I have relatives that live in Fairbanks. They've been there since the early 1960's and they love it there. My Aunt (who grew up here in MA) told my mother that she would rather spend one whole winter in Fairbanks than one February in Massachusetts. I was up to visit in Sept- 1973 and I still remember how beautiful it was. My son was stationed up there while he was in the Army and lived there for several years after he got out.

 

[Gargoyle]

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Pet shops sell them in the lizard/reptile department; 40 watt, 75 watt, 100 watt, 150 watt, maybe other sizes too.

 

[cluckygal4]

We don't really heat our coop, we do deep bedding. We have a 100 watt light on a timer for laying purposes due to the shorter amount of daylight in the winter....We had a record amount of snow north of Dallas last year and I went out to check on the flock. They were all tucked nicely in the coop but I did see evidence of some chickens playing in the snow earlier that day. Quite a few "chicken angels" in the snow!!

 

[Mrs MIA]

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You didn't ask for an "Amen!" at the end of that, but I'm here to second that, and "Amen!" Although after the last couple of weeks of windstorms, we might have to re-evaluate the whole "hurricane" thing... LOL!

Yay Chicks! you need to post that picture!!!

It was -23F here yesterday morning, while I was away... I'm 99.9999999% sure that hubby did not do anything for the chickens except feed them and add water to the dog bowl... they're fine.

I don't know what it was in the coop, but the chicken-bodies usually keep it 10 to 20* warmer in the coop. After a day of -23 and being outside in it, anything above 0F feels "warm" to me...