Utah!

[the-bird-man]

birdman, I was just talking to my hubby about just that yesterday.  As long as my Miss Piggy's comb was, she never got frostbite.  I know about about having good venting..sure glad he put some good sized vents up on each side of the coop.  None of my chickens have frost bite.  That has to be a miserable thing. 
Well, with it being in the neg. I best go see if there are any eggs out there trying to freeze.    I hope this cold spell goes away soon!  I had heard we were going to have a hard winter way back in the first of Oct. 

oh i did not mean you did not have enough vents, i was talking in general terms. sorry. i know it was nothing you did. some birds just do not handle the cold as well as they once did. sorry cynthia so a few days ago in the paper there was a story about this family that was given a hen that did not lay much anymore to eat, well the lady just could not eat her so they kept her in their basement. well one day the family woke up because the hen was freaking out being as loud as she could, turns out the house was on fire. so they saved this hen and the hen saved them. cool story huh? edit found the story http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/pet-chicken-fire_n_2376501.html

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

THAT is a great story!!

Soo, I have a chicken train idea. I need to get a showgirl to Orem to Cynthia. I have to go to Murray next Saturday for a drill competition. Any body in SLC that could take the chicken to Orem? Sundance I was thinking about you, I know you stop there sometimes, are you going to Orem anytime soon? I could head down early enough to meet you before the competition. It would be kind of early, but with the cold I have to take it to its destination before rather than after-- due to not being able to keep it in the frozen car. It will be 3 1/2 wks old, I do not think you would have to set up a brooder and lamp...just a little box with food and water cups would get it through a few days of waiting for transport. It might holler for buddies though, it is used to being with the other two.

Cynthia, I think you picked good she is getting gorgeous. As far as differences, (trying to guess sexes) yours is a little taller than the other two now, but has the most tail and wing feathers by far. Is that good on showgirls? She is also the mellowest temperament of the three. These have not been handled a ton, the novelty of chicks has worn off for my kids (Gee what a surprise haha!) and I have not had a lot of time with the holidays. The two others were chest bumping this morning. I hollered at them to knock it off, it is not ladylike.... She still is solid white, no spots showing up yet.

 

[Whittni]

*Picture Overload*

Here are my Polish from Auntie Hattie

 

[themadchicken]

Thanks for the pictures of the Nankin. They look very small. I wonder if they are smaller than most bantam chickens. I'll have to look that up.
Love the pictures madchicken pretty chickens and cute mama and chick! I have a question for you. Do you have a light on for the chick? I have a broody hen and I have eggs hatching tomorrow and want to give her the chicks. So I was wondering if I need a light in the coop because right now my chicken don't have one. I'm thinking I probably do
but just wanted to know what you did. Thanks
Daloorashen best of luck on this new hatch. I think it just takes some getting used to the new incubator. At least that's what I think my issues were. Good luck.

i have 2 light bulbs in the coop with Cotton. 1@90 and 1@100 i figure if one goes out the other will keep her warm. During the night it gets down to 25-35 inside with the outside being -3. Today it was only 14 outside but inside it was 65. It is a small coop though. The area she is in is 3 x 4 x 3 feet tall.


it is the A-Frame on the right. I have since took all this apart but i still use all 3 houses. i closed the bottom of the house so the chick dosent fall into the bottom run area and freeze. You can see the ramp going up to the coop part. I have noticed that the chick will come out from under moma even if its 30 degrees to get a drink and some food and run around for a bit before running back to moma.

 

[RedIII]

Madchicken, Cotton's baby sounds so cute.

Lisa, you're making me laugh over here. Most of my chest-bumpers turned out to be boys, sorry to say. Both the black Am's were boys, and the one would pick fights like that with everyone when he was little. Then there was Gunther, my Icelandic that I thought was a girl at first. I had to separate the Icelandics from the other chicks because he kept running up to the bigger ones and chest bumping them. Thus, his name = warrior. Funny little twerp. The only chest bumper I can remember that was a girl was my mom's BSL. She would peck more than bump, though, and she mostly stopped after my RIR started tackling her to break up the fights.

Sphinx, I'm sorry you lost your GLW. Sheez, how come these birds are so hard to hold on to? The one I had disappeared several months ago, remember? And when you got the hatching eggs, they ended up being half RIR in parentage.

Whittni, cute chickies! That one looks like it's saying, "Hey, I'm trying to nap here. Get that camera out of my face, will ya?"

 

[Cynthia12]

Lisa! I have changed my mind! I don't think I better have her over here. I lost another chicken today. They just aren't handling this cold weather.

Brad, I didn't think you were saying anything about my coop..lol..silly. I know you were talking in general. You give great advice..I was just going along.

This cold weather, I've never been through this much with my chickens before. I hope I don't lose them all! My babies that I am hatching now, and have hatched lately, are staying in until this real cold spell ends! They would anyway for a while, but even longer now. I am pretty upset..I lot my NN. She's been hanging back from coming out of the coop too. Not eating well. I had heard they don't do well in the cold. I am not sure what's going on, but I hope it isn't a contagious thing. Doing Denagard just to be safe. The others look fine. Hope they are! Like I said, that NN would hurry and eat something, then back to the coop..all day..and the non NN would do the same, but she would come out once in a while. I am wondering if the NN just didn't eat enough to beat the cold! Serious! She was thin.

Sundance, let us know how you are doing. I've thought about you all day. I hope you are on the mend.

 

[Sphinx]

Cynthia, I am so sorry you lost another hen. That is just so sad. Tell me about how you administer the denaguard? I'm wondering if I should, just in case. My coronation sussex has a weird hiccuping sound, very similar to Sundancen's. Everyone else seems fine, but I'm wondering if maybe I should treat everyone, given that I lost a hen. The coronation sussex has been hiccuping for a couple months, so I dunno.

Whittni, those polish chickens are ADORABLE!

I almost had a tragedy tonight. I went out to check on the chickens, most particularly the frizzle. She's been in isolation, and just released to the general population two days ago, and I wanted to make sure she's ok. Well, she wasn't in the coop!! I went looking around the run, and found her huddled up next to the coop. Silly kid. I picked her up and carried her in. She must've been really, really cold because she wouldn't ordinarily tolerate me carrying her. Once in the coop, she immediately went for the water, and then the food.

I love my chickens, but I have serious doubts as to how smart they really are.

 

[RedIII]

Aww man

This cold has been brutal, hasn't it? Sorry you lost your NN, Cynthia. I've been worried about my flock in these temperatures. When we dump out the ice in their water bucket and refill it, they get warm water. They've also got that heat lamp in the run now. When I go to IFA to get feed, I buy a 50 lb bag of whole corn to go in the feed barrel. I've also been getting whole oats and whole red wheat, since they seemed to have a good amount of protein. I think I may get some game bird feed and mix that in, too. I started overfeeding my birds a few weeks ago, and it seems to be helping.

And, they get warm, cooked oatmeal or rice every so often for treats. If anyone gets too cold, they get put in the garage for a couple of days, sometimes with a short spa trip to the bathroom for a hair dryer session. Short of heating the coop, we're doing everything we can to keep our birds comfortable.

Eep! Sphinx, just saw your post. I'm glad you found the Frizzle before she froze. I usually do a check with my chickens once it gets dark, just for that reason (and I'm sick of predators) I've had to round up some stragglers before that didn't make it into the coop.

 

[Cynthia12]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/721792/denagard

This guy dawg..has done a lot of research on upper respiratory. He swears by the Denagard. Me too. Wish I had started it sooner. Stress can really cause havic on a chicken. This cold weather is stressful for many birds! Me too!

 

[Sphinx]

Red, I usually feed my chickens the 20% chicken feed and I do think that helps.

Cynthia, thanks for the link! Where do you buy yours?