Utah!

[mvawdre2]

I am sure this is a question that has been asked before on this post but it is popular enough I'm too lazy to dig through it hahaha, but I am interested in people's opinions on non-cold hardy birds in SLC county. Does anyone keep chickens that don't do well in cold weather and if so what do you do to keep them healthy during winter?

 

[aurelie]

I'm interested too. My kids and I want a crested polish but from what I've read they don't do great in the cold. I'm quite hesitant to add a hen that isn't well suited and becomes a vector for illness to enter my flock.

 

[RJSorensen]

brysonjohnson I suppose I will offer some when I get up and running. I am enjoying the 'doing' of it to the fullest, and don't want to commit to any plan. I want to do it however it works out for me. I have wanted Icelandics for sometime, ever since I learned of them from RedIII. I got on a waiting list last year and was lucky to get an order placed this year. I got my opening by someone else's failure, or I would be waiting until next year. So everything sort of came to gather for me this year. I did not get them because they are rare, but because they fit what I wish to do with chickens. They are a personal pleasure first, a hobby second, and the selling of them will have to come sometime down the road, when experience tells me I can.

Icelandic are not to be mixed or crossbreed in any way. And I do not think I will let them go to places where they are just another chicken. They need not pay their own feed bill here. They just need to cluck about the place and be gorgeous. So if you are in a rush I may not be the quickest way to get yours. But one never knows. The life of a chicken farmer is unpredictable at best.

RJ



In my future…

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Brad, glad I go in for regular mammo's. As you were suggesting to folks to stay checked.   Just got a phone call from my nurse at our drs. office saying this is regarding your mammogram you had done yesterday..I say, oh oh, already?   She says they want me to have an ultra sound done on my right breast.   Hoping it's nothing but swollen glands.  I was clear last yr.  So if anything bad is up, we have caught it early. 

Hope everything turns out A-ok my dear sweet friend So glad you are staying on top of the screenings!

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

I have cream legbars

There is someone on a facebook page asking me if I know who has cream legbars...he is not on BYC if you would message me your info I can have him call you. He is from down South, picking up chicks from me tomorrow. I gave him the link for this page but he is unsure how to make it all work ;D

 

[LadyIsadora]

New babies first day out of the coop

I'm guessing that last pic is a boy.

 

[the-bird-man]

Brad, glad I go in for regular mammo's. As you were suggesting to folks to stay checked.   Just got a phone call from my nurse at our drs. office saying this is regarding your mammogram you had done yesterday..I say, oh oh, already?   She says they want me to have an ultra sound done on my right breast.   Hoping it's nothing but swollen glands.  I was clear last yr.  So if anything bad is up, we have caught it early. 

oh wow i am so glad you got checked! hope its nothing. you are in my thoughts. sorry about your roof too. we had ours replaced a few years ago, had a few leaks and such. i tell you swamp coolers destroy roofs. but yeah we went with s and s and have been very happy. they were one of the cheaper bids yet they did the most work. the shingles out there now last so much longer and are good with much stronger winds. but you might just need a patch job.

 

[eggsbert]

I am sure this is a question that has been asked before on this post but it is popular enough I'm too lazy to dig through it hahaha, but I am interested in people's opinions on non-cold hardy birds in SLC county. Does anyone keep chickens that don't do well in cold weather and if so what do you do to keep them healthy during winter?

Sorry you haven't gotten any answers, I'm assuming because no one really has any experience. I've only had chickens for about a year and I picked all mine to be especially cold hardy because of our coop location (it's perpetually in the shade) and set-up (small coop in an open yard).

I think how well a non cold-hardy bird would do in our winters would depend a lot on the breed and the coop set-up. I've seen breeders online (who exhibit rarer breeds) who work with more heat-hardy birds in colder states than us. These birds (to be fair) were bantams and they kept them in what appeared to be a large heated barn all winter long and only let them out in the warmer months to keep them safe and healthy.

Sorry I can't say much more than that, but my knowledge is limited on the subject.

As a side note, I didn't expect to our bantam frizzle cochin to do very well in the winter. I figured with her size and peculiar feathers she wouldn't stay warm enough, but she figured things out on her own. She slept under the chests of the other girls at night (we have low roosts) to keep warm and avoided the snow as much as possible. She required no extra heat or care than the other birds.

I'm interested too. My kids and I want a crested polish but from what I've read they don't do great in the cold. I'm quite hesitant to add a hen that isn't well suited and becomes a vector for illness to enter my flock.

Recalled seeing this article on preparing for winter with my birds. They specifically use a polish as their example: http://hencam.com/henblog/2012/11/winter-care-for-the-not-so-hardy/
If you don't want to read the article (it's short). The author trims the crest of their polish (I guess don't do this if you plan to show?) to keep it from causing problems in the winter. Not sure how viable it is, but it's an idea.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

My frizzled Silkies (bantams) do pretty well in the winter...I have LF frizzles as well, mixed breeds, and they look like they would freeze but they do just as well as the smooth feathered birds. The silkies had heat when it dropped below 20 this year, the LF had zero heat all winter. A;; were just fine, including a frizzled silkie showgirl that molted and was nearly naked during December and January lol!

 

[newmarch2014]

1) In response to the question of non-cold hardy breeds....I do not have any that are not reasonably hardy but these are the ways I keep my little spoiled girls comfy and I feel like even if I had a less hardy breed they would be comfortable enough in my set up. I have a hen house that is not too tiny but not too big. I have room for more and can modify my roosts in a multitude of ways and can make it so that they must roost relatively close together. This make it so that they stay warm at night by sharing body heat (I have a Brahma this like a giant furnace unit). When my flock was smaller I put a bail of straw on each end of the roost so that nobody was left cozying by a cold wall, this also made for less space to heat and acted as more insulation with the air in the bale. I use the deep litter method during the winter to keep more heat in. I have a coop with a dark roof to capture as much solar heat as possible in the winter. I have a large (8x16) feet space outside their coop door that is covered so they never have to be in the weather if they want to come out in the winter and always have dry ground. I keep a compost bin in the run that if I was more ambitious I could keep turned and "cooking" to create a bit more heat for them to hang out on top of...they spend a lot of time on top of it during the cold weather anyway even though I am not good at keeping it cooking at prime temperature. My husband did wire my coop up with a white light and a heat lamp for the coldest of cold days I turn it on during 10 degree or colder nights If I had a tender chicken I would raise that criteria to 30 degrees or so I would imagine.

2) I know others have already adressed this long ago but I need to know where it is in northern Utah that someone once said we can take a 50 gallon container and get it filled with chicken feed that is good feed?