Vaseline on chickens?

At the very most it's a minimal bandaid fix to a bigger problem... It only has a marginal effect on human skin in the cold and the reason it has that effect is that we sweat and it helps prevent some evaporation, chickens don't sweat so that effect is nil... What it might help with is providing a very marginal barrier for water drops that might land on the exposed skin... But, if you have water drops forming you have bigger issues that need adressing... It also might provide some minute insulation value and possibly shed melted snow that lands on the skin... At the end of the day it likely won't hurt anything but I doubt it has much quantitative benefit at the end of the day...

Remember if you use it on the chickens and they don't get frostbite, correlation does not necessary equal causation...
thanks for the positive info. I'm in no need of Vaseline myself as my pens are adequate for my birds and I do live in a relatively cold climate for the winter season. And as @GodofPecking reiterated there are certainly plenty of alternatives to simply using Vaseline. The alternatives as well as pen structure can be addressed without pretension and I feel would be a more appropriate focus for this thread.
Attimus
 
This is our first year keeping chickens in the winter. We have enclosed their coop so no drafts can get in, but left openings in the top for ventilation.
May I suggest that you close the holes at the top of the coop to make it warmer. I drew a picture to explain my idea to you. If you can only have holes at the top, you could possibly add a channel, inside and/or outside as shown in the 3rd example.



This only will apply to chicken houses that have a roof without holes in it, rather than netting or wire mesh roofs. You can convert a wire coop to make it warmer for chooks by simply covering the whole coop. You can use many things, pool covers, bubble wrap, building foil (sometimes called things like sarking or aircell, things that you can put under a waterproof layer would include old blankets, old carpet, cardboard, newspaper amongst other things. These would work by reflecting the heat from the earth (which comes through the floor) back down again. The thicker the layer and the more layers the better, because successive layers will decrease the thermal conductance of the roof, the inside layer would become warmer. This all applies to houses, rv's, rents and caravans too.

For very very cold climates, you can use an old fridge or freezer. I lay tall ones on their back so that the door becomes a door on the top. In what is now the side of the fridge, you can drill through with regular drill bits, you can cut (use gloves) the sheetmetal using tinsnips, or if you have no tinsnips, you can use an angle grinder (dangerous) or an old knife or lawnmower blade. Put the blade or knife into the hole and hit the back of the blade with a hammer in the direction you want to cut. Good idea to cut larger than the chook by enough margin to line the hole with wood, so the chooks are not tempted to eat the insulation. If the fridge is put into the chooks current coop, you'd have to wait until after they settle in for the night on the old perches and then move them into the fridge for up to a dozen nights until they learn to go in themselves. If it is a new coop or chicks, they get the idea straight away.

I've done this many times so I can advise on whatever is not clear if I am still here.
 
May I suggest that you close the holes at the top of the coop to make it warmer.


This is not what you want to do as the 'warm' air is also the 'humid' air and you don't want it trapped you want it vented, second at no time do you want to trap the higher air in any coop as ammonia gases are lighter than air and rise thus becoming trapped, you want those toxic gases vented and that requires vents up high...

Ideally you want vents down low and vents down high, so that the ammonia/warm/humid air rises and exits out the high vents while the fresh air is drawn in from the lower vents...
 
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At the very most it's a minimal bandaid fix to a bigger problem... It only has a marginal effect on human skin in the cold and the reason it has that effect is that we sweat and it helps prevent some evaporation, chickens don't sweat so that effect is nil... What it might help with is providing a very marginal barrier for water drops that might land on the exposed skin... But, if you have water drops forming you have bigger issues that need adressing... It also might provide some minute insulation value and possibly shed melted snow that lands on the skin... At the end of the day it likely won't hurt anything but I doubt it has much quantitative benefit at the end of the day...

Remember if you use it on the chickens and they don't get frostbite, correlation does not necessary equal causation...

Amen to all of that!
 
Instead of vaseline, and worrying about them absorbing it, I think I'd use olive oil. It might help with their flavor later on.
big_smile.png
 
May I suggest that you close the holes at the top of the coop to make it warmer. I drew a picture to explain my idea to you. If you can only have holes at the top, you could possibly add a channel, inside and/or outside as shown in the 3rd example. This only will apply to chicken houses that have a roof without holes in it, rather than netting or wire mesh roofs. You can convert a wire coop to make it warmer for chooks by simply covering the whole coop. You can use many things, pool covers, bubble wrap, building foil (sometimes called things like sarking or aircell, things that you can put under a waterproof layer would include old blankets, old carpet, cardboard, newspaper amongst other things. These would work by reflecting the heat from the earth (which comes through the floor) back down again. The thicker the layer and the more layers the better, because successive layers will decrease the thermal conductance of the roof, the inside layer would become warmer. This all applies to houses, rv's, rents and caravans too. For very very cold climates, you can use an old fridge or freezer. I lay tall ones on their back so that the door becomes a door on the top. In what is now the side of the fridge, you can drill through with regular drill bits, you can cut (use gloves) the sheetmetal using tinsnips, or if you have no tinsnips, you can use an angle grinder (dangerous) or an old knife or lawnmower blade. Put the blade or knife into the hole and hit the back of the blade with a hammer in the direction you want to cut. Good idea to cut larger than the chook by enough margin to line the hole with wood, so the chooks are not tempted to eat the insulation. If the fridge is put into the chooks current coop, you'd have to wait until after they settle in for the night on the old perches and then move them into the fridge for up to a dozen nights until they learn to go in themselves. If it is a new coop or chicks, they get the idea straight away. I've done this many times so I can advise on whatever is not clear if I am still here.
This post is completely counter productive for those keeping chickens in cold weather and wishing to improve their housing, doing any of this will make your problem worse and probably multiply your problems by decreasing ventilation and increasing the amount of ammonia and moisture in the air as it isn't allowed to escape. Chickens do not need insulation, putting them in a refrigerator laid on its side is not good, the insulation isn't needed and with a coop that size it is hard to maintain enough ventilation without putting a draft directly on the birds themselves. Trying to hold the warm air is going to cause problems, stick with high vents and if you have problems with frost bite or respiratory illness, add more of them or switch to an open air style coop such as a woods style coop, the birds will be healthier. And yes chickens can get by just fine in a properly built open air style coop in very cold climates.
 
I have Rocks and it gets in the teens below here, lots of humidity in the ambient air, but I never get frost bite. Rocks are VERY cold hardy, even with large, single combs. It's not the breed, it's the setup. I even have open waterers and never get wattle frosting. Not the breed, not the equipment, it's the ventilation or lack thereof in the coop. That's it. Nothing more. No need for balms even, just ventilation.
 
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You mind explaining how any of the examples in your diagram provide adequate ventilation, specifically how will the examples pictures move the amount of air that will be moved in a coop with cross ventilation from one side to the other just under the roof line. Your e examples have one opening down low, one opening doesn't allow air flow other than that allowed by miniscule gaps around doors, that will not be enough ventilation in my opinion.
 

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