Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Cowgirlgrace]

Father protect the innocents.

 

[Hinotori]

Hi Washingtonians... (found the new thread )
I'm in Lacey and these cold temps are making me nervous. I've got a well insulated coop but this morning it was only 40 degrees in there. How do I know if my chickens are too cold? They all acted normally and were ready to get out and do their thing in the yard, no visible signs of distress or unhappiness but I'm worried about them.
Who heats their coops? Do you have a heat lamp or other source of heat? Do you have some type of sensor that will initiate the heat source when the temp drops below a certain point or do you do it manually?
If you don't heat your coop, how do you know your chickens are warm enough? What types of signs would I look for in a chicken that was too cold?

Thanks washington chicken forum friends. I'm new at having chickens and always a perpetual worrier.

They don't really need the heat. The thermometer said we hit 21 last night here. There is no frost in either coop, even though the one is big and has a large opening. Even the 8 week old silkies weren't cold enough to snuggle under the adults last night. When I checked on them all around 11 they were all spread out. This morning at 6:30 they were all out playing in the heavy frost yelling for me to bring them food and liquid water.

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: Yeah, I went out this morning to check waterers. The water in the bucket wasn't frozen, but some of the nipples were. I think I am going to set up my bucket warmers to see if it's going to work. If not I am going to set something up in the shed to bring them in and hang them for the night so they don't freeze. Gotta work out a new system.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Hi Washingtonians... (found the new thread )
I'm in Lacey and these cold temps are making me nervous. I've got a well insulated coop but this morning it was only 40 degrees in there. How do I know if my chickens are too cold? They all acted normally and were ready to get out and do their thing in the yard, no visible signs of distress or unhappiness but I'm worried about them.
Who heats their coops? Do you have a heat lamp or other source of heat? Do you have some type of sensor that will initiate the heat source when the temp drops below a certain point or do you do it manually?
If you don't heat your coop, how do you know your chickens are warm enough? What types of signs would I look for in a chicken that was too cold?

Thanks washington chicken forum friends. I'm new at having chickens and always a perpetual worrier.

OK first let me say this is not directed at any one person. This is just an answer (my opinion) to some questions that we see asked a lot.
In Western WA and OR chickens DO NOT need heated coops. Putting heat is just another potential fire hazard. Look at the big picture. IF chickens couldn't survive with out heat. They would have all died off long long ago!

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
This.

 

[itsren]

 

[itsren]

Yeah, I went out this morning to check waterers. The water in the bucket wasn't frozen, but some of the nipples were. I think I am going to set up my bucket warmers to see if it's going to work. If not I am going to set something up in the shed to bring them in and hang them for the night so they don't freeze. Gotta work out a new system.

Uh. Oh. Thanks for checking that. I might not have checked mine before leaving for the parade. That would have been bad, bad, bad.

Guess I'll be trying out the new heated dog bowl today.

 

[itsren]

I think my girls are sleeping in the nest boxes because it's warmer in them. Two slept in nest boxes last night, the third (Drama) slept on the other side, on the floor - not on her floor roost. The center part of my coop has vented flooring, covered by hardware cloth, with pine chips over the top. I'm beginning to wonder if they are getting too much of an updraft. The nest boxes, and the opposing side (that looks like a nest box from the outside) is the only solid floor in the coop.

Should I cover part or all of the ventilation system on the floor? It is the main part of the ventilation system, though, so I don't want to lose too much ventilation. Is ventilation that big of a deal since I scoop the coop every single morning, has next to no poop as soon as I scoop it and it never smells at all? They don't ever seem to go in there during the day, except to lay, so they go to bed each night with a clean floor.

The lower edge of each (of the four) roofline has a tiny vent like this.



The girls are sleeping in the nest boxes (left) and solid floor side (right) now. No one slept on the roost last night, which is centered above the slanted, vented floor.



You can't tell here, because there's hardware cloth, and pine chips over it - the entire center section (visible area left of Drama's floor roost) is slatted wood flooring. Should I cover that with wood to help hold heat in?



Or, are my roosts too narrow? Is that why they won't sleep on them?

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
I was a little light on roosters this year
I get 90% on my eggs, but my breeds are sensitive to high humidity.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
True, very, very true. Lol.

Well something got one of my silkie chicks today. Probably the red tailed hawks that come by every now and then. It wasn't running for cover when the rooster was sounding alarm the last few days, so was probably was out eating grass. The other three are there and I looked all over for the missing one.

Oh no!! I'm sorry to hear this. Those dang hawks are sneaky sometimes that's for sure!!
When I went out to get the mail yesterday, I noticed an eagle circling overhead. I decided the mail could wait, and spent some time in the backyard with my chickens. A sea gull eventually chased it to the west.