Washingtonians

[GopherBoyFarms]

Quote:
Thanks, thats the "old coop" (last years)
And acctually thats beautiful backdrop is our neighbors yard!! It's does look like a park.....and we wondered why the chickens where always flying into his yeard...LOL .

We are working on a new coop
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=100224

but it's is kind of at a stand still. DH is doing real work, so the coop is just a 75 ft tall shell in the back yard at the moment. I hope we get to working on it soon since we have 4 chicks in 1/2 the brooder that are 9 weeks old, 1 chick on the other side that is 4 weeks old, 2 chicks in the bedroom that are 1.5 weeks old, and the gopherbator has 11 eggs that should be hatching any day. So we really need to get that coop finished.
EEEEKKK now that I wrote it all out, I think we better think about making an addition onto the new one too.

BTW-what part of Vancouver are you in?

 

[JennsPeeps]

Our girls are outside tonight in the coop but we did move their food & water into the coop (it's normally under the coop). I want them to have as much access to an energy source as they need/want.

I brought Gwen, our laying BSL, into the house this morning. DBF had an accident today and fell in the bathroom. Why/how, you ask? The dummy was 1/2 asleep when he stumbled into the WC. He opened the lid of the toilet, wondered about the chickens outside in the cold, and decided to stand on the toilet to peek outside at them. Dumb BF failed to put the lid down and stepped INTO the toilet. He, obviously, slipped on the wet porcelain and fell onto the side of the tub. He cracked his back on the tub side. He really hurt himself but is very lucky that he didn't break anything.

All for the love of chickens.

So, to console him I brought the BSL in for a visit. She's so busy that she could only tolerate it for about 10 minutes. Our banty cochin, however, is a bump on a log. I brought her inside to sit with DBF and she didn't move for an hour!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I was just watching the weather and saw that you 'coasties'

got snow too. Right now the wind is blowing like crazy and its starting to drift. I think we are getting a high of 5 then there is the wind. I have decided to leave the birds in the coop and I put the exotic ducks in the heated show shed. Then next week its sposed to snow again.

 

[TurtleChick]

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

i worried all night about the peeps out there in the cold (shhh, don't laugh you farther-northers and east-side-o-the-mountainers) - after all, 40's down to teens/20's is a big temp drop. especially for my poor rir who still hasn't grown back all of the feathers around her tail! and then this morning they couldn't wait to come out and eat scratch and cottage cheese and play. silly ole chickens. AND whadda ya know? the thermometer inside their house said 31. just cold enough for the water in their house to freeze over (not solid) but MUCH warmer than outside.

i'll still worry until it warms up, but probably not quite as much.

stay warm everyone!!!

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Yeah, I've lost several birds & will probably lose a few more before this is over.

It was below zero last night...I'm taking the rest of the day off of work to "bundle up" my coop even more before the coldest day of the week hits (tonight/tomorrow).

 

[djackjr]

Glad I don't have any birds yet. But now thinking I may insulate the coop/shed I am converting. Oh and now long range forcasts have us this cold till the end of the year!!! With more snow a coming, guess every 50 or so years we get this kind of weather, been since 1950 since we had it this cold and possibly for as long, that one lasted 33 days with temps below 32 for highs..... Going to the store and buying a couple more electric blankets.

Oh took my parrot out in the snow showers yesterday, and she hated every white flake that fell, kept trying to bite them.

 

[JennsPeeps]

equibling, I read in the emergencies thread that you'd lost some chooks to the cold. I'm sorry to hear that.

I hope you're able to bundle the rest up enough to keep them going.

DBF put a heating pad in one of the nesting boxes today. 1 layer + 2 nesting boxes = 1 box used for extra heating. I thought maybe they'd figure out that it's warm & pig pile in there. No luck thus far. We're going to get a red heat lamp bulb for them to have some heat tonight, methinks. Either that or we'll just bring them inside.

Hard to be at work and worrying that they're too cold.

 

[TurtleChick]

okay, i was mistaken. i am still worrying (can't help it, it's in my nature... just ask dh). but now they're talking around 10degrees tonight. so i went and bought a replacement bulb for their old brooder lamp (250w infrared) and put it out there. now it's staying around 45 in the coop - which is actually a little warmer than i'd like it, but not so different from the daytime temps we HAD been having before the stupid storm. so. NOW i'll quit worrying. as much. a little. maybe.

or not.

maybe i'll just go and check on them.....

equibling

i'm so sorry for your losses. i hope you've already got it all figured out and lose no more! happy thoughts coming your way from t-town.

 

[coffeelady3]

I tried to be nice. I went out to bring the girls in for another night in the mud room, and they weren't budging! When I opened the lid of the coop, it was actually considerably warmer then it was outside. I'm thinking they'll do just fine.

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

Our coop is insulated really well, but the water in there still froze last night.
I am scared to turn the heater on in the coop, but then again I am scared that they will freeze. Most of the flock is up on the top two roosts, but there are 3 of the smaller polish girls sitting stagered by themselves on the lower ones, I am worried that those ones are the ones that need the extra body warms from a cuddler and they are the ones sitting alone. Maybe I should put them up higher with the rest of the group.

I think I might go turn the heater on just the littlest bit and leave it on till I go to bed...then go out and check on them to see how it has warmed up in there.

I know it's cold since I can see my breath in the house in the morning if I dont wake up throughout the night and put wood in the fire...so I KNOW its really cold out there.