Weather Emergency and Molting

[eekay]

My birds were doing a soft molt at the onset of winter and it seemed to slow down. Now one of my birds appears to be going into a fill hard molt.

It is currently -45F outside (yes minus forty-five) and she's not doing well. She doesn't seem to have enough feathers at all to retain any heat, and the CozyCoop heater isn't powerful enough to overcome these temps. I'm preparing to bring her indoors until she's fully feathered in.

My concern is, how detrimental will this be in terms of change in climate. I don't have a garage or anywhere else to bring her. Once she's inside, will she have to stay inside until spring? (5 months away). It's going to be in the low -30s for the next two months. I'm really concerned we won't be able to re-integrate her without too much shock to the system.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

How is she doing?
That's a tough question! And BRRRR by the way, my goodness -45F that's something hard for me to comprehend.
Do you have room in your coop to add extra straw for her to snuggle into?
If she is struggling mightily, then bringing her to a warmer place seems to be the only thing you can do.
I do understand your concern about her being inside and then struggling to re-acclimate when temperatures are more mild.

 

[eekay]

She's currently in the makeshift run in the basement. She's improved a lot. Once I got her still and managed to get a good look, I saw that she's probably missing 60% of her feathers, just hiding it very well.

I made the decision to bring her in as she appeared to have difficulty walking and was refusing to leave the panel heater to eat or drink. She was also shivering uncontrollably. This cold snap is only supposed to get worse as we head toward -50C and I'm fairly certain the cold would have taken her. The other 3 girls are doing much better. Some frost nip but I've gone to great lengths to keep the run and coop draft free.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm glad you were able to bring her in, sounds like she was in a bad way. Is she able to move about and is walking ok now that she's warmer?
I'm sure you are doing all you can to help your girls through this cold snap.

Hope you stay safe and warm.

 

[eekay]

I'm going to bump this thread with the conclusion for reference.

Ladysmith did just fine in the basement, we had a particularly brutal winter so she ended up living in the basement for 4 MONTHS before it warmed up enough to get her outside. It was awful but necessary.

I had to get creative with step-in netting and build a 2nd small hen house for her and the re-integration process took about an additional 2 months before her sisters accepted her baxk. The whole ordeal lasted nearly a year.

But, if I didn't do all of this I would have lost her to the cold, and will gladly do it again if I must.