weather playing havoc with my chickens...how can i help them?

[spish]

the weather here is going from one extreme to the other and its really slamming my chickens health (they are all moulting right now so they are not tip top in order as they should be)

yesterday day time.....we had hot hot sun of nearly 35 degrees...last night it nearly froze (3 degrees) this morning its hot again, yet this evening gives rain and hail then nearly freezing weather come midnight.

the whole summer my chickens have slept outside on the fence posts.....seems they've got in the habit of doing so..so last night they got really cold...i had 5 x 9 week old cochins out there yesterday,all but 2 dead this morning..im guessing from the cold..seems they didnt go in to the shed and slept in the grass

(
so it seems i have to learn my chickens to go back inside the sheds/houses to sleep

i had 6 rsl's out there too...they are in a seriously heavy moult.....2 this morning are very sluggish and wobbling about the place..ive brought them inside and started electrolytes in the water to give them a boost.....

what can i give the rest to help speed up the moulting? seems winter is gonna come very early this year and im worried they're gonna freeze with no feathers!

 

[chicmom]

Hello! So sorry you're going through all this trouble with the molting and the weather! Here in Ohio in the USA, it's just becoming autumn, so the temps are pretty mild.

I hate to say this but you need to go collect your chickens in the evening and make sure they go into the hen house. If you wait until it's just gotten dark, it'll be very easy to collect them because chickens get very calm and still during the evening hours.

Or, you could throw down some delicious treat, like scratch grains or cracked corn inside the coop, and they will probably run right in for you.

You can feed your flock some chicken feed that is higher in protein, like chick starter, and some people will boil their eggs and feed the yolks back to the chickens to give that extra protein boost. Canned catfood is also another way to boost the protein. Some vitamins in the drinking water might also help.

If you have a chicken run, you can put some tarps around it, or stack bales of straw around it so that you can block the harsh winds, and still give them a place to get outside.

Good luck to you!
Sharon