well the cold got my silkie

[CallyB57]

I have 6 Silkies, none are chicks, but a couple are pretty small. They are in a small henhouse 4'x 6' at night with 5 large buff brahma hens. The henhouse is completely sealed except for a couple of small openings and a row of vent holes at the top of the henhouse. I hung a 100W bulb from the center of the henhouse, but each morning, the water dispenser (like the kind hamsters and gophers use) had frozen..not completely but almost, so it must drop below freezing in the henhouse. I have about 4" of pineshavings on the floor of the henhouse (some of it is mulching, so I have to keep turning it), but the temps have been in the mid-teens a couple of nights here and it has not seemed to affect my Silkies. I am also putting 3 tiny bantams (really belong to my neighbor, but sleep in exposed conditions up on top of the hen pen) inside with my Brahmas and Silkies when temps drop below 32 F at night. The Silkies sleep in the deep litter on the floor, all bunched up in a group, so I'm assuming that the combination of larger birds giving off plenty of body heat, a light bulb, deep litter, and huddling Silkies is what has kept them alive.

 

[chickenzoo]

So sorry.....

My Silkies are all fine during this weather............ even my little Seramas, i just have the barn covered up to keep off the wind. They have a harder time on wire than on the ground with the cold. I also will put some hay down for them... since i have some Showgirls too.

 

[rstampa]

I live in Tampa, Florida and it has been freezing almost every night for the past week or so. My silkies are doing fine. No heat lamp. However then do have a coop to cuddle together in with the big girls. They all seem ready to come out and want to free range. So I let them except when it was drizzling the other day. Didn't what them getting wet. They were very dry in their run and coop.
Like another post suggested, maybe she died from something else.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I am sorry your Silkie passed.

 

[SunshineSilkies]

Unusually cold for an extended period of time here in Florida....I have added 4 heat lamps in my coop secured with a large zip ties. I have 2 pens of juveniles and they have had a lamp since this cold weather started here in Lake City about 10 days ago.. I am in north central Florida and the temp this morning was 19....Me or my birds are not used to this kind of weather...I try to make them as comfy as possible.

 

[girlsaint]

Feed them cracked corn. It raises their internal temp. We have had below freezing temperatures for a couple of weeks and my Silkies are fine. They are in a barn, lots of bedding, no heat lamp...

 

[strawberryfields]

I am so sorry... but I am chuckling about the folks in Florida wondering about the temps. It may be that you are not used to colder temps, but up here in the midwest it gets much colder on a very regular basis.

By colder... I mean... wind chills well below freezing. And, in fact, temperatures well below freezing as well. But the wind chills are much worse.

I have silkies and d'uccles, and I provide them no heat lamp, unless they are quite young (up to three months or so). They do have protection from wind chills in the form of our pole barn.

I have not lost any birds in all these years to the cold. This year I have had one rooster with a frost bitten comb because he is still free range and it has been especially cold here in the last few weeks.

It is very unlikely that your bird died from the temperatures.

 

[Chic Chick]

Quote:
Under shelter??? They need to be sheltered from the winds also, so some type of closed building would be the best. It does not have to be heated or insulated, just draft free and preferably with some straw thrown in for them.

Here it can stay at -40 for days on end and we rarely get above the freezing mark for at least 3 - 4 months every winter and our chickens don't die from the cold. To put it in plain english - animals can cope with cold better then humans just by the way their body is made and how they generate their own heat. What I'm trying to say is not to worry about them freezing to death as long as they're out of the wind.

 

[luvmychks51]

i think the chickens that are used to the cold can handle it better than the ones who aren't used to it. when i lived up north i thought 60 was hot. now i freeze at 80 degrees. you guys are just like to make fun of us. lol

 

[KelliV]

I am just north of Tampa, and like many "florida chicken owners", my coop is mainly open, leaving my chickens susceptible to cold and wind.

To help my chickens brave the cold (and, yes, it has been COLD here... I had sleet on Saturday for a few hours), I have two heat lamps above their roost, secured with adjustable clamps. I also put up a moving blanket with plastic on one side that surrounds their roost to block the wind. So far, everyone is doing well.

Looks like we'll be back to normal within a few days - good for the chickens and my hot chocolate intake...