What did you do with your flock today?

[BuffetChicken]

Today I shoveled a portion of the run, then moved the chickens out there from their temporary shelter in the garage. This evening, I brought them back into the garage shelter from their run. Will keep this up for a couple more nights.

Background: I'm in the foothills, and the weather is variable. After a couple weeks of days in 40s and low 50s F with nights dipping just to freezing, the temperature dropped more than 20 deg F yesterday in an hour and ultimately reached an overnight low of -1F. Highs this week will be in the single digits F. About a month ago, the overnight low was -9 deg F at my house. They survived in their coop, no frostbite, even. But they were haggard in the morning, and I felt terrible for them. I don't have any outdoor outlets, so a heater in the coop on really cold nights isn't an option. Given the drastic swing in temperature and to reduce their stress, I set up a collapsible wire crate in the garage, which is cold, but stays about 34 deg F. I opened the garage door and shoveled the driveway and beyond to ease their transition from the garage to the outdoor temperature before just throwing them out there. That got the garage to about 20 deg F for 45 minutes to an hour to acclimate them. All of this may very well be unnecessary for them, but gives me peace of mind, which is necessary.

 

[629864]

Our cold weather came a day early and now isnt supposed to lift until mid next week. Days in the 50s starting Sunday, but nights in the 20s for the foreseeable future. Goldie may be stuck indoors (at least for the nights) for a few weeks. Poor thing.

 

[BuffetChicken]

Our cold weather came a day early and now isnt supposed to lift until mid next week. Days in the 50s starting Sunday, but nights in the 20s for the foreseeable future. Goldie may be stuck indoors (at least for the nights) for a few weeks. Poor thing.

Will she lay in there? Mine starting laying again a few weeks ago. A big reason I put them back in their run for the daytime was to be able to lay if they needed to. I see Goldie has a nest box in her crate, which makes a difference, I imagine. I don't have anything like that for mine. (No eggs today. Could have been stress from the extreme cold or from being moved all around. Although they seemed to adjust quickly to the crate in the garage and were calm as I carried them the short trips between the run and the garage.)

 

[Sunny the Chicken]

Today was quite an interesting day for me lol. It hailed, AND there was thunder and rain, and I live in California so that was unexpected. I only realized halfway into the storm that the chicken coop was closed, so I had to run outside while giant ice balls were pelting me (it looked like a blizzard blew through our neighborhood) and ushered all the hens inside the coop. I also had to move all the feeders. Now it looks like it snowed.

 

[629864]

Will she lay in there? Mine starting laying again a few weeks ago. A big reason I put them back in their run for the daytime was to be able to lay if they needed to. I see Goldie has a nest box in her crate, which makes a difference, I imagine. I don't have anything like that for mine. (No eggs today. Could have been stress from the extreme cold or from being moved all around. Although they seemed to adjust quickly to the crate in the garage and were calm as I carried them the short trips between the run and the garage.)

Goldie is inside because of her injury. I hope she doesn't lay eggs for a while. Her body needs to spend its energy healing. The rest of the flock are outside and doing well despite the rain and cold. They roost inside the coops at night and free range during the day. One of the red ladies got a blue comb a few weeks ago, so she tends to be the last out and first back in that coop. Otherwise, they dont seem too bothered by the cold. They're a lot tougher than me!!!!

 

[BuffetChicken]

Goldie is inside because of her injury. I hope she doesn't lay eggs for a while. Her body needs to spend its energy healing. The rest of the flock are outside and doing well despite the rain and cold. They roost inside the coops at night and free range during the day. One of the red ladies got a blue comb a few weeks ago, so she tends to be the last out and first back in that coop. Otherwise, they dont seem too bothered by the cold. They're a lot tougher than me!!!!

I could see the injury, but I don't have a rooster, so I wasn't sure if that's normal when there's a rooster in the mix. I hope she takes a break from laying to recover, too!

They are tough creatures, indeed!

 

[kurby22]

I'm so sorry to say that I am super happy that I have someone who can empathize and commiserate with.
K. Cept my DH is a cheapo and would never have 6 of the same drills. We do have a combine 6 for different uses though.
Yesterday I needed a wire brush so went into shop and looked in the area (next to drill press makes 7?) Where I saw dh pick it up from the last time I needed one. Nope. So I looked on opposite counter at another stash of smaller wire brushes, maybe it was there...? but did not find the larger size I was looking for... so I had to ask for help. He walks in and says "it is right there where you can see it, can't believe you missed it" (I'm secretly feeling relieved it was in a semi sane location and I just did not see, probably because of spiders) and he goes to the wall... THE WALL where there are a bunch of screws to hang things on. The wall with levels. .. like what the heck and why the heck would a body hang a wire brush up there?

When I clean our shop ( soon) I am going to paint pegboard white and draw police lines around the tools. I am not that organized but MAYBE he will get it.
Anywho, got #1 coat on back lanai. Will light sand and clean and apply #2 coat this morning.
Gunna haft lock the kitties in again ♡♡
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HD is running to town for me (thanks pal, I forgive you the shop tornado) to pick up some primer and a new color for furniture because HD is not restocking their behr spray color I started with but ran out of. So... 2 more days 3 max then pau I'm sure we have 25 cans of primer hidden somewhere, I just could not find them in the hahaha garden closet.

The deck looks beautiful!! My husband is just too lazy to look for the last drill Sighh we all have our things I guess haha. I’m sure he’d tell you that I have a chicken obsession hehehe.

Finally home from our trip! What a long day…left at 9:30 and got home around 7. Had some snow, some hail, some rain, some wind, and some sun! Kept things interesting But! I got my OD chickens and they’re so pretty! Totally freaked out, but so pretty

 

[kurby22]

Our cold weather came a day early and now isnt supposed to lift until mid next week. Days in the 50s starting Sunday, but nights in the 20s for the foreseeable future. Goldie may be stuck indoors (at least for the nights) for a few weeks. Poor thing.

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She does look very grumpy about her circumstances! Her back looks very ouchie too, poor girl! I would probably be pretty grumpy too if I was her! She’s lucky to have such a good momma!

 

[629864]

The deck looks beautiful!! My husband is just too lazy to look for the last drill Sighh we all have our things I guess haha. I’m sure he’d tell you that I have a chicken obsession hehehe.

Finally home from our trip! What a long day…left at 9:30 and got home around 7. Had some snow, some hail, some rain, some wind, and some sun! Kept things interesting But! I got my OD chickens and they’re so pretty! Totally freaked out, but so pretty

They're beautiful ❣

 

[629864]

She does look very grumpy about her circumstances! Her back looks very ouchie too, poor girl! I would probably be pretty grumpy too if I was her! She’s lucky to have such a good momma!

Not that chickens ever look like they're smiling, but look at her face here. I'm glad she's got spirit. Yes, i know I need to cut away some feathers. I just kept forgetting to bring scissors when I went to treat her outside, and yesterday just being brought indoors was trauma enough. I'll cut those long feathers this morning so they arent rubbing her wound.

And I'm so glad i brought her in when i did. I woke up a few minutes sgo, looked at my phone and saw "23°F, feels like 14°F."

I'll be happy when her wound starts developing what @TropicalBabies called a turtle shell. At least then I'll know she's making progress towards getting back to normal. I want her to be able to enjoy being a chicken again. For now, I think I'll add a mirror at floor level for her and hang a whole cored apple or cabbage for her to peck at.