what do you all do to keep your birds from being too bored all winter?what do you feed for treats?

[MaPa26]

Quote: It helps them avoid frostbite, especially if they get their combs, earlobes or wattles wet when it is extremely cold. We had temps below zero last week and I put a coating on my hens. One already had a bit of fb on an earlobe. She probably got it wet when getting a drink. The air was so cold last week that water froze as it was poured on the ground (or any surface).

 

[Triplell]

Right now I have a Rooster that his comb is basically black from frost bite. Every night I put vasiline on his comb and waddles. It just didn't make much difference for him. He sticks everything in the wader. Last year he lost 4 toes, he liked to stand in the water. I just don't know what to do with him.
I made dust bathing boxes and all they do is sleep on the edges and poop in them. They prefer to make their own spots. Today mine will get some, bread and carrots with some warm mash.

 

[Angelray]

It helps them avoid frostbite, especially if they get their combs, earlobes or wattles wet when it is extremely cold.  We had temps below zero last week and I put a coating on my hens.  One already had a bit of fb on an earlobe.  She probably got it wet when getting a drink.  The air was so cold last week that water froze as it was poured on the ground (or any surface).

I live in Prescott AZ and when it started freezing I coated all but the birds with peacombs to prevent FB (had only seen a few pinhead sized spots on my roos wattle) then a few days later I checked and now he has whiteness around the edges of his wattles & a spot looks reddish like a picked scab. Did the baseline cause this?

 

[beverly evans]

Quote:
Just soak that grain for two to three days and you will have fermented feed! Much more nutritious and full of probiotics! Do check out the fermented feeds threads here . There are two of them and it will be well worth your time and your chickens good health! lol

 

[beverly evans]

I have to say, weird as it may seem, my chickens hate cabbage! They hate all cruciferous vegetables so that whole cabbage tether ball thing is not an option for us.

What they do love, though, are peanuts. I will throw a section of straw down for them and then throw a cup of peanuts into it where they will have fun for hours scratching through it looking for goodies. I just let the straw get nasty over a couple days and then toss it in the compost pile. I make sure, also, that they get plenty of out of the run time to play in the yard which makes it so that when they are confined, they are not all that miserable.

I have to chime in on one last thing, though, and that is the heat in your coop. I feel as though 50 is too warm for all winter. We live on the Atlantic coast where we get wind, rain, sleet, and freezing rain and I have never heated there coop. I understand from a human perspective we like to be toasty warm, but your birds are actually naturally equipped to withstand cold cold temperatures. If they are going to be outside birds forever than they had better beef it up to be outside birds even when that means temps in the 20s or lower. You can mess with there molting and natural ability to withstand cold temps by keeping them heated.

All of this is just my opinion from my own experience, and you don't have to listen, but I think I have some of the happiest chickeroos this side of the Mississippi.

Happy chickening!

You are very correct about the temp. All you have to do is read all these people talking about how their chickens are fine in -20 below, etc. Read that thread about how low a temp. chickens can tolerate well. It is awesome to know they do well in such low temperatures!

 

[beverly evans]

I give them part of a bale of hay and an armload of weeds that I cut and dried in the fall. There are always some seeds in there, I also grow buckwheat and amarath and sunflowers for them. cut the stalks and store in fall. distribute during the winter.
Also, I grow wheat grass from seeds--they love that. They would pull out the grass by the roots if I let them, but I scissor off the greens. The remaining roots grow more grass in a week or less.

I give them bones after making soup and they get some exercise tearing that apart. Plus it saves our plumbing from grease build-up. This is NH, so I think it is OK for them to have animal fats.we buy local lambs

We have had varied success tossing them some of our composting worms.

A new thing we are trying is that, instead of cleaning out the bedding and poops from the coop interior ----out into the snowy compost area, I am stacking in in a corner of their plastic enclosure. If worms and bugs develop in that compost, the chickens can scratch in there.

No edible calories get tossed in a land fill from our house.

The wheat grass you grow---have you thought of doing the growing frames? They are 2x4 frames or double that height with 1/2 " wire on top, placed on top of your growing wheat. Every few days new growth will stick out the hardware wire. The chickens have access to the new growth but not the stem or roots and it will replenish itself in a couple of days if you only let the chickens get to it every few days. lol

 

[beverly evans]

This is our first year also but our situation is a bit different being in Michigan in the lake effect snow belt. We have over ten inches of snow on the ground and it has snowed every day for at least a week! Our girls don't approve of the snow but seem quite hardy. We leave a 40 watt light on in their sleeping area for only part of the night or all night if the temp is going down towards zero and a heat lamp in the pen when it's cold. We kept a big pile of leaves we raked under a tarp and I throw some on the snow or pull a rake through them to give them something to look through. We let them run our fenced yard as much as they want during the day as our cats are scared of them and so is our Jack Russell Terrier mix dog. We have no fulltime neighbors, just cottagers (we are in the boondocks!) Now at least the bears are asleep and their coop is very secure-so far no other critters looking around. For treats we use the cooked oatmeal(usually with some raisins in it), plain leftover spaghetti or macaroni(they go crazy for the pasta), plain cooked rice, also they LOVE cottage cheese for some reason. We also buy Cackleberry treats at the feed store. We give a bit of extra scratch/cracked corn before bed to help them keep warm. I wondered about leaving a light on every night for warmth but then I remembered my grandma always had chickens - before they had electricity on the farm. Those chickens just sat next to each other in the roost and kept each other warm. So far so good for us also, as long as they are out of the wind! They are fun anyway!

Plain spaghetti? They say chickens have no sense of taste or at least not much of one. I beg to disagree! My chickens prefer spaghetti with sauce! On the BYC somewhere there is a discussion on how much cold a chicken can tolerate. Guess what? It's below -30 !!! Amazing. huh?

 

[MaPa26]

Mother Nature is doing her best to confuse the chickens around here. First we have a week of record breaking cold, followed by a week of record breaking highs. (-15 at night before wind chill, then mid-sixties). Now it is going back to normal and some lower temperatures. Mine are feather-out enough to withstand sleeping in a pen with an open wall. They can go in the coop, but they may find it too warm for their liking (except during that Arctic Freeze). I wonder, when they get a week of warm weather, is that enough to make them start molting?

We received our first measurable amount of snow, after a coating of ice. Now I know that our hens do NOT like snow. We are glad we put a better cover over their pen. Since they are hanging out in there, instead of out foraging, my hubby took a large chunk of wheat straw in for them to scratch around in. A few hours before dark, I will give them some scratch, in the straw, to snack on. The low tonight will be around four degrees. They can choose to go into the coop if they want. The water in there won't freeze. But they probably will roost in the pen and only go into the coop to lay their eggs. The leghorns prefer the coop. The Red Stars prefer the roost in the pen. Water in the pen freezes quickly. Next year we will have a heated base for the metal water can.

 

[deacons]

Mine were thrilled to get some sun and temps in the 20s today! Here they are with a fresh cabbage (haven't put one out in awhile since it would have been frozen rock solid given our temps the past two weeks.

 

[BunnyLover44]

Hey deacons, how many chickens do u own it looks like 10 or so, am I right?