When to coat waddles & combs

NJbirdlover

Songster
10 Years
Mar 16, 2009
276
1
129
Salem County, NJ
I have heard that when it gets real cold you can coat your chickens combs with vaseline to help prevent frostbite. At what temp would be a good time for this and does it actually work?
 
I hope someone answers as I have been wondering this too. My guess would be if there is an extended period of below freezing temperatures.
 
You know, I kept bag balm and vaseline on hand all last winter and it was bitter- never used it once!
Now if it were damper as well as cold, I'd give it a try but I didn't have any frostbite.
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https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-seasonal-concerns
 
so I've read the cold weather recommendations, I'm still not sure about when to apply vaseline/bag balm to the combs

hopefully someone will respond with a recommendation.
 
I haven't had to put any on for a couple of years now. I keep a close eye on the tips of the single combed hens and roosters and if I see them start to turn purple I put vaseline on them at night. It was real cold here last winter but I didn't have any problems.
 
I didn't have real good luck with vaseline. If it's cold enough they will freeze anyway. I have one rooster whose comb froze solid after I coated it with vaseline, way worse than it would have been without it. He was a youngster and it was -20 below windchill, it happened in 10 minutes. He was fine, just eventually lost the top of his comb. In my experience frostbite on the comb is a nusiance but it's not a real danger to their life/health.
 
This procedure has never made the least little bit of sense to me. I agree that it may have the slightest effect on the tip of the comb on a very cold night. But lets think about this. Go outside on the coldest night with vaseline on your hands and just see how much more comfortable you are than you would be without vaseline.

I dont get it quite frankly. Keep your coop ventilated but without draft and you should have no problems with frostbite in the coldest weather. If you are very concerned put a heat lamp in hte coop for nights that get sub zeroe F.

that is my thought
 
So I have read this whole thing on here a million times and then had a new 4-H'r come ask me about it as she has moved up here from the lower 48. So I went and asked my old Chem / Bio teacher how to find out the freeze point of vaseline and how or if it could stop frost bite. Here is what he said....

Freezing Point is depressed according to the following equation:

FPD = FPD constant * molality

Water's FPD constant is 1.86 degrees C per molality.

Molality = number of moles of solute/kg of solvent.

Freezing Point - FPD = the new freezing point.

That said, I don't think that Vaseline prevents freezing that way. I think it protects the chicken by reflecting its own infrared radiation and since it has a very high coefficient of heat, it takes losing a lot of heat to drop the temperature of the Vaseline a degree Celsius. Also, the Vaseline would protect the chicken by preventing freezer burn by providing a coating that would not let water evaporate. As long as water cannot evaporate, it cannot get burned. It's like double wrapping freezer stuff. With that said it seems to me that it will only help to a very mind cold snap. And in some areas it could cause them to get frost bite faster. Hope it helps some


Depending on where you are from I would start at freezing and go from there. Or watch the combs and waddles and when they start to change color put some on then. As for me I will just stay away from it as normal.
 

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