winter has arrived

[bantybev]

I am about 5 miles from the Indiana border, and it's STILL only 24 out...brrrr. No snow to stick so far here....but heard the northwest coast of Mi got dumped on yesterday....they can keep it

I, too, am a little worried about the winter temps. The bantam rooster I have has a large (beautiful) comb and I am so afraid he will get frostbite. He came from Virginia last month and is not used to our Mi winter weather. My 3 are still in my sun room, while we finish insulating the coop today. Hope to have them out tomorrow or Monday. We will aslo put a heat lamp over the roost to hopefully prevent frostbite. I'm also using a thermocube outlet for the heatlamp that comes on at 35 and off at 45. I have shut off the sun room from the rest of the house, with no heat in there, to start acclimating them to the cold weather.
I plan on letting them decide when they want to play outside,or not,on days the outside temps are 25 or higher. When it drops below that I won't give them the option (don't want frostbite) I hope that is a good enough plan. My uncle has chickens about 10 miles south of us and his got frostbitten toes last winter. They just weren't smart enough to come in out of the cold on their own. I know a lot of people don't heat and free range all winter, even north of us, but mine are not used to these cold temps. If yours are small combed and winter hardy breeds, they should do fine having a choice to go out or not.
Guardian....what size heat lamp are you using? I am going to town to buy one today and just wondered what works for you. I am also getting a remote heat/humidity gage so I will know if we have enough ventilation inside the coop, as I heard this is more important that the temp for frostbite prevention and overall good health. (I have learned a lot on this forum, Thanks to all the wonderful BYC people here)

O yeah...

You will learn a lot on here

 

[bibliophile birds]

it's very strange to see everyone from Michigan posting about their first snow of the year on the same day we got our first snow... Wednesday I was in a t-shirt and knee length pants. today, it's snowing. that's Tennessee weather for you. as the saying goes "If you don't like the weather in TN, just wait a day!"

my chickies are 9 weeks old and LOVING their first snow. they were a tad hesitant at first, but some oatmeal and bread crumbs got them going. i put some hay down in front of the coop so they could get up out of the muck if they wanted to, but they have mostly been gallivanting around in the snow and mud (pretending none of them have feathered feet...).