Winter Hatching

[Uncle Bones]

It is Jan 2016 in Mountain Home Arkansas. Night time Temp's are running 15 to 40 degrees. One of my hens is setting on an egg. This is her first time. Can she be successful hatching and caring for her offspring in these cold temp's?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

She can be successful temperature wise but first time broodies are fickle and may screw up. .

 

[Okla-doodle-doo]

Hatching in the cold months is a risky business. I do it, sometimes I loose and sometimes I am rewarded by some beautiful birds. The problem is when the temps are freezing or below if the hen or cock leaves the nest for just a short time the eggs or chicks can chill and die. It seems the safe point is after the quills actually open into feathers that the chicks are able to survive on their on heat. I have tried taking baby in to a warm place for the cold nite but usually the parents won t take them back. I am looking at low single digits tonite. I expect to loose a few eggs and there are about four or five chicks in the critical stage ,keeping fingers crossed.
still I would never advise anyone not to let the birds breed in the winter. Like I said I have had some great birds hatch out them.
I am in Tn. Now but originally came from your area just across the line in Okla. What breeds do you have?

 

[Uncle Bones]

They are both Janssen homers. I bought them through Stromberg's in may of 2015. They are young birds and this is their first time. I have probably created the problem by putting a 125 watt heat lamp in the loft at night when the temp's get below freezing.

 

[sourland]

When I raised Birmingham Rollers, I would put hens and cocks together on Feb. 14. Generally within 2 weeks all pairs would be down on eggs. I always removed the first egg (replacing it with a wooden dummy egg) and put it back in the nest two days later when the second egg was laid. If I did not remove the first egg, frequently it became chilled and non viable. My biggest problem occurred if the weather was still cold when they started the next round. Some cocks would sit on the older young at night some would not. In my experience homers have a longer span between rounds of eggs than rollers, and your birds should do fine.

 

[Hokum Coco]

It is Jan 2016 in Mountain Home Arkansas. Night time Temp's are running 15 to 40 degrees. One of my hens is setting on an egg. This is her first time. Can she be successful hatching and caring for her offspring in these cold temp's?

That is not really that cold compared to my climate and they may be fine without any intervention. If you have your birds using a nest bowl I would be tempted to try my method only after they are too large and hard to incubate for the parents. if you are not using a nest bowl I would let mother nature take it's course pigeons do not like their nest to be disturbed and may abandon the clutch. Worst case scenario you loose one squab.

This worked for me and my winter nesting pigeons it is operating for me so far at 100% efficiency. I live in Canada (we have winter and cold temperatures -40º.)
We were having a flood of Arctic Air come in and I had nothing to loose I thought.
I took a chance and moved nest bowl and all into this modified Styrofoam cooler when the squabs were getting to large for them to be incubated by the parents. It paid off in my case (sometimes you are not lucky when you disturb a nest you must keep in mind).

 

[laughingdog]

My homers etc always bred etc better in winter without heat, feeding wild bird seed, chicken layer pellets, and scratch grains. Mostly to only chicken layer pellets..
I mostlty keep Birmingham rollers now. Hello from east tn okla-doodle-doo!

 

[Spiritjewelz]

Looks good. Anything special on the inside?

 

[Hokum Coco]

Looks good. Anything special on the inside? No my pigeons do not eat Styrofoam like my chickens do. Pigeons are much more intelligent