Winter weather is all over the place; advice?

[Pent]

Dealing with some unfortunate weather swings; - 17 lows , +6 highs, with barely a day in between sometimes. And it's is so damp! Every time the temp approaches 0 or above the air gets so wet you can see it, then it plummets again overnight for 24 hours of below -15. Frostbite is becoming a risk no matter what I do; Vaseline can only do so much. I've tried putting a 60 watt bulb in the area they sleep in, but they started hanging out just outside the door, and now I have to worry about temp drops if the power goes out... Ugh. At least I have a cold weather breed, but this rapid fluctuation is really worrying me.

 

[bigbuddha09]

yeah weather here goes from freezing snow to super muddy ground that sinks in several inches weather this years crazy.

 

[Catie79]

We're doing the same thing. Freezing fog has been my favorite so far, what a mess.

I've been tossing in extra bedding and giving it extra flips to keep the coop as dry as possible with the wet feet tracking through. Moisture management has been king for me. I'm also shutting the pop door on the nights that the cold fronts come through with roaring winds and 30 degree swings to buffer them through it. Come morning, I open the door and they all storm back outside.

No supplemental heat for me, since it's not really the cold giving me trouble. I did get one single comb girl with some frost bite due to freezing rain followed by plunging temps, but pretty minor. Right now I'm just trying to time things to get the maintenance done on the warm days so I can get out things that are wet while they're melted! Once things freeze, nothing moves. We've gotten down to -17* F so far, but tomorrow we'll be at 42* F. I'll have a short window between the rain and things freezing again, so they'll get a fresh layer of shavings in the run as soon as the rain ends to keep things dry.

 

[Pent]

As far as moisture goes; I'm wondering if the fermented feed benefits are worth the moisture drawbacks... It freezes, they fling damp feed if they shake their heads, and it adds air moisture. But it reduces droppings and increases overall digestive health. I'm torn.

 

[Catie79]

Can't help with that one, unfortunately. I tried fermented feed but the flock wasn't going for it. They're still on crumbles. I did have a heck of a time with the frozen feed pans while I was trying it, though. Things freeze fast on the cold days and I was using metal pans. I didn't really want to buy more heaters to make sure their food stayed mush through out the day.

Crumbles, scratch, and halved winter squash is their current menu.