You Know It's Cold...

[Egghead_Jr]

You know it's cold when no wild birds are coming to your feeders. You know it's darn cold when your heated waterer is frozen over solid so you have to bring it inside to defrost enough to pull out the ice. I know it's the coldest day of the year as the chickens wouldn't come out of the coop! I threw some BOSS in with them and put hay down from the coop to water dispenser so they aren't walking on ice. Checked the temp at 8 AM and it's warmed up quite well, already at -22F (-30C). I'm not sure how but they say the high today will reach 5F.

The good news is this will be the last night of this serious arctic cold that's settled in. The last above 0F night was Sunday. Another night or two of below zero after tonight then finally a day over freezing by Tuesday. Yay! I'll shovel out some more pine chips and refresh with deep dry litter to aid them with this last -25F night. Who knows, maybe I'll salvage an egg or two that's not so frozen solid it cracks open today. The bowl of water I put out this morning while cleaning and refilling the waterer froze over solid in 40 minutes.

 

[sumi]

Gosh and I just give the water bowl a kick as I walk past to break the ice

What's your Summers like?

We did have one really cold morning, O.K. 2 so far. I battled a bit to get the coop door open. It froze shut? I'm not complaining though.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I've always wanted to live on coastal land. The staggering difference of planting seasons and general higher temps due to sea air is appealing. But alas me and those land locked are shackled to absence of coastal winds where deep arctic freezes can settle in. Though your northern in atlas the continent of northern Europe is more akin to northern America's climate. Those severe cold bursts of Canada creep down to give us the same horticultural climate with severe winters.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Anywho, I guess I started this thread kind of as a show and tell for cold weather. What you experience and what you do to keep your livestock safe. I personally don't heat my coop. Our average temp this week taking all high and lows then dividing by 14 will be in the neighborhood of 6F. We get a January thaw too! But the major cold month is January here with averages over years of taking weekly averages amounts to 3 to 4 weeks of 10F to 20F (taking your highs and lows of a day to average). Typically this amounts to -30F as an extreme. Didn't hit it this year, only -28F, but did hit a new week and half constant of nothing over freezing.


My chickens (roosters) have minor frostbite to tines of comb. How are yours doing and what do you do to deal with the cold?