Thursday we were blessed with four inches of snow, The next day a Noreastern hit and now we are stuck with twenty five mile an hour winds, with nine degrees, which makes it about 0 degrees with the wind chill factor. All my waters freeze within two hours of change out. Tonight they say temps will set an all time low for records kept. That would put us in minus temps. Baby thats cold for us. I haven't lost any birds yet but if we lose power I doubt any of the birds would survive. I hope that doesn't happen...Hay It should be on the national news that one of our jets skidded of the runway at SeaTac Airport tonight due to ice and wind.
This message was edited Nov 22, 2010 6:10 PM
Baby It's cold outside: Brrrr:
So sorry for you all that have to deal with that kind of weather. I would rather the heat anyday.
Hay is there anywhere inside you could bring them or do you have to many?? If to many I would at least bring in the best breeding stock so you can start over if it gets that bad. Praying it doesn't
ON NO I`ll pray that your power does not go off,that would be awful,don`t you have any kind of back up you could use in your coop?Its 29 here right now and we had snow today so we probably have 3or 4 inches with what we got the other day but no winds and I hope it stays that way.You need one of those propane heaters ,even if you had to stay in the coop for safety reasons just untill the worst passes.I bet Mrs Hay would let you bring them in the house so they wouldn`t freeze.They are just little birds they wouldn`t take up much room.
I can't just throw them all together, I have sixty two birds (Seramas) yes they are small but thats a lot of birds. Also they are from two weeks old up to two years old and that just doesn't work. The little ones would never survive with birds two years old. If nothing else they would be stomped to death. No I'm not going to panic, I do have a generator but I have four coops. I'm not so worried about the cold but the wind has been terrible and the lights have flickered several times and once it turned off my computer. If I lose power I will gather up as many as possible and give one of the bathrooms up. I'm just not sure I can choose who lives and who dies. I don't want to have to make that kind of choice. The weather is supposed to break Friday so I'm working on getting by til then...Hay It should be on the National News tonight that one of our Jets skidded of the runway at SeaTac airport due to ice and wind this evening.
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This message was edited Nov 22, 2010 6:22 PM
I'll be sending good electricity thoughts and prayers your way, what horrid weather for your chickens and you! Hopefullly it will pass soon and you won't have to make any hard decisions, I think some of that weather is coming this way, it's so cold and windy here as well. I'm going to have to get a heat lamp or something, wish there was a "safe" heat lamp. Is there anything that can be added to their food to help them with higher body temps? Hugs to you and your chickens!
Haystack come back to Texas. It's warm and spring-like here today.
Good luck with your blizzard, I hope the power does not fail.
When I told Billy you had snow he asked if you was going to build a snowman... I told him I dont think so, cause he was not there to help. Then I told him it was really cold there and he said you could borrow his spider blanket and you could curl up with Billy Bob and stay warm and watch tv.
Sending warm thoughts to you my friend....
Warm smiles to you and Billy...Spiderman blanket really sounds good right now...
OH PorkPal you must have heard me talking to my wife today. I was telling her I wanted to go back home to Texas...I did not realize Richmond was so close to Houston. Just how far? Is it a suburb sorta like Ft Worth was to Dallas for a long time back years ago?
Richmond is about 30 miles SW of Houston on Hwy 59. The countryside in between is quickly filling in with houses and businesses so that it is hard to tell where Houston ends. There are lots of "subdivisions" around Richmond whose residents commute to work in Houston.
OMG Haystack! I hope all is okay.. That is a lot of stress I'm sure. I wouldn't live in snow for all the money in China.. Do keep us posted..
Sending warm cocoa thoughts..
I just watched our local weather and its comming our way,the cold and wind for Wensday,its very seldom that we loss electric here,hope today finds it warmer and less wind for you.
Well it's 6:25 am, Been up since three Oclock keeping waterers with liquid. The kids don't like the ice. So far so good, I have six eggs in my incubator which was in the garage, the bator was down to 88 and could not raise it to over 92 cause it is just to cold. Brought the bator into the house and forgot to adjust the thermostate and when I checked it was up to 108. dialed it down to proper temp but I really don't expect any pips as today is hatch day and with all the crazy weather and dealing with live chicks I just could not keep up with the bator. I can live more easily with no hatch than I can with loosing live birds...The wind is still blowing but not as hard. When I go outside and listen I can hear limbs cracking as well as power lines. The ice on the lines really have them sagging. Brrr Green, and Annie I do hope all goes well for you and yes Annie with this cold weather I give them much more scratch as it does help with internal heat. I have five heat lamps in my large coop and still have water freezing. Yikes...I can't wait til thursday when they say the weather will warm up. This a.m. The outdoor thermometer was on three degrees but don't know how accurate that is. The darn wind so doggone cold...Hay
I just went out to change the water and one of my roos was down, He was just to cold, not dead but not moving so I brought him into the house and managed to get a little warm apple juice in him and will watch him to see how it goes. I also went out and checked the standards, they are fine and there was four eggs in the nest, all were frozen to the point that the shells were cracked wide open so I will boil and feed to the girls. What is interesting is the pheasant have a house with food and water, but they go in and out but will not sleep inside, they roost out in that freezing wind and it seems to have no affect on them at all. I just thawed their water and they immed went for a drink but could care less about the temps...Hay...They are incredible birds...
Hope your little roo is going to be ok
oh no oh no. Praying it will end soon
Haystack, I hope your roo gets to be OK. I'm wating our noon news and they showed pictures of Washington with the cold, ice and snow. I sure feel for you. I hope your chickens survive. It's in the mid 30's here where we are at. I told DH to put another big bag of pine shavings on the floor inside the barn. We usually don't turn the heat lamp on unless it gets in the teens. We have a waterer that plugs in so it doesn't freeze.
We have a covered and fenced outdoor run and this year before winter we put some plywood and parked long trailers with sides around it to block the wind as much as possible. We made a 20' ladder out of ash trees from our woods and the 9 fifteen week old babies like to roost together on it. It isn't pretty but they like it. :)
I'll look for some sunflower seeds to pitch around. Thanks for the suggestion. We do give them cracked corn but mix it in with their laying mash. We still let them outside to free range for a few hours every afternoon.
Will be thinking of you and praying for your chickens to survive this nor'ester weather.
Brenda
Has anyone heard from Haystack? I hope he hasn't lost power!
praying he hasn't. So hard to lose your babies
That weather up in Washington is just unreal. I hope nothing further goes wrong and that power stays on.
We have it now gusty winds up to 30 miles an hour and very cold.Hope Hay and chickens are ok
I thought chickens could survive cold weather! No?
How do I tell if the eggs have frozen cuz i'm gathering they can't be used if they freeze? I collected some yesterday and they weren't cracked but I can't believe none of them froze.
Well I'm back on line, all the computers is our area have been down since yesterday morning, I just got back online service around 2 P.M. So far I have lost two roosters and two hens, both roosters were about four - five months old and both hens have been three months old. It's just called life and I'm grateful if I lose no more but I'm not counting on it. This morning paper said the out lying areas were down to -4 with the wind chill. The standards are still doing fine and laying but all the eggs are solid as a rock. I thaw them out first letting them sit in the house and after completely thawing I boil them for the girls, If you don't thaw them completely first the yolk is just like a rubber ball, you can actually bounce it, I found it out from experience...LOL...I hope all of my forum family stays safe first and then we will worry about the birds. We still have so much to be thankful for...Haystack
Just lost our first hen to a hawk. :(
Is it legal to shoot hawks on your own property? Are they easy to hit? What kind of gun should I get?
if you shoot a hawk you face up to a 5000 fine and Federal Prison. All native U.S. birds other than game birds in season only fall under the Migratory Bird Act. If you do you had better not breath a word to anyone or let anyone see you.
I have Federal Permits to be able to keep my ducks and if I decide to sell or even give a egg away I have to buy the yearly 100 permit in my name and keep detailed records of everything how many eggs laid, hatches, deaths, living birds. I can keep all I want under the permit that comes with the duck but can't do anything with them unless I buy a Permit in my name. Not even supposed to release them to the wild
Oh how sad. I hope the weather breaks for you soon
Oh Hay so sorry about you birds,its going down to 9 tonight and the wind is blowing so hard,about 50 miles from here they had a 59 mile and hour gust of wind.
Thanks Green but the reality is that sometimes having done all things possible the conditions just aren't in our favor. That is one thing we all quickly learn is that not everything runs at our convenience. I surely hope things work in your favor. I must tell you I love looking at you silkies. There just adorable...Hay
well looking like you all are blowing it down my way to for the weekend. nasty wet friday, then cold yuck
Aww I'm sorry for your loss Haystack.. It froze here last night.. all my brugmansia are melted this morning.. I have one tiny roo that I'm pretty worried about, and we are not having anything near what you have for weather. He just lost his mate, no one to keep him warm! I have to put him in between some fat layers every night.. :)
I hope you and everyone here has a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I am so sorry for everyone's losses. It is so sad. What brutal weather. I hope things change and soon for you all.
I just heard on the National News Front that our Artic blast was headed for Ohio, and parts of Indiana. Annie hunker down darling. I checked our temps just a few minutes ago and it's up to a balmy sixteen degrees and no wind... Its amazing how warm it feels right now compared to 24 hrs ago.
ZZs: You know whats so crazy, I have four moderns left from what you sent and by all info I could find they should not survive anything below thirty five degrees and yet I lost four seramas with heat lamps and no moderns died and they have no heat at all in sub zero temps. All my efforts even with electric bulbs heating waterers they still froze up. The moderns nor the pheasants seemed phased. Thats unreal. Another crazy thing is I have eggs in the incubator and the temps went crazy. They went from 88 degrees up to 108 and for several hours (half a day) I could not dial it up past 92 degrees. They should never hatch, there was seven eggs and five so far have pipped. I am feeling like a complete idiot. I would have advised anyone to pitch the eggs, but no I stubornly held on and when I started hearing peeps I thought I was nutz...Maybe I am...Hay
so happy to hear your temps are rising Hay. I hate that you lost some birds.
Now would you all qiut try to blow the cold down south. We are getting down to humidy bone chilling 30 on Saturday after a rainy Friday. Sure makes your body ache lol
Hay the first thing came to my mind when I read about your pips was the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,we may not always understand the taketh away part a but we still have a great and loving God
I am thankful for all of you and your wonder advise and wisdom... Sorry to hear about loss of birds Hay..
Well it has warmed up quite a bit, now it's about thirty degrees, but has been snowing all night and all day so far. Probably about six inches all total. I ended up losing eight birds and I have two I that don't look good. I agree with you Green and though the losses are tough, as ZZs so well put it, it is what it is, and we go on. This Spring I have decided to sell all my birds, pen, and equip. No it's not because I'm unhappy but rather that my dear wife and I are going to do some traveling, It is my hopes to get to see some of you that I have longed to meet. I'm going to send some birds to others and then sell whats left. Just time for a change. I'll always have a love for the birds but I'll just enjoy yours with you. I'll stay here on DG cause I love my family here. This will just be a new adventure and I'll be able to spend more time with my bride. It's so true (There's a time for everything under the sun). Hay
Yep, our farms and animals really tie us down. Will you be traveling on two wheels or four?
Both, Porkpal. My wife has been to Texas only on an airplane for landing and take off. I love Texas and have always wanted to show her around. She thinks it's all desert except for the large cities. I would love to show her how wrong she is...We have a crewcab truck with a hitch on front and back for mounting our Motorcycle and then when we get to our destination we can use the motorcycle for sightseeing...Hay This is our truck, just gotta remove the snow...LOL and you have seen the bike.
Thats ok with me as long as you stay on dg in case I need you.Will you keep your home or put it up for sale?I know you have talked about selling at times.Oh I hope you can make it to Maine in your travels.
Maine: What a beautiful state, my wife would love to see your state in the fall, Not to speak of the joy of meeting you and your family...Hay
I just do not know how I missed this thread!!! Hay , OMG!! I didnt realize that you were having such Horrible weather!! I pray things will get better soon!
Ive been enjoying 70 to 80 degree temps here but working like a slave trying to get ready for the "Blast" fixing to hit here Friday night!
Ive been banking up the Poop under the roosts and adding the last of the "Green" hay on top! Hopefully this will create enough compost heat to keep my babies from freezing!
I have taken the last of the square bales of hay and put them around the Silkie camp. I removed the outdoor swings(where they slept all Summer) in the Serama camp and put high almost Ceiling high roosts in their house. Hopefully these changes will be okay! After hearing about your temps as well as you other Northeners , I wont worry so much about mine only going into the low 30's. I feel blessed!