Cold Weather and Serama's

I am wondering how do those of you who keep and breed Serama's and the other breeds of chicken's as well, keep your chickens warm during a cold winter.
Cold winter would be described as cold enough to freeze water.
Thanks
CS

I forgot to add that I built a outside shed for my budgies. I put a milk house heater inside the enclosure and I also have a 60 watt light bulb right now, enclosed in a couple of old discarded computer cases. The light bulb keeps the temp at an even temp but also if for some reason the heater quits then the light bulb will keep them warm until I check on them in the morning. Later on, when the temps get cold, I will use two light bulbs and plug these into a totally different circuit. This is for a "just in case".
If needed I also have a small back up generator.
CS

Hi Cooperstone,
Welcome to the group -- at least I've never seen you post before -- anyway, there are others that will have more severe weather (and Sermas) to give recommendations to you. You aren't too far from me, but that wind gets whipping through the Gorge and makes you quite a bit colder than I am here.

It sounds like your chickens will be quite comfortable with the set up you currently have. I don't know the specifics of Serama's but there are others that will happen upon this post that do! I'd make sure you also have a plate warmer for their water so that it doesn't freeze and no drafts...

Other than that, welcome!, and I'll leave the rest to the eggsperts! Happy chickening!

seramas r not suppost to be cold hardy under 40 degrees but i have read they r adapting fairly well in colder climates. they should be inside heated coops in an inside shelter. unfortunately where i raise my flock there is no electric to the coops and runs and i don't have a building to put them in. i'm very much dreading this winter comeing. it will be my first winter with seramas and gets down sometimes as low as -20 here sometimes.

i add scratch or black oil sunflowers to their diets to help them put on fat for winter to keep them warmer. we put our flock together for body heat in cold months to help also. my seramas have been outside since about 6 weeks old so i'm hopeing if raised outside that will help to adapt some to cold, they r ones i hatched from eggs shipped in. that may make a difference since they were not older brought in from a warmer climate. we have raised as small as sebrights and d'uccles here with minimal problems but my seramas r half to 1/4 the size of those so i am worried about them how they will do.

we r gonna insulate coops, add plastic and double the osb on the walls/floors to hopefully help also. i have outside above ground 4 in 1 coops and runs. it is ventalated through the tops of coops to distribute heat we also shut drop doors when severly cold or at night. we pile pine shaveings about 6-8" thick in the coops as well. not sure if any of that will help or not but if anyone else has idea to help us we'd love to hear them too.

we have tried the hay and straw thing it is to messy and they get wet to much cuz poo won't dry just sits on top that's why we pile in the shaveings now and seems to help them stay dier and warmer and they don't get colds so easily.

Thank you all for the posts.
Yes I am new to this forum, but I have been raising chickens and other "bird things" since I was a real little girl, with my Mom's help.
I was born and raised over in the Coast Range of Oregon, but I am actually from Alaska. And this was in the days when it got COLD. I have learned a lot about keeping chickens and other livestock warm, with no electricity but not Serama's.
I will be keeping my Serama's in a couple of cages at night for right now because I caught my &^%$ neighbor's little kids throwing rocks at the big cage where the chickens are housed during the day. And there isn't much I can do about it right now. I tried to get a picture of those little brats throwing rocks when one rock hit my house, but I couldn't get the batteries in fast enough. Blast it anyway. When I have "proof" of these people's bigger boys, ages 19 and 20 or so, and the smaller boys ages about 8 or 10 or so, then I am going to their landlord and I'm telling you the foundation is gonna raise here when I am done.
I will post a pic of my Budgie cage so you can see how it was made. I insulated the heck out of it too.
I thought about putting the chickens with the budgies, but to many potential problems with that. Budgies need to be seperate.
I am working on an idea:
the so called hurricane lamps, or oil lamps whatever a person calls them, can put out some real heat which goes up the chimney and is wasted heat. I am wondering if a person could place a piece of stovepipe around the lamp and have it heat up the chimney and of course, be vented out? I have seen one setup where the waterer was heated like this.
There are many reasons for me to do something like this, one being financial, the other being what if the electricity went out in the middle of a cold night?
Anyone, do you think this is an idea that is just "out there" or would this have merit???
Thanks
CS

If either of you had a wood stove or similar set up you might be able to heat rocks or other sumpin' sumpin' s to give off heat at night. Hot water bottles? Bricks in towels?

have you seen the Youtube with the man in Wisconsin or somewhere and his flower pot light? It is pretty neat.

Thank you for the reply's. Nope haven't seen that Catscan.
I have been having some login issues with this forum and got it straightened out.
I wanted to ask SILKIECHICK if you might have a wood stove in your chicken house(s)???
I don't belive that a Serama will make it at 20 below. I had chickens at that temp before and we had a wood stove but I still lost some of them. I don't ever want to go through that again.
I seen a tiny little stove built entirely out of red bricks today that was placed inside a small trailer house. It is sitting on some cinder block. The man who built it, has 3 pipes one for the smoke outlet, one for air intake and the other I am not sure of. But what cute and very nicely made heater for that trailer. I will ask the gentleman who lives there right now, if I can take some pics of it. Hopefully, I can figure out how to post pics here.
In a book I read, published about 1900's, there were some very good drawings of a brooder that was made from brick's and cement. The cement was about 3 feet wide and the brick's housed the firebox. Now this was a small setup and a person would have to babysit that stove all of the time to be able to raise chicks. But, there wasn't electricty to be had then and this worked. A little lost sleep but it did work.
I am thinking that a person could use a wood stove like this. I know we did where I lived in Alaska. The stove was made out of a 55 gal drum and worked very well. Just have to have hard wood to burn because it lasts longer than softer wood would. Also, in my own trailer, Alaska again, I had the chimney going through an insulated piece of chimney and that whole thing went through the roof jack. Very safe.
Anyway, I am working on my idea using the oil burner lamp and utilizing that wasted heat that goes up in smoke.
Any discussion of this would be appreciated. I have electricity but who knows. It could go out just as fast. And, I am wanting to go back to Alaska. Actually, I am going home.

I know there are materials that retain heat -like the rock, brick idea. If you could keep the heat from the lamp IN longer...

One more thought SILKIECHICK, if your birds are all ranged outside when the cold does come, could you make a lean-to or perhaps an Aframe structure and put the birds close to it with a source of heat?
I think if you don't have something for your flock, and it does get real cold, you are going to be just devestated and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. A human goes through hell and the guilt and regret are just to much to deal with.
Maybe you can find some old pallets and rig up something for them.
CS

One of the heat retention ideas I had Grownut, was to heat a BIG container of water. A person gets two heat sources that way: one when the water is being heated, and then another when the hot water gives off it's heat. I can't really think of anything else right now.
On the news tonight, a company is making solar panels like crazy located in Portland, Oregon. Wish I could afford them. That would be so cool, to be able to heat one's out buildings or even a house, effectively without running a big electricity bill. And we wouldn't be polluting anything.
CS

OK. I'm nuts I admit. But. Get a hot rock massage kit and heat it up for 'em each night before bed. The heat stays in those suckers for ages.

Hehehee Grownut, I love that idea.

Shoot, put your rocks in boiling water and the heat might last all night...hmmm...

And you could borrow 'em in the off-season...

Grownut, if you have ever been in COLDDDDD like that, 20 below zero, omg!! you can't imagine what's it's like.
Chickens really do need to be enclosed in some kind of heated structure if the weather is cold like that. Doesn't have to be super warm, but enough to keep their feet and combs from freezing.
I've had to kill some roos because their feet froze solid and the combs frooze. The veins in their combs exploded. Makes me cry to even think about this. But, after this happened, I grabbed some cages and put the chickens in them and moved them into my house. Yes, the house stunk but I had LIVE chickens too.
I'm not kidding when I say, I don't ever want to go through that again, and I won't.
CS

we used to have electric at my friends but right before winter last year the breaker box thing caught fire. so we have no heat sorce now there i used to use heat lamps in the shed for the babies. they had to take the kid's and move to a rented house. electric company won't turn it on till the whole house is rewired. no way to do anything like a furnace because noone is there enough to watch it if something happens. waterers i bring home run under hot water to thaw. have no idea how to keep water from freezeing either.

sooo... i'm on my own and yes i went through that last year. only way we saved them, we did loose some was to combine the flock, drop doors at night or all day on real bad ones and leave feed and water inside coops and we uped crorn intake to make fat and piled in the hay and shaveings. if babies were winter babies they were inside elsewhere. when old enough a few mths old when could escape brooders those went to the big pens with adults and the adults protected them from the cold. honestly body heat is what helps them the most. i'm worried about the seramas it is very cold tonight. i think tomarrow i'm going over to figure something out. i do not wat to loose them.

my pens r 4 in 1 pens 3-4 ft off the ground. they r not like normal coops and runs,lol. mine survive better than my friends do i believe that's cause most of his r ground runs where they can play in wet and snow. mine have ventilation more and up off ground, smaller coops with smaller doors so i think that tends to help too, plus my flock is 3 times the size of his so lots more body heat when i combine them.

i think i'm gonna move them to the shed so they r inside more housed and use insulation and plastic and more osb to keep out as much cold as i can. i can fill 2 liter bottles here with scalding hot water to put under bedding to keep heat every night it would at least help some. i don't know what else would help. i live in town i can't bring them home.

Oklahoma was a bit that way, believe it or no. It'd be 5* with a windchill of -40 or so. You have to be totally insulated from it and then generate your own heat. Deadly. And I'm so sorry to hear what you went through.

The thing that worries me about stoves (and non electric heating of coops) is KEEPING them going long enough. That's what first made me think of the rocks. The hours between 3 and 6ish are the worst...

A boilin' kettle o' rocks! (obsessed, I know)

Nope I don't think obsessed at all. Good ideas really.
Silkiechick I am going to post a picture here if an oil lamp that actually heats a metal chicken waterer. The waterer is placed on a wooden frame and the oil lamp's, glass chimney is placed right under the bottom of the waterer. The chickens jump up onto the frame to get their WARM water. The whole thing now, is enclosed in a wooden frame, (after raising happy chickens I have learned to enclose everything in good chicken wire), so that the chickens can NOTget into that area of the lamp in any way. Important, as they can flap their wings and put the light out, PLUS knock the glass chimney over and that could easily cause a fire.
Check here tomorrow and I'll find that pic and post it for you.
CS

I forgot to mention--a -40 windchill??? OMG!! The wind just goes right through a person, no matter how many layers of clothes and I swear it feels like something is cutting the skin with a razor blade. YUCK.
CS

after we combined the flock to more in the coops and emptied some of the pens we didn't loose anymore last year except 1 hen. she was a dip and when water first started to freeze we left open pans not thinking. well we took the self waters those gal plastic things home to sit and thaw. while gone she sat in it and froze her feet solid and had hypothermia and sever frostbite. well we never did that again we bring them home and run hot water to thaw and 20 min later they got fresh water again, i'll never give them open pans again.

she made it and i had to amputate her feet cuz frostbite killed all of her feet that was in the water above it was live tissue. she lived about 4mths past that, tough silkie she fought hard. was healed but since she kept takeing bandages off trying to walk somehow she managed to get an infection fineally. i gave her tylan shots but it was to late it must have spreed to much i lost snow one night after we went to sleep, she passed in her sleep. i was so heart broken after how hard her and i both fought to save her. that's what i fear most i know a serama can't take that kind of cold they r tiny compared to her.

it says it is 37 degrees here everyone pray the seramas make it through tonight. i pilled more shaveing in for them today it's about 6-8" deep now. tomarrow i'm going over to do some work and rearangeing. i'm gonna do whatever i can to insulate heavily and anything else i can.

Okay, this is the same guy--but now he is using the light bulb to keep the water from freezing--the one I saw before he had it set up with the terracotta pot as a little heater to keep their combs and feet from freezing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a05MZp7W4A

Will do Silkiechick. I sure hope my ideas can help even if in a little way. I know how danged hard it is on a person to put the love, blood, sweat, tears, energy and the emotional output on a living thing just to have it croack on us.
Here where I live, it is 64 but it is unusually warm. I too dread the cold for my flock but I don't care if my house smells bad or not, I will bring my stock inside if I have to. I don't like it but I will do it.
Are you allowed by law to do your own wiring Silkie? Or do you have to have a pro come out and wire for an astronomical fee? I wired my house in Alaska and I have done some wiring here where I live right now because the law's allow us to wire as long as we have someone licensed come in and do an inspection.
CS

Catscan I am going to go take a look at that. Sounds like quite an idea. Thanks for posting that.
CS

Wow all kinds of posts on Youtube. Guess what I am going to do tomorrow. hehehehee
CS

Well it's late and I have to get up early so I'm going to say niters to all. Thanks for a great discussion everyone. Talk with you tomorrow.
CS

I had read something about a similar set up --- can't remember where -- and had thought about doing the same thing for my girls. Weather just doesn't get cold enough here to warrant that, though.

I couldn't get the page and drawing to upload here.
But, I am posting the link so that you can see the drawing and the plans for the oil lamp heating the waterer.
If you can't get this to work, please let me know and I'll see what else I can do.
http://www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/abeng/plans/nd7271-2-1.pdf

Some of the plans that are posted to this website are quite old. They are listed as being from 1933. If you find something you really like, you might consider printing out these pages and keeping them in your notebook. I honestly don't know how long these plans will be available. The book I found was published about 1900. I doubt a person can find it anymore.
How I wish I hadn't left it behind.
Talk with everyone later on.
CS

Hi Cooperstone! After reading some of your comments I could not tell if you were so discouraged, and therefore returning to Alaska or just what. Kinda tickled me. However I was thinking about your Seramas, and your concern for their welfare during the cold winter months. Just a thought. I have and electric oil filled radiator, Somewhat like the old water filled radiators they used in the old days at the Schools. I hooked a timer to it, and it comes on for an hour and then is off for two hours, and the cycle repeats itself. I have it on cinderblocks with wire-mesh surrounding it so the chickens cannot get to close. It worked very well for me last year and I just thought i would share the thought with you. P. S. It was not very costly to run either. Haystack. Best of Luck.

Thank you Haystack.
I lived in Alaska for many years. The first half was on a farm that belonged to my husband and no it wasn't very happy for me. I did learn a lot though.
The second half was my own place and while I never did get running water there, it was and is, a quiet, clean, place to live. And I have to admit I miss it.
I smile when I think about that place and I long to go back.
This coming year I will be returning to my old home. And I will shed tears of joy. Oh and I forgot to mention, I am getting a bottle of Champagne to share with everyone here when that day comes.
Wonderful day. And yup I intend to get running water. heheheee And not the Run-Go-Get it either. :D
I have a question on your radiator setup: Did you have a timer that was "heavy-duty" like the ones that are used for electric water heaters?
I am trying to figure out a way to effectively heat buildings like chicken houses without using electricity and yet be easy to maintain. I have used the oil lamp's with a little bit of success but when it is really cold, every bit of heat is needed. I used a 55 gal drum that was converted to a heating stove but it is very labor intensive at times.
Where is Ferndale? I remember it being mentioned somewhere along the line but I don't remember where it's near.
CS

Hi again Cooperstone: I'm not much of an electrician, and honestly not very good with the computer either or I would show you a picture of my set-up. I just went to home depot and told the electrical guy what I was doing and he picked out a timer and I hooked it up and all went well. I believe it is not heavy-duty though just from looking at it. I have a brother and sister-inlaw who live just minutes from you in Goldendale, and I have an extra radiator heater that I would give you but have no way to get it over the mountains at this point. Ferndale is located just five miles south of the Canadian border on the I-5 Coridor. When you go to Alaska, are you driving up or flying. I have so many times wanted to drive up to Alaska, but don't know the roads well enough to feel comfortable with it. I have flown to Juneau several times but honestly have never liked Juneau at all. If you are driving up you would be welcome to spend the night free here. My wife is a very gracious lady and would welcome you warmly. Wished I could help you more with your chicks. If theres anything I can do let me know. Respectfully Haysstack.

Thank you Haystack and thank you also for the invitation.
At this point, I don't know just what I will be doing. I do know that my critters are all going with me.
I may end up selling just about everything, mailing up the rest, putting my animals into air kennels and then flying us all up. Don't know yet though what I will do when I get to the airport. hahahahaa
So, I will have to figure out these details. That will be probably about May or June of this coming year.
Personally, I do not want to drive up the Al-Can. It's a long way and a person needs to have at least one complete set of tires. That should tell you something.
I had been thinking of using the Ferry system.
Just to wait and see and then plan accordingly.
I will let you know. Again, thank you.
CS

Haystack,
I have family in Ferndale! I am from Ellensburg, WA and we used to hunt over in Crab Creek (little blink and you miss it town not far from the gorge.
I live in FL, now, and the Serama I have made it through a 25 degree winter year before last (Yes...it freezes here in N. Central FL...all my time in Ellensburg, w/ windchill below ZERO, no problem...move out here and our first winter, our pipes freeze!). They were in outside chicken coops w/ little runs, and they went out and enjoyed the sunlight during the sometimes FREEZING days! So they are getting a lot more acclimated to cold (and in severe heat, like here in FL) the more people breed and cull them in the North and deep South.
Serama handbook says to join the SCNA and ask YOUR STATE Rep on how to handle the weather in your area.
I also would like to add that I have had great success with people on the Serama boards, because many have dealt directly with Seramas for YEARS!

Here are those boards:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Seramas/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SESerama (I know this is SE...I belong to it, but I believe there are others)

And then the yahoo FANCYLAWNORNAMENTS group is another

Good luck!

~♫♪music♪♫

Hi there MusicNotes! Girl, how did you ever get displaced there in Fl. Haha. You'd better get on the stick and move back to God's country. Doesn't it just figure after living in Ellensburg, then moving to sunny central Florida and the piped freeze. What kind of a welcoming committe is that? Just for fun when I was single I moved to Jacksonville, Florida where I resided for one year. I really hated it there. The monsoons were way to much for me. You must have a good reason for being down there, thats all I can say. So you also have Seramas! I so want a pair just for pets, but they are so expensive. And if one died on me I'd just sit down and die. Tell me about yours, are they any different than regular chickens to take care of? How much did you have to pay for yours. Also have you had any chicks you hatched yourself. I'd love to hear and have more info on them. I'm going to look up those links that you gave me. Thanks Much. Haystack

Just a note. I know exactly where Ferndale is and absolutely love it! I was actually supposed to go to Bellingham last night, but had to change my plans. I just love North WA. Its so gorgeous.

Hi Lazy_Ladies! Thanks for the note. If your ever up this way, My wife and I would love to meet you and host you for lunch or dinner. We both are always looking forward to chicken lovers and their stories. The funny and serious stories about chickens and those who love them are never dull. Again we'd love to meet any of you who venture up this way Your always welcome. There is so much to learn from each others experiences with these beautiful birds. One of the things I'm working on for this next Spring is an area Chicken, buy, sell, and swap meet. Hopefully it will go good enough to become an annual thing. Haystack