We are expecting extream cold for the next few days. I usually hang large lights over my perches to prevent frost bite, but was afraid the peacocks would crowd the chickens off the perch. Since I have some tall combed brahamas and jerseys, I was worried. I started making some little hats out of sock toes to cover their combs and wattles, but my husband layghed so hard at the first one that the chicken was humilated and wouldn't come out from under the feeder. So I fixed my husband. I took the oil filled radiant heater out of the living room and put it in the chicken coop for the rest of the week. (It usually sits right next to his chair). He came in the house tonight and wanted to know where his heater was. I told him that is what happens when you laugh at chickens in hats.
Chickens are warm. I'm freezing my butt.
You know you love your chickens when.....
JYL: Tell him I said, "Bummer DUDE" I'm sorry, but I'm laughing to. Chicken Hats. Hmmmmmmm. OOP's Don't want to freeze my tousch also.
That is FUNNY with all capitals!!! Ohhh, I would love to see the chicken hats...please?????
DH will now need to wear the chicken hats! hehehe
I'm looking at 10 degrees by saturday morning and it will be the coldest it's been here in 15 years.
I'm so worried about my animals mine are all in outdoor standing pens covered in plastic. Some are in wire rabbit cages covered in tarps and my bunnys are in hutches with straw.
I have pigeon babys and my waterers will freeze tonight and for the next few nights. I don't know how often pigeons feed their young i know they need water to mix with seed when they feed them.
I'm so afraid my babys will starve or freeze to death and i'm so worried about my bantams,pigeons,doves.
I've never delt with this sort of cold and i'm really worried:(
Looks like no show for me as of this writeing:(
Oh Harm, I am worrying with you. Hope they do ok.
That is to funny comb socks. My Hubby would have laughed also.
I'm not used to that kind of cold weather here and i hope and pray everybody is going to be okay.
Harmony,
Just make sure everybody gets some hot water once or twice a day. My pigeons raised babies all winter in Michigan. As long as they are out of the wind and have a good nest bowl under them (we found out that the ones who nested in their metal food dishes lost babies to severe cold), they should be able to keep them warm. The nice thing where you are is that the cold is not sustained. It was down below 0 last night and has not gone above 15 today. Now we have winds and wind chill, but I just checked everyone and they are fine. I give them the hot water in the morning and evening, some of the pens freeze in between watering so I just knock that out and give them more.
My bantie chicks made it through fine last night and are out playing this morning.
We are expecting much lower temps by Thursday. I'll make some hot mash in the morning for the chickens that morning. As long as they get water and have food in their bellies, everyone does just fine. The heater is only for frostbite protection on my tall combs and well, a rather spoiled peacopck who is sitting right on top of the heater.
Thanks that helps alot to know your bantys made it thru the cold night. We are just not used to this weather here and it scares me.
I'm putting a light on my pigeons water so it will stay thawed and keeping my lights on my new bunnys.
Thanks again that makes me feel a whole lot better.
Spoiled Peacock LOL well we know hes keeping his butt warm LOL
Re-emphasizing the warm water thing, Har. If they are having trouble, putting something WARM in them can make a big difference...
really gotta see a sock-topped roo pic....
This message was edited Jan 13, 2009 1:02 PM
Always worked for me! Does rum constitute something warm!!Just kidding! I give mine warm water as well. My DH spoiled me this weekend and picked me up a heater base for the galvanized chicken waterers. :-) I still have to fill it daily but at least it's not frozen.
Jylgaskin, thanks for the good laugh! My newphew just asked what was so funny. My poor DH will think he has leftover spaghetti for lunch but my chickens usually get it! Hey, I make him a eggsalad sandwich...nice exchange, don't you think?!
When my bunnies are breeding when it's cold, I put an old heating pad UNDER the bottom of their box and turn it on low. They can't get to it to chew it and the light doesn't bother them. Bunnies are strange in that the mother only feeds them once or twice a day and does not stay with them to keep them warm. The weather is so undependable here we can have hard freezes and snow in MAY. If I don't need the heating pad, it's off, but I can always turn it on when I need it.
Good idea!
Maybe you can make a hat for your husband now and let the chickens laugh at him. At least he will be warmer.
I know just the hat too....hmmmmm where is that thread?????
I have one of the chicken hats. He laughs at that too.
I would think you guys in hard winter areas would trim combs and wattles to prevent frostbite. As long as the chickens can get out of the wind and their perches are at least 2" thick they should be fine. Rabbits do good in the cold as long as they are fully furred. Heat is worse on them than cold. If your chicks are sleeping under the hen rather than roosting just make sure she has a dry, warm place to nest with them. They will be fine under her. She is the one you need to protect.
I just can't bring myself to dubb combs and wattles and I think my rooster is too handsome with his to give them up anyway. I seldom have problems up here in Michigan and I'm a zone 4.
My Bantams have rose combs so it's no problem. Game cocks have to be trimmed to be shown.
This is Charlie. He was a McCrea Roundhead. The reason they call them a roundhead is because their combs are only attached at the front of their heads rather than over the top of their heads like other breeds. When they are trimmed their heads retain a round look rather than a flat look.
lol you guys are cold it is boiling over here and there are lots of bush fires one came near my house today too but the fire crews have it under control but there is nothing wrong with givin the chickens some extra tlc
Since it has turned cold, I've gotten rather lazy this pregnancy and hubby has been taking care of the birds. I just posted this over in the Ohio forum and thought you all would enjoy the laugh (image??) as well!
Woo hoo! Whopping 10 degrees here now. Started at 9, went down to 8 then back up to 9. Sun came out and up to 10.
Hubby went to his interview so I got to let the chickens out today. The kids had a 2 hour delay but I couldn't talk any of them into it. Brats! So I get on some sweats, a big tshirt, a big sweat shirt, two pairs of socks and my beanie boots. I grabbed hubby's hat and gloves and off I went. I've not tried to wear regular XL sweats recently. So I'm fighting the wind and the bit of breezing snow, being about knocked over by dogs, stormed by chickens...the baby is kicking and my pants keep rolling down. It wasn't pretty! I set them all free and got them food. Mr. nasty rooster wasn't even in the mood to attack me.
I gave up on pulling up my pants and left them rolled around my hips. Who cares?! I live in the middle of nowhere and my sweat shirt is long enough to cover the hump. All four waterers are frozen solid so they got a hot shower and are sitting in the tub for a few. Every time I pull my pants back up, the baby kicks until I pull them back down or he knocks them down. Guess the kid is gonna be feisty. LOL
Only 9 weeks to go. I'll be happy if he hangs in for the next 7. I don't want to push my luck. :)
So...how is the day going for the rest of you??
Hey Badseed i know it wasn't meant to be funny but i was giggling about the pants rolling down.
Our weather isn't that bad but its cold to me i don't know if i would survive up north. Our temp was 30 this morning and is about 40 now susposed to be down to 18 tonight.
I know that don't sound cold but we aren't use to these temps and can be unprepared for them.
Been out for the last 2 hours covering coops and putting straw in with my rabbits.
My waterers will be froze in the morning i will have 32 water cups to fill in 18 degree temps and the wind blowing.
Congratulations on the baby i know about getting tired of waiting my son was 2 weeks late and weighed almost 11 pounds. I couldn't even walk the last 2 weeks and they kept saying they were going to take him. I kept saying well what the heck are you waiting on for him to come walking out.
BTW i couldn't keep my pants or underware up i mean how do you put underware on a beach ball LOL
lol! You all crack me up. EEEkkkk, 11 pounds! Whew now that's a baby. :-)
11 pounds is not a baby! That's a toddler. LOL I'm surprised they didn't demand you have the baby earlier. They get crazy these days. I had four late, one 2 weeks early and one on time. I'm just being a whiner this time because it's been five years and it's a surprise baby. :) I also never had 50 something furry and feathered friends to take care of 200 feet from the house, during this nasty weather. LOL
Today it's -6 with a feels like -20. Brrr. Glad hubby is home. HE can play chicken and rabbit man today! And today they closed school. YAY! No kids should have to stand out in the cold for 15 minutes when it's below 10, waiting on the bus.
This extra-cold weather has made me glad that we are not having to tend chickens this winter. We're still planning on replacing the ones we had to give up when we temporarily moved out-of-state. I'm enjoying lurking here in the meantime. I was surprised how well a plain "heat-lamp" worked to keep our chicken coop warm. That was the only heat we used to keep our pair of Belgium d'Uccle's warm through the winter. We happened to already have a heat lamp (flood-light sized bulb in cheap lamp housing w/ spring clamp) which my DH mounted on the outside of the pen door before covering the pen with tarps and blankets. Shortly after we set it up the hen began laying again. On very cold nights they sat close to the "heatlamp" door where it was warmest.
Badseed (re, kids waiting on bus)
I hear ya! I drive a schoolbus. I was a bit surprised last Friday when they didn't delay school opening due to cold and many buses late. Even my new bus didn't start -- automatic choke didn't seem to work correctly -- mechanic had to open hood and manually "choke" it.
Thank goodness our principal uses the automated "parent alert" phone system -- I was 45 minutes late leaving school-- even though I got to school last Friday a half hour early. We had been told to arrive "a few minutes early" that morning to make sure that our busses were "warmed up" -- usually banned, due to mandate not to waste fuel (state can&will withhold fuel subsidies if we "idle" and those darned gps units are tattletales). I believe that there was only one family (no phone) which did not know that I was delayed.
I suppose I will need to plan on arriving an hour early next time the temp is less than 20 degrees -- Monday night is supposed to be 16 degrees. If my bus doesn't start right up, I want to be the FIRST bus the mechanic gets to, so kids don't get frostbit. On ultra-cold nights I'm usually up early anyway for some unknown reason -- I like to check that my car starts and that I don't have to hook the charger/jumper up to it.
--Mary S.
I drive a diesel truck with two big batteries but on cold nights it has to have the block heater plugged in or it will not start the next morning.
Josh, it was -10 here a couple of days ago. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr : (
lol have fun in it all the while i am here sitting in the sun by the pool rofl
So that's where you've been! Tease. We were only at 2 below here...
so you guys get snow i have never seen it fall before but i did go on a snow skiing trip in the mountains about 5 years ago that was good it was the first time i ever saw it lol and it was awesome.
Dang. I forget. Australia seems so far south it ought not be very temperate...Buzzard!
edited to add DH is watching Aussie Open Tennis even as we type...looks warm...
This message was edited Jan 18, 2009 11:16 PM
lol it is the bush fire got close to my house this year but the season isnt over so they could still get me but i doubt it they are no match for my garden hose.
Crazy that your fire season is our snow and ice season. Our conversations are always backwards. Our day/your night, blah, blah, blah. Must be one powerfull garden hose!
lol it keeps the grass green alright lmbo
Hmmm, it's not very nice to bring up green grass and sun bathing while some are making clothes for their chickens. LOL
I have to say, some of my hens had bald butts so long, a few friends thought there was something wrong with them. Thankfully, it is now grown back so they can be warm. I don't know if the rooster is slowing down or if mother nature finally kicked in.
Mary, we have the automated phone system, new this year. I think ours is messed up though! Two days this past week, it called 2 of our phones 4 times! I also subscribe to the news stations email system. Seems like they email four times a day. I'm thinking if school was closed at 8am, it's still closed at 10,12, 2...LOL
Our school's automated system has worked well except for last Friday it didn't announce a one-hour delay. I drive my DD to school so at least she wasn't waiting at the bus stop. She hung out w/ some of the Narragansett School kids-we have a vocational school so other districts send students to our school. So apparently the word didn't get out to the other districts either!
School starts at 7:35 and my DD said buses were still coming in at 9:30. Too cold for the buses to start.
Ack! That could have been bad.
They announced Thursday that we would have a 2 hour delay on Friday so we set the clocks for two hours later. I guess the winds whipped the cable lines which reset the modem so we did not have internet or phone in the morning. We started getting the girls up for school when hubby noticed the email wasn't working and reset the modem. Unfortunately, everyone was out of bed by the time we realized the schools were closed. GRRR.
I did hear that several of our buses did not start on Thursday and it was much colder on Friday.
My DD teachers had figured that school would be canceled but the administrators decided to have school. I think sometimes they just don't want to make up the days when it's cutting into summer vacation!
That's frustrating and there must have been alot of moaning from the kids having got up for nothing!
We have something here called sno go. You email or call into the TV station and they have a ticker tape running across the bottom of the screen that lists all the closings or delays.
I hope the weather turns warmer for everyone and there'll be no delays or closings! How's 75?!
School was canceled again today and it snowed a bit more.