Please don't be mean, I already feel terrible and I promise I am providing my flock with their needs. While this is my first go at caring for chickens as an adult (we had some when I was a kid) I have done tons of research and have many near friends that have their own chickens who are lending ears and words of wisdom. My children and I spend time with our chickens everyday, spreading food to help them get exercise, handling them as they love to be held, and enjoying their company. I have two Araucanas and 6 Buff Orpingtons. In my Buffs there are 2 roosters, and the girls have yet to lay (they are late spring chickens as we wanted to hatch them ourselves and got them towards the end of summer, so I'm thinking they will start laying soon, but with the weather maybe this spring). The Araucanas are giving us more than their share with sometimes 4 eggs a day! In any case, I have not noticed anything funky with my chickens, aside from the two roosters beginning to show signs of being a rooster (big combs, tail feathers are starting to stick up and every once in a while the voice of a pubescent rooster). I pay attention to them pretty well, and I have never seen any one singled out or picked on or any odd behaviors, that is until this morning. When we went to let them out of the coop for the morning spread, one girl looked like she was being kicked from the coop. As soon as the door opened it seemed she wanted out just as bad as all the others wanted her out. We did see quite a few feathers fly, but she didn't look like she was beat up or picked on, and while they are young I have questioned molting as the feathers have been spread around the coop on a regular basis (So I almost assumed it was feathers on the ground being tossed in the air from the hurried commotion). This afternoon my husband went to check on them and say hello with a couple apple remains when he saw the same gal nestled under the coop while the rest stayed inside. He told me that he worried about the cold (it's -14 today) so he picked her up, loved her a little and set her inside the coop under the heat lamp and the flock promptly kicked her back out... and again she did not want to be in there either. So he made her a little bed of straw under the coop where she lay to keep her from getting too cold. When I came home a measly 3 hours later, she was frozen under the coop (not even laying on the straw we put out for her).
It all happened so fast that I assumed it was the temp... but looking into it, Buffs seem to do pretty well in cold - even in the negative temps... Why would she stay outside if she were freezing? and the other chickens are hanging out in the same weather (though likely not ALL day) and they are fine... actually seem to enjoy it a bit... She even had the choice of the food hut, its not heated (the water is, but not the area) however it is covered on all sides and would have been warmer without than under the coop).
I am second guessing that she just froze, and am slightly at a loss of what to do next. My daughter wants to give her a nice burial, but the ground is frozen solid. I can't risk not going deep enough and having an animal dig her up.
Darn it... For lack of a better word... this sucks.
It all happened so fast that I assumed it was the temp... but looking into it, Buffs seem to do pretty well in cold - even in the negative temps... Why would she stay outside if she were freezing? and the other chickens are hanging out in the same weather (though likely not ALL day) and they are fine... actually seem to enjoy it a bit... She even had the choice of the food hut, its not heated (the water is, but not the area) however it is covered on all sides and would have been warmer without than under the coop).
I am second guessing that she just froze, and am slightly at a loss of what to do next. My daughter wants to give her a nice burial, but the ground is frozen solid. I can't risk not going deep enough and having an animal dig her up.
Darn it... For lack of a better word... this sucks.
