Maine

[lazy gardener]

One good thing about this weather:
Those of us who are getting older find that time moves faster and faster. Waiting for this weather to pass takes forever. It's like having a whole new decade added to your life!
Well, ok, I just made that up. Time is still racing, but spring does feel like a looonnng ways off right now.

Bucka, you got me rolling on the floor with that one!

Yes some of us are getting older for sure. I'm gonna try to do a lot of projects so the time will go by- I hope. There's got to be more to life this winter besides shoveling!

Suz, my kids are the same age as yours. Now doing the 24/7 grandkid thing. Yeah, there's more to life this winter than shoveling... Piles of wet boots, and snow gear, ice and more ice, shoveling snow off the green house and coop, throwing load after load of wood in the stove, hauling ashes, watching the wood pile disappear at an alarming rate, and dreaming about spring gardens.

For the first time, I took hot oatmeal out to the girls. They didn't even come down out of the loft this morning.

 

[MEMama3]

Well, yeah, the nestbox is nice and warm, Mom.

I have a GLW and a mixed breed banty hen that insist on brooding in the most extreme winter conditions, too. I usually let them do it but it is such a pain to get non-frozen water out to the chickies.

do you or anyone else have ideas for a water system for her? The broody nest box is 2' wide and 18" deep and then there is a cage that attaches in the front the same width and 1' deep. Usually I just put in a small bowl of water, but I don't want to risk spill. Any diy ideas for attaching water to the cage part? Right now the cage door is open so she can use the communal waterer in the coop, but that means the other girls can get in and lay eggs in her nest.

 

[lazy gardener]

Can you give her a heated dog bowl? They make some pretty small ones. What about attaching the water to the side of the cage with a "hose clamp" idea? Perhaps cut a circle out of a bucket with a bit larger diameter, and attach that to the wire, then set the water container down into that?

 

[suzMEchicks]

We were planning to visit 2 grandchildren in NY Thurs-Sunday but then this weather. The roads are worse in Mass and Connecticut than here if you can believe it. I have my other 2 granchildren Tues and Thursdays and work Fri,Sat,Sunday. On vaca this week!
The chicks look good today amazingly enough. I have a question about ventialtion. Everybody talks about it. My coop is a 5 by5 by 5 foot tall salt box that we built out of 2by4s and the walls are 1 inch thick boards( with battens) Has a metal roof. There is ventilation across the whole top . Six inches of open space all around the top of the coop next to the roof which over hangs the whole thing by a foot. The open part has has heavy metal mesh in it to keep critters out. In the warmer months there are 3 doors and a big window to open for ventilation. But now with the cold, I have it shut up tight. I put insulation in the top and plastic over the window. Too tight? When the temp gets in 20's , when im home, i open up the coop to air it out and let them out. I guess I write all this to ask, should I leave the top open all the time? I hate to let the heat out and lately it been soo cold.

 

[Widget]

We were planning to visit 2 grandchildren in NY Thurs-Sunday but then this weather. The roads are worse in Mass and Connecticut than here if you can believe it. I have my other 2 granchildren Tues and Thursdays and work Fri,Sat,Sunday. On vaca this week!
The chicks look good today amazingly enough. I have a question about ventialtion. Everybody talks about it. My coop is a 5 by5 by 5 foot tall salt box that we built out of 2by4s and the walls are 1 inch thick boards( with battens) Has a metal roof. There is ventilation across the whole top . Six inches of open space all around the top of the coop next to the roof which over hangs the whole thing by a foot. The open part has has heavy metal mesh in it to keep critters out. In the warmer months there are 3 doors and a big window to open for ventilation. But now with the cold, I have it shut up tight. I put insulation in the top and plastic over the window. Too tight? When the temp gets in 20's , when im home, i open up the coop to air it out and let them out. I guess I write all this to ask, should I leave the top open all the time? I hate to let the heat out and lately it been soo cold.

Humidity is the enemy. If it feels damp when you open the coop then it is sealed too tight. I know hard to tell in this weather. In any case if it were me I would keep the top open.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

We were planning to visit 2 grandchildren in NY Thurs-Sunday but then this weather. The roads are worse in Mass and Connecticut than here if you can believe it. I have my other 2 granchildren Tues and Thursdays and work Fri,Sat,Sunday. On vaca this week!
The chicks look good today amazingly enough. I have a question about ventialtion. Everybody talks about it. My coop is a 5 by5 by 5 foot tall salt box that we built out of 2by4s and the walls are 1 inch thick boards( with battens) Has a metal roof. There is ventilation across the whole top . Six inches of open space all around the top of the coop next to the roof which over hangs the whole thing by a foot. The open part has has heavy metal mesh in it to keep critters out. In the warmer months there are 3 doors and a big window to open for ventilation. But now with the cold, I have it shut up tight. I put insulation in the top and plastic over the window. Too tight? When the temp gets in 20's , when im home, i open up the coop to air it out and let them out. I guess I write all this to ask, should I leave the top open all the time? I hate to let the heat out and lately it been soo cold.

Hi Suz,

Widget is correct, humidity IS the enemy, especially in this frigid cold. You need to get that moisture out and especially at night when the birds go to roost. They create a pile of moisture just from breathing at night and that's when frostbite can occur - to much moisture with no where to go can cause frostbite on combs and wattles. Make sure you have good ventilation without drafts near their roosts. If your vents are high above the roosts I would definitely leave this open, this will allow that moist air to move up and out of the coop and therefore less risk of frostbite and respiratory issues. It also doesn't hurt to have ventilation at the bottom of the coop (preferably away from roosts) to allow that good cross ventilation for moving moisture. Comes in handy during the warm, humid summer weather too.

 

[lazy gardener]

I have the same concern: my loft is only 3.5' tall at the curved peak, so the roosts are about 15" off the floor, with a pop door under one end of the preferred roost, and vents 6" x 4" to north and south above their preferred roost. I have not closed off the vents, and have been leaving the pop door open. There's also about 1/4" air infiltration all the way around the access doors in the middle north and south. The south opens into their covered "sun space which is about an other 8'. I did not put a door on this area, so it is open on the end 2.5 x 5'. I'm thinking about closing the door off with vinyl, but that would cut the ventilation way down.

Bucka, I know you have a hoop coop that is way bigger than mine. Is yours completely closed in with vinyl? If you were me with my set up, would you have a door covered in vinyl so the whole structure is vinyl enclosed, or would you perhaps cover the door with fabric. Obviously, the fabric would allow more ventilation, but cut down on the solar gain. I get very little snow infiltration, though it did blow into the outer atrium a bit with the last storm.

 

[suzMEchicks]

I can hear someone squawking in the hen house even with all doors and windows closed. Really loud today. I'm going to let them iut for the affternoon. Unfortunately I didnt get a run built for them before the snow fell. I have a sunny area shoveled off and i put down tarp and hay and open up the doors . Sometimes they go out and sometimes they dont. The leghorns def will. The others are too chicken. Did I say that? There is a stupid hawk. I will keep a couple of the vents open and see how it goes for the next couple. They gave 5 eggs yesterday. I guess its a good sign.

 

[buckabucka]

We had -29 here last night. I was so relieved that it didn't go any lower than that! We didn't have water this morning since we are forbidden to use heat tape all night, and we have another frozen pipe that goes to the downstairs toilet. Running water is back now, although the other frozen pipe is still an issue.

DH put an ancient electric heater in the old girls coop yesterday afternoon. It has a thermostat, kind of (we're talking 30+ years old). I turned the dial down until it cycled off last night. I checked it again before bed and it was still off, 10 degrees in the coop. This morning, the coop was zero, and the heater kicked on again. I'm not going to open the pop door unless it warms up more. The upper window is always open at least half-way, since it is my only upper ventilation. It is 3 right now.

The hoop coop birds are fine, other than some frostbite here and there. I'll try to get a photo of the frostbite after lunch, Windy bay.
Lazy gardener, I have quite a bit of ventilation in the hoop coop. This is an old photo, but you can see that the end is totally covered in plastic except for the semi-circular openings up high on each end.

Last winter, I left those semi-circular sections open, but changed the set up when the rooster got badly frostbitten (he roosts on top of the dividing wall, which is the same height as these "windows"). One upper end is now covered in blanket scraps, with just a few air holes. On the other end, I hung a blanket from the second pipe in, just as a wind block, but there are also some little scraps stapled here and there. Snow comes in on that side, but just a little (it faces east, more or less). The blankets don't affect solar gain much, since the long section faces south-ish.

 

[quailtrail]

I didn't get my run built either. I have paths for them. They pretty much hang on the porch. I think they are hoping I will let them in lol!!!

I mixed the munga bean sprouts into their cooked oatmeal this am. They ate around them. I'm going to give up on these. I ran out and grabbed a bag of BOSS. Can they eat these as is, or only after sprouted??