Freeze-proofing the Chickens

Yesterday, upon confirming news of a bad cold-weather front hitting the area and STAYING, we decided we had to do a few things to get the chickens ready to hunker down and ride out the cold.

When we went out to feed on Sunday, we had discovered the hose and everything about our water supply had frozen. There is no permanent damage that we know of, but there isn't any easy supply of water either. Our temporary method is carting 5 of our 5-gal buckets full of warm water from the basement laundry sink out there. That gets the goats and the three chicken pens taken care of.

Yesterday, we decided that we might need to install lights for heat in all three pens, not just the hen house where our layers are. The great news is this: because we are using a "deep litter system" in the pens, the deep litter is producing heat all on its own! (ewwwwww!) It was about 15 degrees warmer in the chicken coop than it was outside.

We simply put in a layer of good, clean straw, fed them about half again as much as normal, and they were good to go.

I moved the bantams (in their chicken tractors) from the garden to a less windy place up against the south face of our brick basement. I figured the house would keep the wind down, and they are directly under one of the bathroom vents - so there'd be hot air coming out a few different times during the day. I didn't think about the fact that they are RIGHT outside mine and Jessica's window!! This morning at 5:30 AM - ER! ER! ER! ERRRRRRRRRR! A trio of bantam roosters serenaded me awake! I really love hearing them, but usually the volume is much lower from 50 ft away in the garden. YIKES.

Their water keeps freezing really quickly because it is just a 16 oz coke bottle turned upside down in a little trough thingy. I'm having to give them fresh warm water daily.

The "buzzards" as I have nicknamed the 6-wk old hatchlings, are happily pecking and pooping in the hutches that formerly belonged to our rabbits. This is a perfect housing setup for the silkies and the marans, because they have feathers down their legs and on their feet. Having them walking on any kind of litter is just GROSS. I'm absolutely positive that I have a hen and a rooster of the French Black Copper Marans! That is great news if they make it through this cold snap ok.

Also, of the 250 pullets purchased in September, I have at least one buff rooster, one barred rock rooster, and I already had one Rhode Island Red rooster. Here's the "Chicken Business Plan" for 2010: I'm going to keep 3 or 4 hens of each breed I have a rooster for, and I'm going to order roosters for the Aracaunas and Black Australorps (and the wyandottes if I don't have any). Then, Monty and I will build a small pen (or section off the big ones) so that each breed is kept separate and I'll just hatch my own pure-breed chicks. I'm sure I'll be running in and out of Jones' and buying pullets when they have a buyer fall-through, too, but I don't know that I'll buy from the hatchery much this year. My costs on this last batch was SIGNIFICANT due to losses, and feeding them for 5 months (they'll probably start selling WELL in February) costs a great deal. However, if I sell them as laying hens in February, they will be around $20 each and that will make up for that cost. We'll see how it goes.