Our weather is certainly not as cold as yours Bigrock, but we dipped to -17 the night before last, a balmy -8 during the day. Quite the difference that 9 degrees can make. I had work to do in the chicken coops yesterday. Some methods of my keeping water thawed was not working properly, so work to do. Fixed and it is just rockin’. Today will tell the tale if a new method I have employed works or not. It involves having electricity, which I am blessed to have.
My main coop is very big, very tall I would say maybe 15 X 24. The smaller coop is about 12 X 14, about 8 feet on one end perhaps 10 feet on the other end. The roosts are on the shorter end in each coop, the coop faces north and south looking at the long side. The wind comes here generally from the north or south, now and then from west, rarely from the east, I think the mountains stop that. But the valley runs north/south. I think the ventilation in my coops is excellent. I do not ever see moisture or feel much moisture build up in the coop. I think it is because the coops are large, lots of ways to move air. The pop doors are on the west side of the coops and during the day those remain open. The smaller coop has a man door, which remains open all day long until bed time. Again, think this brings very good ventilation. The soffits on the west side of the coops are pretty much fairly closed, that is the tall side. I can see daylight at the top of the west side wall, where the door, which can be moved sideways to fully open and expose that coop, so air comes in that side, but no wind. That is the windy side, if there is the west wind. On the east side of both coops are soffits that are open for the most part. I would say that the soffits are not fully open to air, as they have a part piece of wood, I would have to go and look, but from memory (and I really don’t look up there very often), there would be about a 4 inch gap, all the way along the roofline. I will get out today and take some good pictures to show the amount of space between the roosts and the roof, so you can see how open the soffits are. This is the lea side of the barn, not much air comes in there, because of wind, whatever, call it what you will. But lots of ventilation takes place. Lots and lots. In both my coops. We have tin roof on the coops. Now and then, and this is rare, when there is snow on the roof, I have seen frozen drops of ice, like there had been condensation, but this is only on a rare occasion. Maybe four times since I have had the birds in the coops. So rare. I do not think that I have any moisture problems, whatsoever. And....I keep the birds’ waterers in the coops. All year around. I use those 5 gallon white plastic waterers that have the red bottom. I also use a most stupid-in-the-world-design of a freakin’ stupid waterer that I have ever seen. It is a two gallon waterer, a heated waterer. It works absolutely fabulous. But stupidest design I have ever seen. The waterer must be turned upside down to fill it, either by the black plugged hole in the bottom, or removing the red bottom. It is so stupid. So now you have to take this two gallon waterer, clumbsy (two gallons of water is approximately 10 pounds), and flip it upside down the right way to sit on the ground. Heavy and clumbsy. I stick a little piece of sponge in the opening where the water drains into the moat, that helps to reduce some of the water that is spilled/splashed. The stupidest design ever and I hate it. But it works, not one bit of frozen water. Eighteen birds use, in this weather about 2 gallons of water a day. Well, my birds do. The other two coops have different systems, making improvements there.
My floors are earthen. I think this also helps to reduce moisture. Could be wrong, but don’t think so. The bedding I use is a combination of shavings, some straw, not too much, I find that awful to use, about 1 to 10 with straw use, but I do use it because the chickens like it, and now using spelt hulls, which I think are fabulous. I also add some peat, now and then, but that is not a big priority to me, but I do add it only when I think about it. With this method, I clean my chicken houses two times per year, and the houses are not smelly. No. Not one little bit.
Oh guess, to respond to the question of the topic of the thread. My birds do not get frostbite that I have noticed, for the most part. I have single combed birds. Buff orpingtons and cochins. I have NEVER once seen any frostbite on a cochin. Now the buff Orpington, male only, once or twice and it was very bad. I watch for frostbite on combs and I do not witness it. I believe 100% has to do with ventilation.
All winter my birds have the option to go outside if they want. Those pop doors are open all day and the man door in the smaller coop is open all day, closed at night at bed time, of course. If there is a west wind that is blowing really hard and it is rare, but does happen and it is scarey windy, I will close down the birds’ pop holes and the man door. West wind here is not welcome. If the west wind is just west wind that blows lightly, that is OK, but sometimes horrid west wind causes me to react.
I must add that I cannot say that maybe the birds could not or would not get frostbite. That could still happen, I just don’t know, but for now I can make the statements that I have made about no issues
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The one time that I did have awful frostbite on one of my roosters (never ever any hens with that) was my own fault, I never thought about what I had done and how it happened. This was last year. It was very cold, freezing weather and I had an open pan of water that I had given the orpingtons, it was ground level. The rooster drank and the bottoms of his wattles must have got wet and froze. At the same time, about one quarter of his comb froze too. His comb, I don’t know why, it probably did not get wet, but I think there is a correlation (this is only a guess) between heavy frostbite on the wattles, maybe is referred to the comb. I don’t know, just a thought, probably not true, but I have always wondered. The poor dude. Knowledge is power, and I have a better knowledge of open water dishes, wherein the wattles can dangle in it. Anyways, about 1/3 of the wattles of the rooster turned black, the bottom third of course. They stayed black for some time and then were red again. I had never noticed, but I imagine that black parts atrophied and fell off. The comb tips, about one quarter of them must have fallen off too, because they also turned red. I learned a very valuable lesson that winter. And it was not to have open water that is low so dangly parts go within. I wonder if the open water dish idea if it was much more high off the ground, there may not be dangly wattles in the water. I don’t know. I will not ever have open water bowls in my coops again. Even the plastic waterers are about 12 inches off the ground, somewhat below head level still, but it seems to work.
That is my experience with how to prevent frostbite on combs and wattles. This works for my area, and it may well not work for others’ areas. There are places that are far much more cold than our climate, so this is just how I see and perceive how things go here. Hope this may give some insight. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.
