Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Pyxis

suki1964 wrote: »

And lay an egg for me daily

:eek: :eek::eek:

I obviously haven't thought this through!

Dizzy_Ditzy

I don't know about anyone else but I'm having a bit of a mare with my girls at the mo. They're allotment girls and as such there is no electricity and the temperature hasn't got above -2 all week and a windchill of at least -8.

I've tried everything to keep their water from freezing over. I've wrapped their water bell in bubble wrap and foil and put a child's jacket over it. I've tried ping pong balls, salt water bottle inside it and food grade glycerine and nothing is working. I've been there three times today in the snow :eek:

Their run is a wire one with a wire roof. That has three layers of tarpaulin on it and I've had to clear the snow off it several times in the last three days. Ive had to cover the sides and front of their run with plastic bags to stop the snow from getting in - the wind is swirling around there and blowing the snow in. I have to admit that I am really struggling at the mo. I'm having to walk round with flasks of hot water and a full five litre bottle of water, and salt for the roof which is doing nothing except getting blown off by the wind.

I'm probably going to have to go once more before I go to bed tonight, first light tomorrow and god knows how many times during the day tomorrow. Fortunately I'm on leave from work this week.

Two of the three are still laying though

They had a really bad moult late last year and then we have a crappy winter. The two previous winters haven't been as bad and they haven't moulted so from now on I'm using their feathered state to judge how bad the winter is going to be :rotfl:

Sorry for going on, but I know you lot will understand :A

edwink

Dizzy_Ditzy wrote: »

I don't know about anyone else but I'm having a bit of a mare with my girls at the mo. They're allotment girls and as such there is no electricity and the temperature hasn't got above -2 all week and a windchill of at least -8.
I've tried everything to keep their water from freezing over. I've wrapped their water bell in bubble wrap and foil and put a child's jacket over it. I've tried ping pong balls, salt water bottle inside it and food grade glycerine and nothing is working. I've been there three times today in the snow :eek:
Their run is a wire one with a wire roof. That has three layers of tarpaulin on it and I've had to clear the snow off it several times in the last three days. Ive had to cover the sides and front of their run with plastic bags to stop the snow from getting in - the wind is swirling around there and blowing the snow in. I have to admit that I am really struggling at the mo. I'm having to walk round with flasks of hot water and a full five litre bottle of water, and salt for the roof which is doing nothing except getting blown off by the wind.
I'm probably going to have to go once more before I go to bed tonight, first light tomorrow and god knows how many times during the day tomorrow. Fortunately I'm on leave from work this week. Two of the three are still laying though
They had a really bad moult late last year and then we have a crappy winter. The two previous winters haven't been as bad and they haven't moulted so from now on I'm using their feathered state to judge how bad the winter is going to be :rotfl:
Sorry for going on, but I know you lot will understand :A

Hi Dizzy Ditzy

There is no need to apologise at all. Yes we do all understand, honest. This is what this thread is for isn't it? If you are worried about anything, have a question, health issue with any of your hens or just want to have a bit of a rant it really is not a problem. I am sure others will back me in saying that. We are a friendly bunch on here we really are.

We are having a bit of a nightmare with We the water freezer here too. We live in a rural area away from town and it is blooming freezing. It was around -4 here but add the wind to that and it was more like -8. We have been taking out hot water in watering cans for it to freeze over in no time. Their water containers are freezing up inside their hotels too. The only thing you can really do to make sure they do get some moisture/fluid inside them is to give them foods which contain moisture like sweetcorn, cucumber or grapes. That way if their water does freeze over they are at least taking in some fluids that way.

You could also give them their dried pellets in the morning with some hot water in it. By the time you get round to them at your allotment it would be still warm hopefully and when they gobble it up like hungry hens do they will be taking in liquid that way too so wouldn't have such a need to drink as much. It is mainly the dried foods that make hens stand at the drinking water bowl. So less of the dried food and more foods with moisture in them should be ok for them. There is not a lot else you can do whilst we have this freezing cold weather. Remember though that the smaller the bowl/container the quicker it will freeze. Could you put a water container inside their hut maybe on top of a hot water bottle and wrap the bottle in tin foil perhaps.

Hope that helps in some way. Weather due to warm up next week or so they say.

Edwink

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

You all look after your hens so nicely, I think I'll start clucking so that one of you can adopt me!

:think:
Would I have to live in a coop, though? :eek:

suki1964 wrote: »

And lay an egg for me daily

Yes to the living in a coop Pyxis and as suki says an egg a day too. I am sure you could manage that unless laying big girls eggs would be too much for you. Some of the egg pics that our posters have shown on here over the years have been blooming huge and some have had double yokes in them. (they were from Suki). How about becoming a Bantam hen? Their ickle eggs are small so maybe that would be a better choice of hen for you. :rotfl: We will leave you to think about it ok??

Edwink

Pyxis

edwink wrote: »

Yes to the living in a coop Pyxis and as suki says an egg a day too. I am sure you could manage that unless laying big girls eggs would be too much for you. Some of the egg pics that our posters have shown on here over the years have been blooming huge and some have had double yokes in them. (they were from Suki). How about becoming a Bantam hen? Their ickle eggs are small so maybe that would be a better choice of hen for you. :rotfl: We will leave you to think about it ok??

Edwink

Cluck cluck cluuuu-uuuck!

ali-t

Ours have all gone into hiding. It is freezing and the snow gets everywhere even though the coops are undercover. They are still laying though and we get around 5 eggs a day from 11 hens which is good. The wee silkie crosses lay tiny wee eggs and lay far more than I ever thought they would.

glad to hear everyone's hens are doing OK in these weather conditions. We are having to dig the snow away from the enclosure to get in and out every day to see them. They are just hiding in the coop and occasionally venturing out for food.

edwink

ali-t wrote: »

Ours have all gone into hiding. It is freezing and the snow gets everywhere even though the coops are undercover. They are still laying though and we get around 5 eggs a day from 11 hens which is good. The wee silkie crosses lay tiny wee eggs and lay far more than I ever thought they would.
glad to hear everyone's hens are doing OK in these weather conditions. We are having to dig the snow away from the enclosure to get in and out every day to see them. They are just hiding in the coop and occasionally venturing out for food.

Aww bless them ali-t

We are having problems with the snow too as it has been swirling around today and has covered the duck run floor and also has gone in to part of the hens coop. The tarpaulin on the roof has had to be cleared twice and some of the snow has been blown off by the wind thankfully. The poor little hens are not used to this sort of weather so some wont even stand in the snow that has wafted in to their coop. I was watching some of hens today and noticed that some of them were actually eating the snow.

I am so glad that hens can easily cope with the cold conditions. I suppose it is just as well with the sort of weather we have been having lately. Hens are very good at keeping their body heat in because they have 2 layers of feathers and it is the first inner layer that really does trap their body heat in. So I really do not think we need to worry about them getting too cold because hens are hardy perennials. Temperature wise we have been down to -6 here overnight and my girls come rushing out in the morning when their hotel door is opened up. Funny little things they are, bless them.

Our real problem here is trying to make sure they all have water to drink especially the ducks. We have a hammer up there now so every time we go up there we can break the ice, scoop it out and top the water bowl up with hot water which cools down in minutes.

Apparently some of this weather is carrying on until early next week now. So I'll give that a thumbs down as I thought Spring was around the corner.

How are everyone else and their hens getting on? Managing ok I hope in this freezing cold weather.

Take care all

Edwink

edwink

Wow I've seen it all now. I saw this article on BBC Online tonight. Aww it is so sweet. Not sure about the comment on mint sauce though. What a cutie that little lamb is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-43257371

Edwink

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

edwink wrote: »

Wow I've seen it all now. I saw this article on BBC Online tonight. Aww it is so sweet. Not sure about the comment on mint sauce though. What a cutie that little lamb is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-43257371

Edwink

Bottom left hand corner, if I recall correctly. Granddad used to do similar with small birds if they fell out of the nest in bad weather - he'd put them in a lined box on the top of his coal boiler, which I think *might* have been an Ideal - and did the same with a litter of kittens when a stray that had been living in the coalshed had an unfortunate set to with the coalman's cart and he realised upon examination that there were probably babies in there somewhere , ultimately successful, though .


If anybody's interested and into Twitter, there's a feed about a cat living on a farm in Ireland - Cat Shepherd, I think. The owner is @Zwartblesie and has a flock of Zwartbles sheep. It's not too gooey if you can deal with the making the cat the narrator, but it's more pleasant than most things online these days. She's had a lamb march into the kitchen and settle down in front of the AGA to warm up.

Dizzy_Ditzy

Finally the weather has improved and I've been able to are down the extra covers around their run and let the girls out. They were very happy to be relased from chicken prison :rotfl:

A few lessons have been learnt this week with regard to winter chicken keeping. They're getting a more solid roof this summer. It won't cure the problem of snow but it will make it easier to deal with. It will also serve to fill in the gaps around the edges where water has been getting in.

They'll get porridge more in the colder weather too. They had it for the first time on Thursday and loved it and demolished it when they had it on Friday too :rotfl: