Like many of you, we’ve been having unusually cold weather here on the homestead. I don’t think I can remember a November and/or December with this many days of below average cold temperatures. I am trying not to be in a bad mood over it, but these cold temperatures are testing my good nature.
Yesterday morning it was a brisk 14 degrees outside when I let the chickens out. The good news is now that the coop is insulated, it was 15 degrees warmer in there. The bad news is that 14 + 15 = still freezing. Their water was frozen solid. I dragged out the heated font I have and plugged it in for them. Today the temperature is in the mid 30s, but the wind is blowing something fierce. If I were a hen, I’d snuggle up in a nest box and pretend I was laying an egg all day long. As it is, everyone is outside in this frigid weather.
Bernie got the electric finished up and I now have electricity in both the coop and my garden shed. Yay! I know he isn’t crazy about working outside in all this cold weather, but he heads out each day and takes care of things around here. I just love that man to pieces.
I have some sad news this week. A few nights ago we lost our first chicken since they were little peeps. When I went to tuck them in the coop, I came up one short on the head count. I looked through the woods and decided to count again, just to be sure. As I was heading into the chicken run, I spotted one of the Golden Penciled Hamburgs huddled up in a corner of the run. I knew when I picked her up that she was in a bad way. I brought her in the house and Bernie wrapped a blanket around me and her, although she didn’t seem particularly cold. She was so weak that she didn’t even fight me as I checked her over. I could find nothing wrong with her – there was no blood, her vent was clean, and she had no unusual lumps or bulges. She died within an hour and 1/2.
We were very sad about losing our little hen, but we were also concerned about why she may have died. To be safe, I sterilized all water and food dishes, and sprayed the coop and run with Ozine. Due to the fact that she died so quickly after showing symptoms of being ill, we suspect it was likely some sort of poisoning. I was in the chicken run with all of the chickens at 4PM, and no one showed any signs of being ill. I fed them some scratch and everyone was eating and pecking. I went back out around 5PM to do the head count and close up the coop, and it was shortly after that I found the sick hen. She died so suddenly that poisoning does seem very likely. We do not have any type of poison out that is accessable to the chickens, but we do have many plants around here that are poisonous to chickens. These plants grow wild all over our property. Pig Weed, for example, is listed as poisonous, and heaven knows we have enough of that around here. I think most of these plants are dormant right now, but I suppose chickens could still dig up the root system. It’s hard to know. So far, no other chicken has exhibited any symptoms of being ill.
I’ve spent the majority of this weekend making gifts for my Christmas Victims. Bernie has been keeping the wood stove going and firewood stacked up in the living room. He also brought in a small refrigerator we had in storage and plugged it up in the dining room so we can free up some space in the big refrigerator for something more than cartons of eggs.
Tomorrow Bernie’s heading to Tex’s so the two of them can hook up a snow plow to the little Trail Wagon. A few years ago we bought a second hand Arctic Cat ATV and it came with a snow plow that we never used. Since we use the Trail Wagon for everything around here, Bernie decided it would be nice to put the snow plow on it. It will take a little imagination and fabrication, but I am confident he and Tex will get it hooked right up.
That’s about it from the homestead today. We’re just trying to stay busy so we don’t think about how dad gum cold it is outside. Hope you’re staying warm!
Bee Free,
Penny
Tags: chicken sudden death
I’m sorry about your chicken. You would think if a plant was poisonous to them, that they would know not to eat it.
Oh, it is so cold here right now and being as we are in Ms. we are tired of it already. LOL Although, I would love to see some snow.
Have a great day.
Thanks, Trixi. Unfortunately, chickens will eat just about anything. They are certainly more curious than any cat I ever met! I just pray that the rest of the chickens don’t get into whatever she apparently did. I really wish we knew what happened so we could try to remedy it, but I don’t guess we’ll ever find out. So far, so good with the others though.
And yes! I know exactly what you mean about being tired of winter already. We do expect SOME cold weather this time of year, but not the brutal cold we are already having. And if it’s going to be this darn cold, we might as well get some snow!
Take care,
Penny
Oh dear. Sorry to hear about your sweet chicken. Thats sad news. I guess on a more positive note….its not an illness that may have spread to others in the flock.
Cold? Yuck.
Hi Frugalmom,
I agree – I’m relieved it doesn’t appear to be anything that can spread. I am really convinced it was some sort of poisoning. Poor thing.
Today it is FINALLY warmer here – it’s 50 degrees F. right now. And it’s raining. But I guess that beats the heck out of 30 degrees – or snow!
Take care,
Penny
Hi BL, perhaps it was a spider or some other bite. Many times with chooks (Aussie slang for chickens) it is difficult to determine why they got sick, died etc.
I will swap you your cold for our heat anyday! LOL
“I will swap you your cold for our heat anyday! ”
Hey Molly – it’s a deal!! Just tell me where to send it
You absolutely could be right about the spider bite. Bernie even thought that perhaps she had kicked up a baby copper head while scratching around fallen logs. It would be unusual for them to be out this time of year, but you never know. And we have all sorts of spiders here, and plenty of them. All those feathers made it very difficult to see if anything was going on underneath them.
I am so thankful that the others haven’t gotten sick. As upset as I was at losing that little Hamburg, it was made worse with fear that it was something the others might catch. Thank heavens that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Now I’ve got another little Hamburg that’s having a very tough time laying eggs – but that’s a story for another blog entry.
A couple of years ago, if you had told me I’d be worrying myself sick today over chickens I would have laughed. They sure have a way of stealing a person’s heart
Take care – and hello to your chooks!
Penny
Im terribly sorry to hear about the hen. It breaks your heart to lose one of them. They are my girls and I love every one. We have been blasted with terrible weather this week. First 3-4inches of snow then freezing rain, then temps in the 0-12 area. There is a hard crust of ice every where. No electricity for a day. Ice/snow slid off the barn and caved in the outside coop. We had to cut the wire away. I thought my ears would fall off. We have a heater that the water sits on and it keeps it from freezing in the coop. I bought it at the feed store, it runs about $50, expensive but worth every penny. Hope that helps.
Kelly
Hi Kelly – I’m really sorry you’re having such cold weather. Is your coop ok? Could you salvage it after the roof caved in? After seeing what the North-East got hit with this past week, I really can’t complain! Freezing rain is the worst – and it’s so damaging. I hope you get thawed out soon and warm up. And I’m hope your chickens are doing ok through all of this.
I do have an electric water font for the coop, and it is working well. I really dislike it because it’s difficult to fill and tends to easily overflow from the edges. I’m making it work though. I got it at Southern States and it’s a poultry font – but I really don’t think it’s a great design. My chickens prefer drinking outside during the day, so I change out a waterer or two fairly regularly in their chicken yard to provide them with some unfrozen water.
Try to keep warm! Take care,
Penny