Chickens standing around

Chickens standing on one leg

I’ve been keeping the eight guys indoors most days lately, opening up their door only when the sun is out. They still seem little worse for the wear after weeks of roaming around in the sub-zero cold. They’ve suffered a little frostbite to the tips of their combs, likely from the severest cold nights in the coop, and there’s no sure way around that short of insulating and heating the chickenhouse (Bob said that happened even with 300 layers sharing body heat). Some days, they seem to like just standing around in the snow, even when there’s feed, warm water once or twice a day, and comfy dry litter at home. They often stand on one leg at a time, keeping the other one warm…

9 thoughts on “Chickens standing around”

  1. Odd how they like to be out, even though they have to try that much harder to stay warm.   Hope you can find a way to keep them inside at least enough to avoid the frostbite…

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  2. A few members of our flock also got a little frost bite on their combs in late December but have fully recovered in the last 2 weeks with slightly warmer weather. We did rub bag balm on the combs and it seemed to help. The thing to be careful about though is frost bitten feet, we let our birds to go out in the snow a bit in the winter but never when the temperature drops down too far.  Nice looking birds you’ve got there.

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  3. Those boys are just so beautiful!  Our big buff orpington boy has frost bite on his comb but the others do not.  We are making a run for -15 F this coming week and I hope that comb tissue is all we lose!

    Do these guys get to roost with the girls?  If they did they might be warmer at night.  It would also upset all sorts of pecking order dynamics

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  4. i guess that just goes to show how much the birds really do need and want to get out to stretch those legs. i’m so jealous. i would love to have chickens. maybe someday.

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