Negative 36 with chickens in our garage
The past couple of weeks have been interesting to say the least. Our temperatures here in Interior Alaska have gone from positive temperatures in the teens to lows of -40. While the house is hanging in there, of course, no surprise there. This place was built to last, we have lost a couple of animals and now as of today, the 5th of January, we are housing three chickens in our garage. Unfortunately two of these girls had the bad luck to start molting late Autumn. Little Ms. Toriel started molting first in late November. Chloe came right behind her in mid December. By the morning of Christmas Eve it became apparent, we had to house poor little Toriel in the garage as first and foremost she had very little feathers on her poor body. She's also lower in the pecking order which means others are picking on her and she is not allowed to share their heat. As my husband brought her in to show me it was apparent, she was on deaths doorstep. Her eyes were frozen shut, her foot looked as if it was frozen. I feared she would lose it possibly.
We placed her in our makeshift brooder, with fresh hay as a bed and a bowl of water and food, just in case she did wake up or come back to the world of the living and find herself hungry.
Lo and behold, the night of Christmas eve, I went to go check on her and there she was, standing up a and looking at me with now one eye open and had a befuddled look on her face as if to say "why am I here, and where exactly is here?"
Within the next few days she rapidly became more energetic and was able to eat, drink and poo. All good signs and even better, I ran my hand down her bare skin and thankfully, found quills there. She's growing her feathers out. Now this is all good however we definitely do not want to keep even one chicken in the garage for a long period of time but the situation was what it was. I was glad she was recovering.
A week later with more sustained temperatures in the negative teens and negative -20's suddenly Chloe looked to be in the same dire straights as poor Toriel. So inside she went, into the same makeshift brooder box. Toriel seemed to be happy now as she was obviously starting to show signs that she was lonely. That is until Chloe came to.
Chloe has been mercilessly pecking Toriel any chance she gets. Whether its to remind her who's boss, who's allowed the water, who's allowed the food, or even who is allowed to be petted at this time.
Not even a day later, another of our young ladies, Piper, was showing signs of not being able to make it through the harsh temperatures. Her's was a peculiar situation. We believe she hurt her foot a month or so ago. She's also the lowest on the pecking order as she is the only young lady that had yet to lay eggs, and the others reminded her non stop that she was not allowed to nest with them.
This worried us in Autumn but we hoped it would end once she began laying.
Unfortunately not.
So my husband brought poor Piper in, placed her near Chloe and Toriel in hopes she would "thaw out some" being next to their body heat. Even then, it was apparent that both Toriel and Chloe were not really interested in spending time next to the youngster. By the evening Piper had passed away. I was relatively sad on that one. She was a cute chicken, she loved following behind my feet like a faithful dog, and I kept predicting that one of these days she would get hurt doing that. I'm willing to bet that might have happened but it's hard to say.
RIP Poor little Piper. You were a cutie.
Our most recent addition to what my husband has now coined "the sanctuary" is Pot Pie. Oddly enough, she IS NOT molting however she is pretty low on the pecking order. We have noticed she's not allowed to hang out with the other ladies on the roost where it is warmer. Instead she has been repeatedly stuck on the bottom.
When my husband brought this poor baby in, she was just about dead. Lethargic, unwilling to move, barely breathing. I checked on her throughout the day thinking "oh no, this will be the next one to die". By the end of the day she was still alive and her breathing had become more regular.
I will say through all of this, chickens were completely new to me. Prior to us owning chickens the closest I had been to a chicken was when I visited a friends house to buy eggs. Now I've become more familiar with them and I'm able to spot what is normal and what is not. I'm just sad we've lost some chickens in the process of learning this.
As of today, Pot Pie, Chloe and Toriel are stuck together in a small makeshift brooder box that is meant more for baby chicks than it is a bunch of adult hens. I know that soon they will be getting frustrated and not exactly liking their situation which I fear might cause them to pick on each other more. Currently we anxiously watch the temperatures in hopes that the cold streak will break, and that we'll move back into positive temperatures. I'm not certain if this is really ever going to happen soon as we're now in the time of the year when we expect -20s, -30s, -40s and even -50s.
If we could even move one or two of them back some of that frustration might be alleviated, but that is a big might.
Chickens are incredibly social animals. They have a strong pecking order, very strong personalities that are easy to spot when you start watching them. Its pretty bad luck that we had two of the lower end hens and one higher up hen succumb to molting and cold. Oh well, the situation is what it is.
Such is life on a homestead with animals. Life and death constantly surround you and you never can really tell which it will be on any given day.
We placed her in our makeshift brooder, with fresh hay as a bed and a bowl of water and food, just in case she did wake up or come back to the world of the living and find herself hungry.
Lo and behold, the night of Christmas eve, I went to go check on her and there she was, standing up a and looking at me with now one eye open and had a befuddled look on her face as if to say "why am I here, and where exactly is here?"
Within the next few days she rapidly became more energetic and was able to eat, drink and poo. All good signs and even better, I ran my hand down her bare skin and thankfully, found quills there. She's growing her feathers out. Now this is all good however we definitely do not want to keep even one chicken in the garage for a long period of time but the situation was what it was. I was glad she was recovering.
A week later with more sustained temperatures in the negative teens and negative -20's suddenly Chloe looked to be in the same dire straights as poor Toriel. So inside she went, into the same makeshift brooder box. Toriel seemed to be happy now as she was obviously starting to show signs that she was lonely. That is until Chloe came to.
Chloe has been mercilessly pecking Toriel any chance she gets. Whether its to remind her who's boss, who's allowed the water, who's allowed the food, or even who is allowed to be petted at this time.
Not even a day later, another of our young ladies, Piper, was showing signs of not being able to make it through the harsh temperatures. Her's was a peculiar situation. We believe she hurt her foot a month or so ago. She's also the lowest on the pecking order as she is the only young lady that had yet to lay eggs, and the others reminded her non stop that she was not allowed to nest with them.
This worried us in Autumn but we hoped it would end once she began laying.
Unfortunately not.
So my husband brought poor Piper in, placed her near Chloe and Toriel in hopes she would "thaw out some" being next to their body heat. Even then, it was apparent that both Toriel and Chloe were not really interested in spending time next to the youngster. By the evening Piper had passed away. I was relatively sad on that one. She was a cute chicken, she loved following behind my feet like a faithful dog, and I kept predicting that one of these days she would get hurt doing that. I'm willing to bet that might have happened but it's hard to say.
RIP Poor little Piper. You were a cutie.
Our most recent addition to what my husband has now coined "the sanctuary" is Pot Pie. Oddly enough, she IS NOT molting however she is pretty low on the pecking order. We have noticed she's not allowed to hang out with the other ladies on the roost where it is warmer. Instead she has been repeatedly stuck on the bottom.
When my husband brought this poor baby in, she was just about dead. Lethargic, unwilling to move, barely breathing. I checked on her throughout the day thinking "oh no, this will be the next one to die". By the end of the day she was still alive and her breathing had become more regular.
I will say through all of this, chickens were completely new to me. Prior to us owning chickens the closest I had been to a chicken was when I visited a friends house to buy eggs. Now I've become more familiar with them and I'm able to spot what is normal and what is not. I'm just sad we've lost some chickens in the process of learning this.
As of today, Pot Pie, Chloe and Toriel are stuck together in a small makeshift brooder box that is meant more for baby chicks than it is a bunch of adult hens. I know that soon they will be getting frustrated and not exactly liking their situation which I fear might cause them to pick on each other more. Currently we anxiously watch the temperatures in hopes that the cold streak will break, and that we'll move back into positive temperatures. I'm not certain if this is really ever going to happen soon as we're now in the time of the year when we expect -20s, -30s, -40s and even -50s.
If we could even move one or two of them back some of that frustration might be alleviated, but that is a big might.
Chickens are incredibly social animals. They have a strong pecking order, very strong personalities that are easy to spot when you start watching them. Its pretty bad luck that we had two of the lower end hens and one higher up hen succumb to molting and cold. Oh well, the situation is what it is.
Such is life on a homestead with animals. Life and death constantly surround you and you never can really tell which it will be on any given day.
Please follow me at my new site Bells of the North Homestead. All future articles will be posted there where I will also have much more new content. Hope to see you soon!
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