freezing temps Archives - Archie's Acres

Ha, the title would make a good band name. A lot of you have asked how the non-chicken residents on the farm were doing during the crazy cold weather we had here on the farm.

For starters, Archie and the cats (another good band name)) rarely go outside anymore. And when they do, it’s strictly “business” and they’re back at the door begging to come back in within a few minutes. Which was cute at first, but now, with all the furry bodies around, we have had to clean the house every couple of days. Otherwise there are furball tumbleweeds blowing across the floor, which is not cute.

The Goats, Tilly and Moose, the Livestock Dog

The pasture crew is doing pretty well, all things considered. Basically, they all just need a place to get out of the wind and snow. We have a half shelter that faces southeast (since most of the nasty weather comes from North and West) and it has several inches of pine shavings as bedding. On the nastiest days, we barely see the goats and Tilly at all.

Pancho and Lefty inside the shelter on a snowing day.

On our coldest days, they spend most of the day in the shelter keeping each other warm. Our goats are Nigerian Dwarfs and (despite what the name made us think) are very cold tolerant. This goat breed has evolved to be cold tolerant up to -40. Crazy, right?! It was cute to watch their bodies turn into little puff balls as their winter coats came in.

Tilly, our Katahdin sheep, is a hair sheep, so she doesn’t have the typical wooly body most people envision when they think of a sheep. Her breed basically exists for meat production and the need to sheer a sheep is an extra step that some farmers don’t want to take in order to process the meat. So they cut out the wool part all together, which is why we put a coat on her. Plus, she got sunburned this summer so her hair isn’t as thick as it should be. She seems to really enjoy wearing coats too. Which is adorable.

Moose, our Karakachan livestock dog, is the least concerned of anyone on the farm (humans included). He spends most of his day out of the shelter lying in the snow and keeping any eye on our frozen farm. Karakachans are originally from Bulgaria and were bred to be mountain livestock guard dogs so it’s in his genetics to be happy in cold weather. As with the chickens, plenty of fresh water and a bit of extra food has been given to everyone out in the pasture. We have a large stock tank that has a heater to make sure they always have water available. The goats and Tilly have hay in the feeder at all times and they get a mixture of livestock feed and beet pulp in the mornings and evenings.

They are always following in hope of treats.

The humans

What about us??? It takes us quite a while to get bundled up and steel ourselves against the biting cold, but depending on what we’re doing and how windy it is, it hasn’t always been too terrible. Yesterday, with the temp at about -1°F I was actually too bundled up and was sweating by the time I got back inside. Hauling 50lb bags of chicken feed and corn, 5 gallon buckets of water and hay flakes really gets the blood flowing!

The weather outside certainly is frightful!

We are in the midst of a very deep freeze here at Archie’s Acres, as is most of the country. For us, that means the highest temperature for the last 2 weeks has been a whopping 13 degrees with several days of sub-zero temps for highs. Plus, out here in the country, we get the benefit of unobstructed winds whipping across the corn fields. So keeping all the farm animals safe and happy is definitely more of a challenge lately. Especially the chickens, they are a constant worry for us.

Cold Chickens!

The chickens have been a big source of stress since the cold came. Our breeds are quite cold weather tolerant, but even with that, these temps are really crazy. We have had about 3 inches of snow on the ground since mid December and the sight of snow really weirds out most of the chickens, so only 4 of our chickens have ventured out of the coop since then. We get it, they can’t see anything to pick at, their non-white bodies in contrast with the snow makes them feel like a hawk or bald eagle target, yadda yadda yadda. Totally understandable.

A few of the girls venturing out of the coop.

However, since this horrible cold front came in, not a single bird leaves the coop. Which means there are 60+ crabby birds hanging out in a 25′ x 40′ coop all day. And since they aren’t able to free-range, they are going through food as fast as we can bring it. I’ll make them oatmeal and omelettes and give them old soups or meat scraps to warm them up every day. Yep, they love meat, they are related to dinosaurs after all. We froze tomato, cucumber, squash, watermelon and cantaloupe cubes from the end of the summer just for occasions like this, so they get a variety of nutrients all winter long. And this cold snap makes us extra happy that we did all that winter prep work.

Water, water, water

One of the main ways to keep the chickens healthy is by making sure they have lots of water. Lots and lots of fresh non-frozen (obviously) water. It may seem strange but it’s the same for humans – the air is incredibly dry and just breathing causes more water loss than normal. On an average day, these chickens drink a ton of water and it’s even worse now. We have special waterers that have heated bases; however, even they are having trouble keeping up with the cold. So, several times a day, we end up trekking out to the coop to bring fresh water and do a wellness check. So far, we have only lost one chicken in all of this. Little Chipmunk. RIP.

Carbo-loading

Another issue is food. Again, this is the same for humans in this weather. We burn more calories to maintain our body temperature in extreme weather and so do chickens. Normally, we feed cracked corn very sparingly to our chickens, preferring more protein rich food. However, corn provides lots of carbohydrates with are a good source of quickly converted energy. We have been providing food several times throughout the day and make sure they get a good dose of corn before bed. We also give them popcorn and old cereal. They loooooooove popcorn and Cheerios!

The coop itself

We do not have an insulated coop, which is pretty typical. And we won’t ever because in the summer, that insulation would turn the coop into an oven. Extreme heat is more deadly than extreme cold. Also, insulation would make ventilating the coop more difficult, and coop ventilation is very important for chicken health because all the moisture from their breathing and droppings needs to leave the coop fairly quickly. In cold weather, very moist air would collect on them if there was insufficient ventilation which would lead to their feathers being inefficient insulators. It also leaves them susceptible to frostbite. The combs and toes can be particularly tricky, especially with the roosters. A couple of our roosters have fairly large combs so we have slathered some petroleum jelly on them to help protect from the cold. So with all of that in mind, our only supplement in the coop is to put a foot deep layer of leaves, pine shavings and corn husks on the floor of the coop. Over time, this layer will breakdown and release heat through decomposing, plus it gives the chickens something to scratch through and the layer provides a bit of insulation from the cold concrete below. We have also added extra pine shavings to their nesting boxes and to the shelves where the girls prefer to sleep.

All in all, everyone is doing ok. They are certainly not happy. But they are loving all the extra treats we’ve been giving them, so morale is pretty high. Rumor has it that it’s going to be 30 this Sunday! We can’t wait! I may even wear short sleeves!

Tag: freezing temps

Cold Weather and the Mammals.