SNOW IN TEXAS!!!

[ducks4you]

Here is the coop from the outside.

I used scrap pieces of plywood to block the wind and create a dryish shelter from my birds to eat underneath the coop.

 

[ducks4you]

I would HIGHLY recommend a heated dog water bowl if you keep chickens. This one is less exposed today bc of the snow drift, but when our wind chill got down to -20 degrees F AND colder, it STILL kept water in the bowl.
I wish my heated water hose worked that low.

You can see that most of the hose has melted the snow around it, BUT it's that last 7 feet that is still frozen this morning. Should thaw today bc it's going up to over 20 degrees.
Still the birds are happy!

 

[flowerbug]

@ducks4you it's strange they just don't eat the snow...

also, why can't you put up fencing to keep starlings out at night?

i don't know anything about raisin' chkns so ignore my ignorance...

 

[ducks4you]

You DON'T want your livestock to depend upon snow! You hope to expose your critters to the cold in the Fall so that your flock will grow lots of feathers and your herd will put on a good solid coat to stay warm. In the winter they consume a great many calories to maintain their health and it takes a lot of calories to heat themselves back up after consuming snow and the resultant body cooling. Think of a cool drink with ice and how you feel drinking it in July.
The purpose of proper housing is to block the wind while, at the same time, have ventilation, hence the pop door with the ramp ALWAYS open. The only time I will consider closing this door is during a blizzard, and my birds have two small ventilation holes at the top of the N and S walls of their prefab coop.
The ventilation without drafts is tricky, but it keeps their lungs healthy. Patandchickens over at BYC wrote extensively about ventilation for birds bc chickens and other fowl expire a LOT more humidity than mammals do and that humidity can get trapped in their coop, and also it can get trapped in a barn. I am fortunate that my 70+yo barn is wooden. It is between 15 and 20 degrees warmer in my barn when the horses are in their stalls. Heat gets radiated back down from the wooden loft and the hay and straw stored up above them.
Most people now build metal Morten Buildings for their horses, which creates a cold box bc a wooden building is VERY EXPENSIVE. My homeowner's insurance couldn't possibly replace my barn with the same materials for the same price as a metal one. A lot of horse owners will build wooden stalls and cover the tops with canvas to create a warm place for their horses during the cold weather. These look gorgeous in the summer (really hot unless there is ventilation and fans), but they are an icebox without wind in the winter. I have ridden in them and last went pony shopping in January and was reminded of it, yet again.

 

[baymule]

@ducks4you you have a heated water hose?? I didn't know there was such a thing. Amazed!

How about a picture of the outside of your barn? Your horses look happy in their warm barn. Our barn is metal, with 15' high openings at each end. A cab tractor can drive through it.

 

[baymule]

@canesisters have you got to go home yet?

 

[Beekissed]

I-40 at Gallimore Dairy Rd in greensboro....

View attachment 23995

7;25 update yes thats cars in the ditch on the right
I-40 Business at Mile Marker 15
View attachment 23996


i think they forgot to add brine when treating the roads.......

There's barely a sprinkling of snow on those roads! Why is everyone ditching it in that little bit of powder???? Black ice under there? Bald tires?

 

[majorcatfish]

@Beekissed you have to remember that us southerners ain’t accustom to yankee weather.

Anyway we have over 5” now and still coming down

Got run dw just informed me brownies are hot And ready.....yum

 

[ducks4you]

@ducks4you you have a heated water hose?? I didn't know there was such a thing. Amazed!

How about a picture of the outside of your barn? Your horses look happy in their warm barn. Our barn is metal, with 15' high openings at each end. A cab tractor can drive through it.

You are lucky to have a barn, PERIOD!!!
I hope to buy a tractor this year, but it has to be a small one that is short. Can't drive any tall tractor into my 70yo barn.

 

[Nyboy]

I have a heated water bottle for my rabbit. I bought a new one this fall, last years didn't look to good