Dealing with winter weather for chickens

Warning, another thread drift coming...

Elena Sparks wrote:
On a slightly different topic, be aware that frost bite can and will happen if you live in a colder climate. I fought it for ages and was never successful. Over time I learned to let nature do its thing. The chickens will either stick their heads under their wings and be fine, or will loose the tall parts on their comb. Unless you see infection, just leave it alone. It will turn black, die, and fall off, but it will leave the chicken stronger than before. Once the comb has lost it's spikes, it won't be as likely to be frost bitten in the future. It's kind of like natural dubbing, accept it doesn't hurt as much. Once it gets cold, the comb will numb and they won't feel it anymore.

It took me 10 years or so, but I finally figured out that the way to deal with frost bite was figured out in about the 20's.  More ventilation.  I finally built a Wood's open air coop and no more frost bite.  Frost bite occurs when there is cold combined with moisture, just as you mentioned.  Remove one or the other and frost bite, if not completely eliminated, will be diminished to  an enormous degree.  In truth, since greatly increasing the ventilation in my coops, I have had zero frost bite and we have much colder temperatures than most places in the US.

Kristine Keeney wrote:
When Texas got that nasty freeze a few years ago, many of my flock ended up with frostbite on the combs, wattles, and toes.

Kristine, if you are getting frost bite on your birds in your temperatures, I would look to the amount of ventilation you have first and foremost.  I've found that 1 sq ft of ventilation per bird is the minimum.  The important thing is to increase the ventilation as much as possible while having an area that is completely free of drafts in very cold weather.  The Woods open air coop really shines in that regard.

Trace Oswald wrote:

Kristine Keeney wrote:When Texas got that nasty freeze a few years ago, many of my flock ended up with frostbite on the combs, wattles, and toes.

Kristine, if you are getting frost bite on your birds in your temperatures, I would look to the amount of ventilation you have first and foremost.  I've found that 1 sq ft of ventilation per bird is the minimum.  The important thing is to increase the ventilation as much as possible while having an area that is completely free of drafts in very cold weather.  The Woods open air coop really shines in that regard.

Yeah. Since The Big Freeze, as it's referred to around here, I completely revamped my roosting space.
I switched to an open-to-the-air metal framework covered in my personal go-to "rabbit fencing", and tarps for protection. It's great for the warm weather and when things get colder, I throw some extra tarps up to block wind and keep the wet out.
It's worked well. No frostbite at all last winter! I also redid the roosts, so the flock is really enjoying the change.
I do treat the combs and wattles with a salve before a scheduled freeze, but that's because it gives me a great chance to look over the condition of the flock while doing something they seem to enjoy.