While the chickens didn’t seem to get their feathers ruffled about the sub-zero temps we experienced this month, their combs paid the price. You can see Goosey’s nice comb here. Yes, it’s a little black because the dirt from the dust bath sticks to the vasoline I use to protect their delicate little red parts. Despite my frequent vasoline applications, she lost one of the points on her comb. She was a little upset the morning I noticed it, and it definitely looked sore.
There was a white bump where the point had been, and it was a little swollen. With no udder balm on the premises, I turned to the only ointment I had on hand – bacitracin. Luckily, within a couple of days a new point emerged. In the days it took for that to happen, both Chickee and Buffie had the exact same experience.
I’m happy to say that everyone’s all doctored up and quite happy again. Egg production slowed while we lived through the comb trauma. The good news – in the next 30 days our average temperature jumps to 50 degrees. Spring is on its way!
How much ventilation do you have? I’ve heard from people that it’s the ventilation you need to worry about, since if there’s moisture in the coop, that’s what causes combs to freeze.
That being said, when it got below 10, I went out and greased them up as best I could, just to be safe.
We have a fair amount of ventilation, actually. Two vents at the top – one on either side. The problem arose a couple weeks of dangerously cold temperatures – we had below zero temps with up to 30 below windchill!