The first two weeks of December had some days for the record books. We started the month with some pretty good winds arriving from the south. While not the most fierce winds we have experienced. The wind had already knocked over my PVC pipe greenhouse a day or two after Thanksgiving. Those south winds brought in a lot of warmth and some rains. But one week after Thanksgiving (which was late in November this year), an arctic front flew in from the north and turned our weather upside down for this time of the year! You can see based on our regional weather records that our temps went from the low fifties (F) down to almost five degrees above 0!!! That's pretty darned cold around here.
Here's the local weather chart for the first two weeks of December.
| Day | Date | Hi | Lo | Wind Avg | Wind Gust |
| Sunday | 12/01/13 | 53° | 46° | 11.4 mph | 26.0 mph |
| Monday | 12/02/13 | 49.9° | 35.4° | 4.9 mph | 15.0 mph |
| Tuesday | 12/03/13 | 39.8° | 26.5° | 2.2 mph | 11.0 mph |
| Wednesday | 12/04/13 | 35.1° | 22.9° | 3.8 mph | 7.0 mph |
| Thursday | 12/05/13 | 30.3° | 15.6° | 5.1 mph | 15.0 mph |
| Friday | 12/06/13 | 27.8° | 21.5° | 8.4 mph | 18.0 mph |
| Saturday | 12/07/13 | 26.3° | 11.4° | 5.6 mph | 12.7 mph |
| Sunday | 12/08/13 | 27.4° | 5.7° | 0.6 mph | 4.6 mph |
| Monday | 12/09/13 | 27.7° | 9.3° | 1.0 mph | 4.6 mph |
| Tuesday | 12/10/13 | 34.1° | 23.4° | 0.3 mph | 3.0 mph |
| Wednesday | 12/11/13 | 42.5° | 19.5° | 1.5 mph | 8.1 mph |
| Thursday | 12/12/13 | 39.8° | 22.8° | 1.0 mph | 5.8 mph |
| Friday | 12/13/13 | 44.2° | 37.9° | 0.3 mph | 4.8 mph |
| Saturday | 12/14/13 | 41° | 33.3° | 1.2 mph | 8.1 mph |
This was quite the test for our Four Little Russian Orloffs!
I think we did almost lose them one night. We had been using a 75W red heat lamp all night with a 40W white light coming on at 4:00 a.m. each morning. But as the nights just kept getting colder, the guys thought we should, perhaps, use the 250W red heat lamp (Saturday the 7th). Well, that was just too hot inside the coop and the next night at dusk, the four girls adamantly refused to be cooped up! At 8:00 p.m. the guys changed back to the 75W bulb, but still, the girls refused to go up. Finally, at almost 11:00, I went outside in my bathrobe to try to entice the girls to go up into their coop with some mealworms. I was able to get three up there, but one, as hard as she tried, kept falling over. At that point, it was only 14F and I think she was too tired and cold to make the trek up the cold (now slippery) ramp. I had no choice but to crawl into the pen, under the coop, scoop her up and push her up the ramp. I had already been out there for 20 minutes trying to Chicken Whisper them into the coop. My fingers were starting to feel frost bitten with that achy burning. When I grabbed Orange, aka Little White Wings, to help her, she actually felt colder than my hands, so she had to just be freezing at that point! That next morning, the temps had dropped down to a little under 6F! I doubt that any of them would have survived outside that night, even huddled together.
We also think that some of the issue is the loss of ramp traction for the girls. During the cold weather, the ramp has basically turned into a slide, especially in the mornings. The skateboard grip tape isn't working in the cold. I picked up a couple of wooden yardsticks to cut up and staple onto the ramp. That new traction has been accomplished today and we will see if it helps Orange get up that ramp on her own power.
So, for the rest of this last week, I've been helping Chicken Wrangle. On Tuesday night, I ended up having to crawl into the somewhat muddy/poopy pen to chase down Red who had shooed Orange into the back corner. Of course, Red, being the feisty one, was not happy with me trying to carry her out of the pen. I ended up getting stuck as I was backing out on my elbows and my knees, firmly holding Red with both hands. I got stuck just inside the pen's door and so D grabbed my feet to help pull me out of my stuck position. Finally, got Red into the coop and had to head back in to get Orange. It was a lot easier getting out with Orange since she's not so wiggly and squirmy. But, the ground was not yet frozen for the night, and I was a bit of a mess, by that time. Friends were asking me where the YouTube of this feet pulling event could be found online. Um! Ha Ha! We don't have Night Vision Cameras for this potential Funniest Home Video :)
The rest of the nights, the three "big" girls have made it up the ramp on their own. Orange will make a half-hearted attempt to go up but seems to prefer to have me reach into the pen and either push her up the ramp or slip her into the coop's side door. What a silly little game. They all wait for us to get out there to insure that little Orange will have help, then they proceed to go to bed and wait for that day's Orange solution.
When we had the freezing temps and the wind-chill factor, we watch the girls' combs and wattles for frost bite. Nothing yet. Their wattles are fairly well protected in their neck feathers and their combs are basically just slight little red bulges on the tops of their beaks. Their feet seem to be holding up, also.
I'm really hoping that the ramp's new ruler traction does the trick. And, if the girls try to use the ramp as a slide tomorrow morning, they are in for a very rude bum thumping on the way down!
