The Call Again Farm Journal

Last night, it was supposed to get down to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. (Since it already was that cold by 3:00 pm, I suspect it may have gotten colder.) We were worried about the chickens getting frostbite, especially since the rooster, King Louis, who already had. In "Backyard Poultry" magazine, I'd read about putting Vaseline on chickens' combs to prevent frostbite and treating the wounds of frostbite with Neosporine. So I caught King Louis, and Bob held him while I applied Neosporine to the frostbit area and Vaseline to the rest of the comb. I generally do things organically, but I will do whatever needed when an animal could suffer, hence the neosporine on the injury. I'm probably overreacting, as I tend to when a face a new problem with my poultry. My motto is "Better safe than sorry!" Anyways,we also replaced the compact florescent bulb in the chicken coop with a heat lamp bulb. Between the Vaseline, Neosporine, and the heat lamp, King Louis seemed fine this morning. We're still a little worried about them, even though it's only going down to 22 degrees Fahrenheit tonight. The chickens are so much more delicate than the turkeys. Two-Tone, one of the hens in our breeding flock, is currently molting, and has almost no feathers. Yet she goes outside every day with the rest of the turkeys. You can see why I find the chickens delicate in comparison.