Since much of the country is experiencing the inevitable cold and freezing temps of winter, I thought I would share with our readers an experience I had a couple of years ago when Henrietta, my Buff Orpington, lost a few tips of her comb due to a case of frostbite.
2011 – 2012 had been one of the mildest winters on record at my Southwest Missouri property. One would think that with unseasonably warm weather, freezing combs would be the least of my concern, especially since I purposely chose winter-hardy chicken breeds. The problem was that the chickens hadn’t really had an opportunity to acclimate to the cold.
During the day of the incident, my flock enjoyed free-ranging in a 40°F drizzling rain and returned to the coop that evening with their feathers soaking wet. That night the temperature took a dramatic drop to 7°F! It was the moisture, added to the freezing temperature and lack of acclimation to the cold, that increased the chance of frostbite.
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| Day 1–Initial stage of frostbite… |
My daughter was the first to notice the change in Henrietta’s comb. I knew immediately what had happened and I really didn’t think there was much I could do to treat frostbite. There are a few tips offered by Gail Damerow (Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens) to minimize the possibility of frostbite including: reducing the humidity of the coop by removing damp liter, providing shelter in the form of an adequately ventilated coop, coating the combs with petroleum jelly and heating the coop (not an option for me). What I did find interesting was that Henrietta didn’t seem to be in any pain at all… She continued her daily routine of foraging, scratching and laying an occasional egg. She even allowed me to touch her injured comb without any change in her behavior.
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| 2 Weeks |
I wondered, “Do chickens even have pain receptors in their combs?” I took this question (as silly as it seemed) to the experts. eXtension is one of my favorite online sites that provides information from university based educators. The poultry section of this site includes articles, free webinars and educated answers to many questions from new and experienced chicken keepers. If you can’t find the answer to a particular concern you might have, you can “Ask an Expert” as I did. Here’s their response to my question:
The tips of chicken combs often will freeze in cold weather, generally when temps get into the single digits and below. I assume there are some pain receptors in their combs however chickens’ response to pain is different than ours. They will adapt and not dwell on the pain, unless it is particularly severe. There is no treatment that will save the tips. The frozen tissue essentially dies and will eventually fall off and not grow back. Prevention requires housing the birds so that they are not exposed to extreme low temperatures. In addition, dubbing, the process of removing some or all of the comb tissue, as required when showing Game type chickens, either removes the comb completely or removes the tips so freezing is unlikely. – James Hermes Extension Poultry Specialist Oregon State University
*This was a mind case of frostbite to a chicken’s comb. If you encounter a serious frostbite injury to the comb or involving the feet – contact a veterinary for medical advice and treatment. Henrietta ended up losing 3 tips of her large comb, but as long as she doesn’t see her reflection – I doubt if she cares. I still think she’s beautiful – with or without a comb!
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| 3 Weeks |
11 Comments
I’ve had chickens in a temporary coop because the house wasn’t finished in time for winter. The coop is covered top and sides, with some gaps on one side. However, the windy side isn’t exposed to the wind. Last winter they did just fine without heat, I live in TN. But this winter it was below freezing and so I put in a hanging heat lamp that I could direct to their perches in the corner. I set the whole thing up with a really thick extension cord but made sure that I covered and taped up the connections so that the moisture couldn’t get to them. It works fine. I don’t leave it on in the daytime if it’s above freezing because I don’t want them to become non winter proof, but they are fine with it.
Both my roosters (two year old, Red, and 7 month old, Jersey) suffered frost bite on their combs and waddles when we hit in the negative teens without windchill and negative 30’s with windchill. Red had it worse since his comb and waddles were larger then Jersey’s. Half of Red’s comb was black and almost half of his waddles. With Jersey it is all his tips of his comb, but doesn’t go lower like Red’s did, and only about 1/4 of one waddle. I saw Red was not acting right this past Sunday (about 2 weeks after the extreme cold and frostbite) so I brought him into the house and put him in the play pen. He passed away Tuesday afternoon. Could the frostbite have caused an infection or poisoning in his system somehow? Or is the timing of his death and frostbite just a coincidence?
We used a heat lamp in our hen’s coup during those extreme few days. Making sure the temp didn’t alter too extreme, (it was still 20 degrees in there in the early am) no sign of frostbite on any of our hens as of yet. We left the pen open for them to decide on their own whether to stay in or out. A tarp blocked any wind from the side, otherwise the housing for them is behind our garage (blocked by our usual winds in that direction) I think if they survived this first winter, any others will be pretty easy in the future. We live in PA. by the way.
My beige hen’s head feathers have changed color to a dirty brown during the cold weather, is this caused by stress? She also has mild comb frostbite damage, I been treating her comb with neosporin.
My Japanese bantam’s big tall comb froze on the very tips, not as much as your Henrietta’s, maybe 2 mm the three rear-most of them, those that don’t tuck down under his wing. On the morning of the discovery of this, he was moving about seemingly frantically as if to try to escape “something” in his ferret-cage, although his buddies were not chasing him. I think his comb hurt. I treated his comb with antibiotic ointment and then distracted him with his favorite food. He did not do any more frantic running around after that. We stuffed feed bags into the barn eaves and door cracks. Even though the temperature dropped more, we have not had further comb damage–yet.
I’m glad he didn’t continue acting like he was in pain! Great way to reuse the feed bags. The wind blew so hard during a snow storm this week that I had snow in the coop… I’m going to use your tip with the feed bags next time!
Thanks for all the great info, I just noticed this morning that one of my girls has pretty bad frost bite with our below zero weather we have had this past week.
I have 5 Plymouth Barred Rock chickens. It got down to – 5 the past couple of nights. These birds are big mind you. I insulated their coop pretty good. fresh bedding, no heat lamp due to the small size of their coop and keeping the water unfrozen. They have fared very well with no signs yet of frost bite. I have read also that chickens will put their head under their wing to keep warm. No doubt that’s what these birds did. Last night, I placed 3 good sized hand warmers in the small hen house. I like to think it helped.
Great tip for using the hand warmers! Thanks for sharing!
I have a couple of hens that have frostbite on their combs from the terrible cold the last few days. Some bleeding has occurred but they don’t seem to be in any distress. Thanks for the article, it is timely and helpful!
I’m glad my info and photos helped and I’m glad they don’t seem to be in much distress! Stay warm!