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quirkas

How cold can the Eglu and Cube take?

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My girls ,Speckledys in the cube, Pekins in the Eglu seem to managing fine. Runs covered over at the sides and top, not the front, with clear plastic, houses stuffed with straw. Pekins apparently (according to them) don't do snow so I have built a barracade in the run for them to jump around on and they seem quite happy. Big girls are fine and stay outside in the run all day, pottering. I am very aware of the extra threat from Foxes so they only come out for a few hours when I am there and chopping wood etc. outside.

 

My fear is that the houses being plastic will get brittle in the cold and split or snap. The top of the cube will not slide as it is iced up and I am reluctant to force it all, waiting for the sun to melt the ice, have to poo pick through the nest box. What do others think?

 

Quirkas

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I can't really offer any great advice, as we have only been keeping chickens for about 6 months - although ours is frozen up and I can't get access to the roosting bars for a clean.

Our cube hasn't shown any signing or cracking or being brittle yet and I think we have had a -18 here last week.

 

By the way, if you reach through the nest box to try and move some frozen poo and it doesn't work, or your arms aren't long enough - try using a small cane to poke the poo into the tray - I call it "Poo Snooker". :dance:

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I have an old cotton rug draped over the cube roof and that has stopped the roof freezing up in the last couple of weeks, although I'm sure it won't work if the rug gets saturated with rain/snow. At the moment the rug is frozen but the cube is not. The poo trays have frozen (impossible to get dry after cleaning!) and I use an ice s"Ooops, word censored!"er to knock the poo off the roosting bars and then wash the s"Ooops, word censored!"er in the snow after! Longing to get back to normal weather.....

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I don't give mine hotties or blankets - they are wearing first class duvets every night. Up until this past two weeks, when snow started blowing in through the doorway, I haven't shut the Cube door either. I bring in their water if a freeze is forcast but that's about it usually. One of mine has now started a bit of a moult too - bad timing!!

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