A Polar Vortex and Chicken Popsicle

Norwegian Jaerhon Rooster

We’re in the middle of a polar vortex that started right after last week’s blizzards, and temps are below zero. With windchill, the average Real Feel is -35F. Things seemed to be going as well as they could until last night – despite our best efforts, we now have a house rooster until it warms back up.

Somehow, this guy wedged his way deep inside the walls of their hutch from outside and got stuck, and Ken miraculously saw him and had to cut him out last night. He was still breathing but unresponsive, and parts of him were literally frozen solid – he was hard and stiff as a board, like chicken out of the freezer – we couldn’t even bend his legs at all!

Jess wrapped plastic over him to keep him dry and ran warmish water over him until he was soft again, then put him in a hotbox with a hair dryer on low for around a half hour until he seemed stably warm, then put him in a cage under a heat lamp. We were afraid to heat him up too quickly and tried our best to warm him from the chest outward.

He was comatose last night but is standing today, so hopefully that’s a good sign! We might try to catch his brother as a companion later today.

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