My Buff Orphington rooster, ‘Rooster Cogburn’ got severe frostbite on his comb this winter. Our temperatures were -17 degrees fahrenheit at night and down in the teens inside the heated and very insulated chicken coop. I really love Buff Orphingtons because of their temperament but in this Alaskan climate, the winters are very harsh. Any rooster with a large comb like Rooster Cogburn’s tends to get some frostbite on it if temperatures get low enough and if there’s too much humidity in the air. After struggling for four years with this, I finally found a better remedy for a painful frostbitten comb.

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Frostbite is painful

I’ve used Vaseline for frostbitten combs in the past and it just seemed to seal in the cold of the frozen comb and make matters worse. I’ve read some people do nothing for frostbite on their roosters combs, but frostbite is very painful. It’s obvious it hurts them. I can’t in good conscience ignore that so I did some research and found Bag Balm. My grandfather who farmed and raised livestock used Bag Balm all the time. It was a go-to for many old timers back in the day. They used it for painful cow and goat utters and even on their own chapped skin. It’s very soothing and protects skin.

I applied the Bag Balm on Rooster Cogburn’s comb every night because it really seemed to help with the pain and protect his comb from further injury. The points on his comb did turn black and eventually fell off this past month but he didn’t get any infection and he healed up.

Severe frostbite can’t be reversed

Its always best to keep your roosters and hens inside the coop when temperatures dip below 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In our case even in the coop, our rooster got frostbite. I put a dehumidifier inside the coop to monitor humidity and a thermometer to monitor cold and I keep the coop clean with dry bedding in these situations to keep down humidity. In these colder conditions deep bedding doesn’t work for us. Poop and urine freezes so it doesn’t compost, then it begins to stink. The chickens can also hurt their feet if they land on the frozen poop wrong. I’ve found deep bedding in our climate causes more humidity inside the coop which contributes to frostbite.

When the north wind blows, which create bitter windchills, I even plug up the vents in the coop during those times. Their water and food has to stay in the coop with them. Even at 10 degrees above zero, if the wind is blowing, it could feel like -5 or -10 degrees outside and frostbite in those conditions happens in minutes.

If your chickens get frostbite on their combs, waddles or feet, it’s best to put very cold water or snow on them to help thaw and get circulation going again. Don’t rub the injury. The skin is very fragile. When feeling comes back into the extremities, it will be painful, then you can warm them up gradually.Trying to warm the extremities up too fast can cause more damage. If severe frostbite occurs, the tissue will turn white, then black and eventually fall off. Bleeding can occur as it did with my rooster if he bumped his damaged comb on anything.

In Conclusion

Luckily, my rooster didn’t suffer any ill effects other than missing part of his comb. He still dances around his girls and he’s back to his old self. Bag Balm, an age old remedy from days gone by is still the go-to for problems like this because it’s soothing and protecting. You should be able to get Bag Balm in any drugstore.