Tuesday, January 01, 2019

Winter Chickens

The girls (16 hens) complain loudly and insistently when it's too cold for them to go outside. They seem to think  *I* control the weather and should be able to remedy the situation.
Bit windy....I can almost feel her cringing...up on her tip toes

 I shovel out about 1/2 of the chicken yard and put shavings down so it's warmer for them to be out and about. I hope to have 1/2 the run covered and be able to put up a wind break before next winter. We've had no frostbite yet, really cold weather is predicted for this weekend.

We have had "cold." It warmed up for several days. The warmth and the rain caused all the snow to rush off our metal roof. Not a bit of snow left on the roof.  A good share of the snow landed in big mounds in the chicken yard.

So much came down at once on the fence it broke the ties holding the link to the posts. 

When it warms up, I clean off the "poop shelf" under their roosts, and change out all the shavings in the coop. I put the shavings down in the yard, after it's all shoveled. I knew I had some work cut out for me with all the snow in the yard.....the warmth meant the frozen poop on the shelf could also be dealt with.

I opened the chicken door for them to get some air and come visit while I worked. They were not impressed.  They did, however, give us 15 eggs.

There was so MUCH snow, I couldn't make much headway. Michael came out to shovel a spot. clean the coop, the poop shelf and make the gals more comfortable. He spread shavings and they were happy to enjoy the warmth.

I worked on canning.  Together, we get it done! We're settling into a winter rhythm.

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