Winter is coming...What is left on your to-do list?

[DLA]

I've got most of the leaves and long needled pine that fell collected and stored that I'll use over winter in the run and coop. The hose is put away and faucet drained. All I have to do is put up the plastic snow/wind breaks but I don't usually do that till it's ready to give the first snow that will stay, we get freezing rain and/or till it is staying below freezing. I have a plug in heater that goes under my waterer so also don't need to put that out till it's colder. I just bring the waterer in overnight when it's too cold for now. I think I'm mostly done with the chicken work.

Plenty of other yard and garden cleanup/work left though.

 

[Sally PB]

We have oak trees. They shed forever. Then they drop the last of the leaves in the spring when the new leaves come out.

 

[rosemarythyme]

That's why I only rake once - after all the leaves have fallen, otherwise it's a neverending rinse and repeat

I tried that one year, but because I gather up dried leaves for storage, the leaves don't dry out on their own if I let them get too thick, so now I gather as I go until I just get tired of it. I leave about a third in place to compost down into the grass and gardens.

 

[21hens-incharge]

We have been rather warm here. I haven't put up the plastic yet.
Maybe Sunday will be a good day for that.

 

[K0k0shka]

I tried that one year, but because I gather up dried leaves for storage, the leaves don't dry out on their own if I let them get too thick, so now I gather as I go until I just get tired of it. I leave about a third in place to compost down into the grass and gardens.

I'm in an urban area and my property is the only one on our block that has any deciduous trees, so there isn't a whole lot of volume to add up... But yeah if you're somewhere more woodsy, I imagine they'd pile up thick.

 

[DLA]

I tried that one year, but because I gather up dried leaves for storage, the leaves don't dry out on their own if I let them get too thick, so now I gather as I go until I just get tired of it. I leave about a third in place to compost down into the grass and gardens.

I agree about them not drying out well if they get to thick. I use these bags to collect and store leaves etc plus empty chicken feed bags. I thought because they were inexpensive they wouldn't last but I've had them 2 seasons now and they're still like new. Saves a lot by not having to buy bedding and the chickens love getting leaves to play in especially when the weather is lousy and they don't get to go out.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I agree about them not drying out well if they get to thick. I use these bags to collect and store leaves etc plus empty chicken feed bags. I thought because they were inexpensive they wouldn't last but I've had them 2 seasons now and they're still like new. Saves a lot by not having to buy bedding and the chickens love getting leaves to play in especially when the weather is lousy and they don't get to go out.

I use paper feed bags and paper lawn waste bags. They generally last 2 seasons,d depending on if they get damp at all (either from leaves that aren't fully dry, or from water dripping into the greenhouse), are free/cheap, and are compostable afterwards.

Sometimes when it snows I get lazy and just dump a bag of leaves on the snow rather than shovel.

 

[Icie]

Although our winters are generally mild, I still have to do a little prep.
I have to reroof one of the smaller coops. I have a fraying tarp on it now (I know, I was being lazy) I noticed all the tiedowns are swinging freely in the breeze so it's past time. I usually use corrugated wood strips under tin roof panels attached with roofing nails. I think I am going to step into the modern era and use fiberglass panels and some kind of adhesive. I couldn't find the corrugated strips anywhere and had to get the local hardware to order them.
I also need to take down the poultry netting, clear off all the leaves and sticks, then put it all back up. I need to find some taller helpers...this job is a major PITA.
I will accept any advice on the poultry netting job!

When my hubby built our first coop we covered it with a tarp, and added another every year or two depending on the level of deterioration in our extreme summers in ENC. These resulted in accumulation of several layers and unfortunately the perfect air BNB for rats...I've battled them for a year now. I had a metal roof put on, hardware cloth over every possible opening larger than half inch, covered the ground with hardware cloth and put a fresh 5" layer of sand over that (best decision for bedding I ever made), AND replaced my feeder (the Rubbermaid garbage can kind with 8 PVC tubes, lol, rats climb in there too) with a treadle feeder, placed outside in the run instead of in the coop (no longer any food in the coop) (also hardware cloth that whole thing too inside and out-those suckers climb, jump, tunnel!!). Adjacent to my coop is my greenhouse where they moved in after I got them out of the coop and run. Adjacent to the greenhouse is my shed, where I think I've finally gotten them out, smh. The final act of non poisonous attack was to run a hose from my exhaust pipe into the shed... haven't found any bodies so I guess they've finally moved away. My property is surrounded by farmland and forest. I'm just giving you some things to think about because you mentioned a tarp roof, sorry this saga was so long ..but it has been

 

[tripletfeb]

Well, I already got a lot done as far as my chickens go. I got rid of all my old girls and started with 7 littles. They are now five weeks old and know how to drink out of the heated nipple water bucket, so that's good. And I bought another bucket tonight. I cleaned out their run before I put them out into it. They are off the heat lamp and love being in the run. They can use the ramp to go down but haven't figured out how to go up it back into the coop yet As far as other things, we need to clean out the landscaping and fix the chimney cap. We already got two cords of wood, cut some tree branches down that needed it, filled the garden with "black gold" and tomorrow I will be finishing my canning. Want to do apple pie filling. We will be going hunting next weekend so hopefully we can fill the freezer with more venison. Supposed to be a mild winter here in Ohio but the animals are showing different signs. So, we'll just have to wait and see

 

[kismit]

just need to swap out the shade cloth for a queen of tarps and insulate the floor of the coop when i reset it next. and of course sweep the leaves off the roof and then into the run, eighty or ninety more times
i wish i was exaggerating, buuuut its a mast year and its a big leaf maple. so loads of leaves all bigger than my face lol