BYC Café

[starbuck123]

Good morning everyone - it's very cold here in MN with windchills down to -35 F. Sorry Krista, not sure what the C is but at some point it just doesn't matter anymore! Days like this I get scared for my future chickens. Once my kids have graduated 12th grade we may move to a warmer climate. I just want them to stay in the same school system the whole way through....

Anyway, gearing up for work (working from home is a dream on days like this) with my coffee. Happy Wednesday everyone!

editing to add - great picture Scott! I feel the same way too. Not much snow or ice here but the cold is getting really old. I imagine you guys have just gotten hammered out east though?

 

[krista74]

We really are polar worlds apart aren't we.

We have now had 5 days over 100F (38C) and I am SO over it!

The poor chooks are suffering here too, albeit for the opposite reason yours are. We are running sprinklers throughout the day, and I take blocks office down to the coop to put in their water in an attempt to keep them cool.

Haven't lost any yet but it's a constant worry. Gosh, -35F? That's darn cold. I'd be worried about the chickens in that temperature too.

Do you all have indoor fireplaces there? We have the air-con running 24/7 at the moment, but I'm wondering how you manage to keep warm when it is so cold? In Winter it gets down to maybe -4 at worst here, and we don't get snow in my area. But we have a wood fire inside, and the house will still be cosy on the inside.

- Krista

 

[Mtn Margie]

Well, we have a wood stove for sure! The MN cold is much colder feeling than it is out here in CO. Our air is pretty dry ( teens humidity) and when the sun is out, it feels warm to the body. I hear frozen grapes make a great hot weather treat...

Our chickens do just fine in the cold, after all they are wearing down coats! Get some with smaller combs and make sure your coop is draft free but still has ventilation and they will be very comfortable, more so than you in the cold.

Bought more coffee beans today! It was quite a feat getting down the hill to town today as the wind overnight had created drifts in the roads on top of the ice. Not sure where the sand/ plow trucks were, but they totally missed us and I hope they find out where to go by the time this next "significant storm" (Hate it when they say that!) descends upon us in a few days.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Good morning for hot coffee. I started mine out that way. I don't drink it 7 days a week. More like 4 or 5.
Todays lows>...yup...coffee day.
I waited till 9 am to open the coops. Had to use 5 buckets of hot water to that all of the water. 2 chicken tractors and two 3 gallon buckets in the run. 1" of ice on the buckets...the 1 gallon waterers...frozen solid. Lovely.

It's gonna be one of those days where I have to run hot water out every 2 hours.

 

[3goodeggs]

We are going to be 22 this evening. I know that isn't anything to you all, but it is havoc on our fruit trees. Our plants can not handle that.
It is too warm for most things, and too cold for most everything else.
The worst part is that everything has started to bloom already because it has been such a warm winter for us.
No fruit this year.
I lose a tree every time this happens.

 

[sourland]

High of 19 today with a low of -4 tonight - real temperatures not wind chill.

Won't hurt the plants as it has been consistently cold all year, but it sure hurts my hands.

 

[3goodeggs]

One of my son's friends is in school in Wisconsin right now.
I talked to her on the phone and said that I was very proud of her for not being dead. She said she is surprised herself.
(Us Florida natives don't even handle air conditioning well.)
She said that her dorm mates give her a hard time because she can not tell the difference between 12 degrees and -12 degrees. she says when it gets so cold it hurts, it's too cold, and numbers no longer matter.

 

[scottcaddy]

We are going to be 22 this evening. I know that isn't anything to you all, but it is havoc on our fruit trees. Our plants can not handle that.
It is too warm for most things, and too cold for most everything else.
The worst part is that everything has started to bloom already because it has been such a warm winter for us.
No fruit this year.
I lose a tree every time this happens.

I was wondering about the timing of this cold spell and the budding or blooming trees. Here in central NC our tree buds are/were starting to swell up big and nice.

2 whole days below freezing and 1 night at +3
Scott

 

[sourland]

Scott, I think the fruit trees are still 'safe' as long as the buds have not opened. Hope that I am correct.

 

[3goodeggs]

I think a lot has to do with the varieties.
We have low chill stone fruits down here, if the stamens are showing we're zapped.

Our citrus can withstand 26 degrees, but not for extended lengths of time. We can spray water on them and the ice does not allow the tree to get below 32. I do not understand that.
My husband has tried to explain it to me, but I am a visual person. I need a drawing.
I mean... ice has to get colder than 32.
what happens at -32? it evaporates?

My pears are open. but they were blooming three months ago... Our weather is getting stranger and stranger.

We get sink holes open up all over the place down here after a freeze like this. The strawberry growers and the citrus growers pump so much water out of the ground, nothing is holding up the ground.
And the major developments are in the parts that are still warm enough to grow strawberries and citrus.
It can not be done safely as far north as I am.
Citrus groves used to be all the way up into southern Georgia, but things have changed.