Illinois...

[cavemanrich]

LOCATION,, LOCATION,,, LOCATION,,,, I'm closer to the lake, and somewhat further north. No snow here at all, and temps only dropped to 34°F. I did take in my hanging flower baskets just as a precaution.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Currently in Ottawa. 46° and snow flurries

 

[BReeder!]

Currently in Ottawa. 46° and snow flurries

Keep it in Ottawa. Don't bring it back here with you.

 

[Faraday40]

LOCATION,, LOCATION,,, LOCATION,,,, I'm closer to the lake, and somewhat further north. No snow here at all, and temps only dropped to 34°F. I did take in my hanging flower baskets just as a precaution.

We attempted to cover our cherry bushes. Temps did drop a touch below freezing, but at least the snow didn't stick around for days. I looked up the effects of stage of cherry blossom vs temperature. At 28'F, we lose 10% of the fruit and at 25'F it's 90% of fruit loss.(for our type of cherry) It also depends how long it stays cold (a few hours vs several days).

I think the small cherry bush will be OK. It's a wait & see about the big one, but I think we'll still get some cherries there too. Perhaps our hideous-looking partial-covering attempt will have helped.

 

[Molpet]

We attempted to cover our cherry bushes. Temps did drop a touch below freezing, but at least the snow didn't stick around for days. I looked up the effects of stage of cherry blossom vs temperature. At 28'F, we lose 10% of the fruit and at 25'F it's 90% of fruit loss.(for our type of cherry) It also depends how long it stays cold (a few hours vs several days).

I think the small cherry bush will be OK. It's a wait & see about the big one, but I think we'll still get some cherries there too. Perhaps our hideous-looking partial-covering attempt will have helped.

Tonight it's supposed to be colder tonight

 

[BReeder!]

Tonight it's supposed to be colder tonight

My peach tree lost some blossoms, but most still look good. Hoping it makes it through tonight fine.

 

[BReeder!]

I beared the cold yesterday to put together a new pergola. I'm really liking it, but this cold weather is keeping us from using it yet. It is 10'x10' and the side walls fold out to extend the canopy to approx. 10'x25'. I anchored it to the patio with tapcons (thankfully because we got some gusts today). I also added some lights under the main canopy, which should look really nice at night and light up the patio sufficiently. Coupled with the addition of new replacement patio chairs (not to mention my the different BBQs), we should get some good use out of the patio.

 

[BReeder!]

I got back outside today and laid a pad of flagstone and gravel, noth of which I had on hand sitting around the yard. I put our two smokers on this to get them off the patio. As a bonus, the smoke should stay away from our sitting area now too. They look close to the fence but there's about 1.5-2ft between the back of the smokers and the fence. The pad is 4ft wide - convenient since I had 4ft landscape fabric.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

She's likely got an incubator runnin

Just one? Lol. Try three.

 

[Faraday40]

Just one? Lol. Try three.

Yes. You're right on the nose. I split this weekend's hatch into 2 incubators, so I know which chicks/ducklings/turkeys belong to whom. The Leghorn eggs came in a week ago, so I actually pulled out a 3rd incubator to start them.

I may be getting a little too good at hatching. The Leghorns were ordered for 4H by the U of I extension. I like the white eggs for teaching and candling, but because of shipping the hatch rate is usually low. Most teachers get 50% and I tend to get 70%. For some reason 23/24 eggs are developing. Very surprising. I'll have to see what they did differently this year. Perhaps a new source or delivery method.


*edit to add: I forgot about the broody serama hen. She needed something to do, so 3 eggs are under her at the moment. I plan to give her 3 turkeys, so I'll remove her eggs, put them into the incubator, and slip turkey poults in their place.