We're still moving here. We can't see to the road which is about 100' from our front door. So much snow has fallen we can't hardly get the front door open.I did look towards my outside water hydrant by my garden,,can't see it and it's about 3' out of the ground.Our lane that was plowed out yesterday has since blown back full of snow and is a level 3' deep it's entire 100' length. I have not done chores today yet,but as the afternoon progresses sooner or later getting outside and making the rounds has to be done,and it's getting colder here. Tonight the revised temp is 14 below with winds continually gusting to 40mph plus.Windchills now revised to between 40-50 below zero. I know my adults inside the Pea Palace building will be fine,same with the 30 or so chickens inside the chickenhouse.
I have 2 outta 3 groups of younger peas that's still giving me anxiety. First my coming 2 year olds,that I locked inside a coop 2 days ago already. This coop is 16'x8' in size with 4 individual "rooms" inside it,each being 8'x4'. It is 24" off the ground I put about 15 birds each into the 2 middle compartments. It's not that old and when I open the door to get inside to feed and water,I've noticed it is warmer inside there,than outside.There is no heat lites inside these two compartments. My next group is my 2013 hatched which is outside in a 16'x12' building with a front fully enclosed pen that has a metal roof over the outside pen. The pen and building are on a concrete slab,and I put grass hay down over the concrete for these 40 or so birds. There is a perch inside large enough for everyone to sit on,but so far only my ornamental pheasants that hatched this summer uses the perch.I have 2-250 watt infared heat lites on inside this building. My last group is about 15 peachicks that hatched in Sept-Oct that are considerable smaller in size. I have 2 8'x4' pens built in one corner of my garage,both off the floor where these younger-smaller chicks are at. Garage isn't heated but they do have a 125 heat lite inside the cage.These peas I'm not too concerned about.
I prepared as best I could yesterday,making sure everyone was fed and watered good,added more hay on the floor,ect. I added the second heat lite in the building and switched out 125 watt heat bulbs for the 250 watters. Tonight will be the worst I think with the blowing and super cold air coming down from the north. It's getting closer to doing chores and I need to "do the deed".
