Maine

[Widget]

Wow! 30" in Portland!! Incredible!! But not unbelievable. I remember the wicked winter weather in Maine. Wish I had a few inches of snow here for my daughter's and I to play in.

I'll gladly send some down to you. Well once I can get out of my driveway that is.

 

[echosrevenge]

We're at about 30" here - hard to tell exactly since it's drifting so hard - and still coming HARD. Going out every hour or so to check on the chickens and goats, words cannot express how glad I am that both coop and barn are hard up against the lee side of the house...even so, it took my sister and I together nearly an hour just to shovel the 30-40 feet of path from kitchen door, to chicken coop, to goat barn. I've been clearing 8-10" drifts and new fall from the paths every hour when I go out, too. Put a bale of hay and bucket of hot water in the goat barn, ditto for chicken feeder and (smaller) pan of warm water in the coop. Gotta love my Faverolles, they have still given 6 eggs today from 13 birds and are fussing around in the shoveled paths (until the wind gusts, at least) looking for corn. Weather for our location says it won't let up really until this evening, so with the wind my husband has called in to work and we are all hunkered down inside with the wood stove blazing. It is nice to be only a few blocks from the hydropower station, though, our electricity hasn't even flickered a bit so far - not that we need it for heat or cooking, but it is nice to have the internet when you're stuck inside all day!

Very glad that my sister, her boyfriend, and my husband are all off work and around the house this weekend...our 200' driveway shovels a LOT faster with four people working on it than when it's just me alone!

 

[kinsey228]

Wow. I'm not on here for a few days, and there are hundreds of new posts! My husband decided he didn't like the regular feeders in the coop, so he made 2 really nice gravity feeders out of PVC pipe. The girls must like them, because egg production has gone up from 2-3 eggs a day from my 17 girls, to 6-7. This spring they are all getting a brand new coop, and the hubby is trying to devise a watering system for them. I am glad he is so handy ! Does anyone have a watering system that works for them? I would appreciate some ideas.

 

[buckabucka]

this is the scene from my kids bedroom window. I can not get to the coop this morning, can't get off the porch. I want to know who left the turning fork on the porch and took the shovel....can't shovel much snow with the fork. where is that darn shovel anyway????

I think whoever took the shovel should be required to clean off the porch with the fork!

 

[hoppy]

well that was not good, I went out to the coop- had to shovel a short but high drift to get inside, then go around back and shovel more, hands got really cold, so headed back to the house and just as I got inside I got so dizzy I thought I was going to pass out. thankfully the kids got me to the couch and warmed up. that would have been bad if it happened when I in the chicken run, they would not have found me or at least looked for me for a while.

 

[joanie_maine]

well that was not good, I went out to the coop- had to shovel a short but high drift to get inside, then go around back and shovel more, hands got really cold, so headed back to the house and just as I got inside I got so dizzy I thought I was going to pass out. thankfully the kids got me to the couch and warmed up. that would have been bad if it happened when I in the chicken run, they would not have found me or at least looked for me for a while.

Thank goodness you have someone there who can help, even if it's kids

I haven't attempted a trip to the barn - Ryan couldn't help me - and no one would know that he was here and needed help either.

Maine weather is never a thing to be treated lightly.

 

[Dita Von Cluck]

Hubby attempted to plow the driveway and got the truck stuck at the end of the driveway. The end of our driveway doesn't look like its going on a downhill slant anymore but because of the drifts and the plow trucks, it looks like its leveled straight across.

 

[farmerfogg]

I'll gladly send some down to you. Well once I can get out of my driveway that is.

Ok I'll wait be down here waiting.

 

[ashandvine]

I'm not sure they're "your" houdans, but both were early hatchers and very vigorous.

I have 5 healthy chicks, and one slightly weak one right now that just hatched in the brooder. In the incubator a chick just hatched with what looks like its brains exposed. Not looking good for that one.

I am their Feathery Godmother!! (I know the wand is around her somewhere...) I was about to suggest you get a snake to feed your chick culls/deaths to but aren't you ... not a fan of them? I am btw!! Anyone is welcome to bring me their snakes and let them go here.

well that was not good, I went out to the coop- had to shovel a short but high drift to get inside, then go around back and shovel more, hands got really cold, so headed back to the house and just as I got inside I got so dizzy I thought I was going to pass out. thankfully the kids got me to the couch and warmed up. that would have been bad if it happened when I in the chicken run, they would not have found me or at least looked for me for a while.

Circulation issue? Sounds like Renauds of your whole body! Yikes.

Snowdrift in front of the barn doors was at the middle 42-48" at its peak. With the fields being what they are here we get drifts that are just strange. I can see grass out there; bare grass, and then not far from it a drift you can charge to ski down. Weird. The holes in the basement foundation were like straws where snow was sucked into the barn. Do chickens like to ski or sled? My SO cousin couldn't get his snowmobile out of the snow today!

 

[farmerfogg]

Wow. I'm not on here for a few days, and there are hundreds of new posts! My husband decided he didn't like the regular feeders in the coop, so he made 2 really nice gravity feeders out of PVC pipe. The girls must like them, because egg production has gone up from 2-3 eggs a day from my 17 girls, to 6-7. This spring they are all getting a brand new coop, and the hubby is trying to devise a watering system for them. I am glad he is so handy ! Does anyone have a watering system that works for them? I would appreciate some ideas.

I'm getting a new coop this spring too. Plus were getting a 10x10x6 dog run that we'll cover. I'm going to use a 5 gallon covered bucket with chicken nipples for my waterer. Ive seen that it works real well. I'm sure I'll have to use something different in the winter months. I saw that amazon sells the nipples.