Well guys...It's like 4 degrees with the wind, and a balmy 19 without. The sunshine is deceptive....Love playing with chicken water in extreme cold!!!
I was laying in bed last night about 11:00 and the weather said it was 10 degrees.....was worried about banties. Those chicks I got while y'all were at the fall poops.... I have a heat lamp in the center of each coop to keep water from freezing....I was thinking what I should do is go out and shove all the chickens in the north coop and add a second lamp in there. So on went all the farghing clothes ya gotta wear when it's 10 degrees out...layers and layers of stuff that is filled with so much static electricity that my hair was on end when I was done. Tromp... tromp...tromp.... out into the cold dark night....Spend half an hour jerry rigging the lamp so it doesn't fall accidently and I have a broiled chicken stand instead of a coop....another half an hour stuffing south coop chickens through pop door between coops. (Note to self: Hens do NOT like being stuffed in the middle of the night.) It was all very loud and high drama....
So everyone is ticked off, and very awake in the north coop, but I am satisfied they are not going to freeze to roosts overnight. Shut the whole deal up. Back to the house....tromp...tromp...tromp.....Peel off layers of clothes....More static electricity....finally get in bed an hour and a half later. Laying in bed. Thinking. And thinking. What if the roos fight? What if the little ones get mauled by the big ones? What if I didn't put the light up well enough and the whole contraption burns down? Maybe they were better in the coop they are used to? What about what Al said about hardening off? Who wants sissy chickens? Back on go the clothes....tromp...tromp...tromp...the hens were so glad to see me again (NOT). More like what? More stuffing and bawking....tripped over the feed and made a mess (cursing) Another hour later.....tromp...tromp...tromp....Mike kept mumbling in his sleep...something about turning off the light and going the h3ll to bed.....by the time I was done I had wasted about 3 hours and my hair was so full of electricity I could have powered a small town....
Ah.... the joys of chickens.
