Surviving Minnesota!

[I Love Layers]

I wish a high of 30. We don't have any snow really but it is defimently staying cold

 

[Cluckies]

I'm a stay at home mom. Somehow I get everyone taken care of. Not always easy though! This will be our first winter with so many critters. Last year we just had the LGDs, goats and some chickens, and it wasn't too bad caring for them. This year will pose a bit more of a challenge with double the animals. Will take a lot longer and I will probably end up doing chores in the dark before everyone else is up. Oh well!

A head lamp is your best friend. Dark when get to work, dark when I get home. All chores will be done in the dark now for a few months.

View attachment 1179149

DS providing for the family this morning and with bragging rights.

Nice! Congrats to DS!

I'm sitting 20' up in an 80' white pine on top of a ridge in this wind. Haven't heard a shot in 5 hours. I'd rather be here than lots of places, even if I can't feel my toes.

Good luck!

Good luck to you too Holm, hope you bag a nice big buck!

 

[Cluckies]

Morning all!
Was out most of yesterday freezing and winterizing the coop. At least it wasn't raining. Placed one of those horse stall mats on the floor of the henhouse (cut to size), hopefully it is a little softer when they land off of the roost. When I'm in the run cleaning it was like, boom, boom, as they land. so this seems to help quite a bit. Put the sweet PDZ back over that to help with any moisture, then the new pine shavings. snug as a bug in a rug.

Got the heated nipple waterer out, my good old winter stand by. Even if the other one freezes, this one never has, so I like it in there if nothing else than for safety.

Was 15 degrees here in the banana belt on both of my thermometers this morning. going to be a cold winter I think. I was hoping it would be like last year. I liked that!

We'll get through though, won't we?
Do you know how much I love summer?

 

[duluthralphie]

I have made major changes today.

I moved Ed out of the PC girls and moved Knucklehead in.....

When I moved Ed out, Him and Hobbles got into a huge rooster fight.... Ed ran and hid from Hobbles. I picked Ed up and comforted him and set him back down in an open area in the barn..he ran and hid again.

When I told Judy Hobbles and Ed got into a fight she said " Poor Hobbles, its no fair, he has no feet."

When I told her Hobbles won, she refused to believe it. ED just refuses to fight back. For a large old rooster, Ed is just too gentle. He has always been that way. I am thinking he was abused at the place I got him from....

Or maybe I don't cuddle him as well as his old owner did.


I have lights on all my breeders now 15 hours a day.

 

[lvie]

Look what I found in my coop this a.m. I went out to do the work that I proposed to do in an earlier thread. When I was done digging I opened the door to let the hens come out. They all came out but the one silver pullet who was on a roost making such a fuss I went back in to see why. There was this little critter rolled up by their water. I figure it snuck in after dark last night but before I locked the door. I read what they are capable of online. Not very purty. Like the DH likes to say to me - just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

 

[MagpieDucks]

@I Love Layers How is the trombone going??

 

[Cebarmlds]

View attachment 1180486
Look what I found in my coop this a.m. I went out to do the work that I proposed to do in an earlier thread. When I was done digging I opened the door to let the hens come out. They all came out but the one silver pullet who was on a roost making such a fuss I went back in to see why. There was this little critter rolled up by their water. I figure it snuck in after dark last night but before I locked the door. I read what they are capable of online. Not very purty. Like the DH likes to say to me - just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

Creepy . All the hens are okay?

 

[duluthralphie]

Creepy . All the hens are okay?

@lvie

Creepy...is that furry ugly critter now a "dearly departed furry ugly critter?"


A few weeks ago I read on here (Somewhere) putting a bottle of salt water inside a waterer would keep it from freezing...... HOGWASH!!!

I had to plug the heater bases in today. Winter is here. I wore my insulated bibs outside for the first time this season.. makes me feel like a real farmer when i wear them.

I spent the day folding up cages and putting heated dog dishes in the individual bird cages. I also combined birds where possible.

 

[I Love Layers]

@I Love Layers How is the trombone going??

I wasn't able to. The songs we picked for christmas need 2 first trumpets since they are high.

 

[I Love Layers]

PGing went good. We only had 2 open