lol, I've gotten the same egg count for the last 3 days...Basswood is what carvers make high end duck decoys out of. It is a very straight grained soft wood. I do not think it is a good burning wood. Worse than Popple even. Crazy you should check Ebay for basswood blocks, the size and the price. A few years ago it was good priced. You may not want to burn it.
I am glad you got the widowmaker down without making any widows Kloppers..
I think I have the water fixed. I did them two different ways.
For the turkeys I wrapped "heat tape" around the cups. I then covered them with duct tape and BC's shiny silver stuff. I have a submersible heater in the barrel, and the barrel sits on a heater. I wrapped the entire barrel in a double layer of that silvery stuff. When I checked just before coming in 2 out of three cups were thawed out, BUT it is only 30 degree here too.
For the chickens I gave in and put the barrel inside the coop. I put a heat pan inside the 55 gal. barrel on the floor. I then put the 35 gal barrel inside the 55 gal barrel on top of the heater pan. I put a submersible heater inside the 35 gal barrel. Wrapped the barrel in the shiny stuff again , Twice. I had to take the drinking cups off the 35 gal barrel to get it inside the 55 gal barrel. I made a opening just large enough for the cups to poke through, and screwed the drinking cups back on from outside the 55 gal barrel.
No pictures my cell phone was in the house.
I gave the CX's a new shiny 8 gal steel fount on a heated base, I got at fleetfarm in Cambridge today.
I gave the 3 gallon heated fount to the creamettes incase their barrel freezes up, but theirs was good this AM even.as cold as it was. Theirs is inside the cafeteria I built them. Creamettes need to be spoiled if you are to get a diamond encrusted egg from them.
I filled everything with water and feed so the DW will not have to while I am off having adventures in babysitting the next couple days.
Speaking of eggs, here is my egg totals from each group of birds:
Creamettes----- 0
Layers----------- 0
CX's---------- 0
British gals------ 0
So as you can see I have all my hens producing at the same level now! A goal many aim for, but no one hits. I am special!
Half the turkeys went into the roosting house on their own tonight. Had I not been filling their feeder at roosting time I bet all but 3-4 would have went inside. I scared some out when I went in.
The guineas are spending the night outside. That shiny silver water tank is way too scary to risk going into the same building it is in.

That didn't take long, I imagine you rode that bike probably less than 2 months ago...After coming in from the tree and watching a somewhat disappointing first half of the Vikings game I went out to winterize my motorcycle. I put stabilizer in the gas and fired it up to let it draw it into the carbs and corn kernels come shooting out of the exhaust! Those darn mice!!!
You could get some of those rubber leg rings to put on her leg or the other girls leg to tell them apart maybe?This photo is of Gloria my Leghorn. I snuck in at roosting time and nabbed her off the roost to check her over for general health. She is under heavy feather growth as you can see... look at all those pins! I am glad she wont be naked anymore on the back, but that is how i distinguished her from the other leghorns
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Oh no! that is terrible! before she started scratching, did she (they) shake their head quite a bit?This poor girl I'm not sure what to do about her first it was her ears and now it's her eyes. I noticed yesterday she was scratching her eyes quite a bit. Then today when I was giving them mealworms I noticed how bad her eyes were. So after they all went to roost I went and got her and brought her back into the bathroom and gave her some leftover antibiotics that I had from my dog when she had her teeth pulled. I figured the dosage should be the same since my dog only weighs 4 1/2 lbs. I hope this works otherwise I might have to put her to sleep permanently. I would hate to do that because she has always been my favorite one since the day I got them. She seems to be the only one that ever has any problems. Right eyeleft eye
antibiotics that I gave her
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Quote: Wow, I would have never guessed taking down trees was so dangerous! I'm glad you waited for a friend to help!
Quote: Oh no, that is terrible. I had one that would not eat either, for about a week. I think had she been one of my thinner hens, she may have died, but she was my heaviest biggest girl so was able to pull through. she would still drink though...