The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[jockeyeba]

It is so cold out today, I want to just go back to sleep and pull the covers over my head.   The thought of cleaning horse stalls is making me shiver!


urrrrrggggghhhhh.....

MB

I know the feeling! It's 41* here in Texas, I'm freezing too & I know we're not near as cold as you get in your "neck of the woods" I got an egg 2 days in a row from my 1st timer BLRW but nothing since but it's so cold here right now

 

[aoxa]

I know the feeling! It's 41* here in Texas, I'm freezing too & I know we're not near as cold as you get in your "neck of the woods"

I got an egg 2 days in a row from my 1st timer BLRW but nothing since but it's so cold here right now

It was -20F here this AM with windchill Seems better than yesterday.

 

[camilleathome]

It was -20F here this AM with windchill Seems better than yesterday.

Gotta love our cold eh? Dear god some days I hate winter lol. I love it when it starts but when we get to jan and feb I want it to end and usually once we start to see the end by march I start to relax XD

 

[jlynnet]

My Mom was from Kentucky. Her mother's name was Belva and my Mom was named Jeweldean. Those are mild compared to some other distant cousins!
I bought slip on snow cleats or my boots. No more slipping in the snow. I just have to watch little chicken feet!

 

[aoxa]

Gotta love our cold eh? Dear god some days I hate winter lol. I love it when it starts but when we get to jan and feb I want it to end and usually once we start to see the end by march I start to relax XD

Last year was amazing. Where you here last March when it was 86F (30C) one day? I was sweating! In March!

 

[JeffOeuf]

Seriously? Please recommend type of electric fence you use. We have to order one for the sheep and turkeys anyway. Keep them out of our neighbour's yard and off the street. We're fencing in 2 acres.

Just smooth wire on insulators. One 4" above the ground, another 2" above that, and another at 2'. That kept cats and raccoons out of my raised bed garden for several years. They couldn't go under or through the low wires and couldn't jump over the 6" wire without getting into the 2' wire. It does take some diligence to keep the low wire clear of grass and weeds.
I used a solar recharge energizer.

I'm planning on fencing the garden again this Spring. I took it down after a few years, because I expanded the garden and didn't have the funds or motivation to fence the larger garden. My raccoon loses were minimal, so I just let it go for a few years. The chickens are far worse than the raccoons. They got way more tomatoes from the garden than we did this past year. I'm going to fence the perimeter with 2 x 4 woven wire with a hot wire at the top to discourage perching by the chickens and keep the raccoons from climbing over. The girls will be kept out during the growing season, then next fall I'll put them in there for a few months to work the beds up....which by the way, they're doing a great job of right now. They've dug my 18" deep raised beds all the way down to the bottom. They'll start a hole, dig as long as the digging is easy, then crawl up out of the hole and do it again, filling in the first hole with the diggings from the new one!

 

[Mtn Laurel]

If you have an awesome old person name, please do share. My silkies do get named. They are productive for a long time, and I'd never eat one.

My grandmother's name was Edith Savannah. Which is why none of my children are named after their great-grandmother!

 

[Bulldogma]

we have 30 acres and my parents are my neighbors with 7. More room here.....

Oh... so we're going to start our own commune? Well if that's the case. I really don't want to move again, so I propose everyone move to southern VA where it doesn't get so stinkin' cold!!




If we try really hard, I'm sure we could all fit on these here 300 acres. LOL!

No - it's not mine... totally wish it were!!! We've been so amazingly lucky to be allowed to rent the white farmhouse on the property for a price that would make your eyes pop out of your head... because its in the middle of "Nowhere."

I am going to check the eggs later today..since I had a hatch out sometime in the wee hours this morning...I assume I can hatch out more. One is simply not enough. I will not accept one hrir. Even just three sucks. So I had better get at least two more today darn it. I sure can tell the difference in color between herotage and my strain, of course mine are also crossed with cornish so they are almost double size.

If you have an awesome old person name, please do share. My silkies do get named. They are productive for a long time, and I'd never eat one.

Milton, Etzel, Jeb, Leonard, Albert, Earl, Herbert, Alfred, Elmer, Herman, Leroy, Stanley, Lester, Edwin, Chester, Norman, Melvin, Virgil, Horace...

It is so cold out today, I want to just go back to sleep and pull the covers over my head. The thought of cleaning horse stalls is making me shiver!

MB

Awww... sending warm thoughts!

 

[aoxa]

My grandmother's name was Edith Savannah. Which is why none of my children are named after their great-grandmother!

What a great chicken name though!

BDM,
On my way over.

 

[delisha]

I am glad i am not the only one who does not name chickens. Here chick chick is as far as I go lately. The last bird that was named was blackfoot, and the DH named him so I would not eat him.

. I am still going to eat him if I get a male HRIR out of this hatching. I have two more pips. I egg topsied the blue egg. It was filled with liquid. Poor fella drowned. My humidity must have been to high for that egg. I am praying that at least the two that have externally piped are going to hatch. They are 4 days over due...that has to be some kind of record.