Things melted off and I am questioning feed

[Mrs. K]

@ Kwhite634 - we try on winter here, wear it for a while, take a break, get rid of the snow, go to a bit of mud...then try winter back on again, deep snow, cold temps, wicked wind...repeat.

Southwestern SD is called the banana belt. Sometimes Mother nature gets us mixed up with North Dakota, but most of the time, we just wear it for a while and take a break.

 

[GC-Raptor]

This winter we had below freezing temps for 16 days and with the breezy days and snow not melting, the chickens stayed under the raised coop most of the day.
This time last winter we had cold a few days then a thaw, a few times. My 5 girls would forage through the straw from the weekly coop cleaning in their 500 square foot pen.
Last winter my pullets went through a 40 pound bag of feed in as little as 4 1/2 weeks.
My current bag is half empty and has lasted 3 1/2 weeks so far. Even though it's been record setting cold.
My Golden Comet hens are 21 months old now and they are laying about 8 less eggs a week than last winter.
So it could be a combination of age, fewer eggs and less exercise because of the cold spell GC