Winter is coming...What is left on your to-do list?

[DLA]

just need to swap out the shade cloth for a queen of tarps and insulate the floor of the coop when i reset it next. and of course sweep the leaves off the roof and then into the run, eighty or ninety more times
i wish i was exaggerating, buuuut its a mast year and its a big leaf maple. so loads of leaves all bigger than my face lol

I didn't know what a mast year was and I've never seen a big leaf maple. I looked both up. Very interesting! and wow those leaves are huge!! Thanks for sharing.
I have mostly norway maple (lots of those), a couple silver maple, one sugar maple and one crimson king purple maple. the norway maple produce seeds every year and all have leaves that don't get much bigger than my hand, the rest have leaves smaller than that. I can't imagine having to clean up leaves so big. The only thing I have that gets leaves even close to that size is northern catalpa trees and even they aren't that big.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Here we go New England winter coming in quick. Mornings have been around mid 20's and the girls show their displeasure by coming out and all standing super still like a bunch of statues! I always make a little mash with their feed, oatmeal, BOSS, and warm water. I make sure everyone gets a big bite and then i wait to see how everyone reacts. Eventually everyone starts walking around and being normal. Good. As for the coop prep for winter: I wrap the coop in green house white tarp and get the winter water-ers out and plug them in. I also gather as many leaves as I can and pack those away for when the white stuff comes. Good luck everyone! I already had one mishap when I dropped my electric water-er and it cracked. I have a back up that I hope works cause not wanting to spend $50 on a new one. During winter the gals get more grubs and anything with some extra protein (gals love to molt in the winter!) pics from this morning (2 freezing hens), lol

 

[alwaystj9]

just need to swap out the shade cloth for a queen of tarps and insulate the floor of the coop when i reset it next. and of course sweep the leaves off the roof and then into the run, eighty or ninety more times
i wish i was exaggerating, buuuut its a mast year and its a big leaf maple. so loads of leaves all bigger than my face lol

So I had to look up "Mast Year".
"Every few years, some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of their fruits or nuts. The collective term for these fruits and nuts is 'mast', so we call this a mast year."
So I learned something! Not a term I have heard down here in the south. My acorn amounts seem normal but I have a bumper crop of pecans!

 

[alwaystj9]

Here we go New England winter coming in quick. Mornings have been around mid 20's and the girls show their displeasure by coming out and all standing super still like a bunch of statues! I always make a little mash with their feed, oatmeal, BOSS, and warm water. I make sure everyone gets a big bite and then i wait to see how everyone reacts. Eventually everyone starts walking around and being normal. Good. As for the coop prep for winter: I wrap the coop in green house white tarp and get the winter water-ers out and plug them in. I also gather as many leaves as I can and pack those away for when the white stuff comes. Good luck everyone! I already had one mishap when I dropped my electric water-er and it cracked. I have a back up that I hope works cause not wanting to spend $50 on a new one. During winter the gals get more grubs and anything with some extra protein (gals love to molt in the winter!) pics from this morning (2 freezing hens), lol

Sorry about the waterer!
I have often wondered why chickens moult when they do.
Maybe because they should be fat from summer forage so they have enough mass to stay warm while they swap out feathers?
I am sure there's some kind of evolutionary answer.

 

[kismit]

So I had to look up "Mast Year".
"Every few years, some species of trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of their fruits or nuts. The collective term for these fruits and nuts is 'mast', so we call this a mast year."
So I learned something! Not a term I have heard down here in the south. My acorn amounts seem normal but I have a bumper crop of pecans!

yep! this year the big leaf maple decided to show off in epic style, lol unfortunately for my arms, it did it partly on where my coop and run connect. most years leaves don't leave much outside the shade line so i'm just like...ok we need to make the slope work in our favor once we get a chance to swap tarps-so i'm running it over to the coop's roof and adding rv gutters to redirect rain away from the run while still being able to thump snow off

 

[saysfaa]

Blow and/or brush the dust out of the coop, empty the bags of leaves from last year that didn't get used. Rake up and store fewer bags of leaves than last year.

Think about building shelves in the storage end of the shed to let the chickens have that floor space too - maybe even build them.

Clean and refill the dust bath tub. Store a couple of pails of soil to add to the dust bath tub over the winter.

Block the eave vents with pool noodles, block the ridge vent with film left over from roofing last year, put the windows in, check the metal lath over the open side and the rest of the shed for any repair needs.

Build a wooden box to put insulation under the waterer, maybe up the sides of the waterer also, maybe over part of the top. And another try at adding a boiling hot water bottle to the waterer set up. I'm hoping for 24 hours before the water freezes at temps in the teens F. Or at least low 20's. The insulated bucket will go 12 hours setting directly on the cement block.

Figure out a smaller feed bowl (because fewer birds this year). And/or switch to pellets for the winter.

 

[K0k0shka]

I had to look up mast year, too Very cool indeed! I have definitely noticed some years the oaks get surrounded by a carpet of acorns. Never gave it much thought. One thing that doesn't add up though is why it would make the leaves any bigger? From what I read, mast year is about producing an abundant crop of nuts/seeds, it's not related to leaf size?

I have often wondered why chickens moult when they do.
Maybe because they should be fat from summer forage so they have enough mass to stay warm while they swap out feathers?
I am sure there's some kind of evolutionary answer.

Chickens aren't native to the US (or most other parts of the world where they are now kept), and especially cold climates, so they never really evolved to handle winter. Not as far as nature is concerned. The wild jungle fowl that got domesticated many thousands of years ago and gave rise to today's chickens lived in the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia. So they weren't meant to care about cold winters when dropping their plumage. And I bet they didn't drop it as dramatically as modern day chickens do - after all, the various wild birds of today molt, too, including cold climate birds, but they don't get naked the way chickens do - that would make them vulnerable not just to the weather, but also to predators, since it would affect their ability to fly/jump/run as well. Today's chickens are a very far cry from whatever nature intended, in lots of ways, not just plumage. They lay eggs (almost) every day for months or years at a time - something highly unnatural and totally a product of human-driven selection. In nature, a bird would only lay a handful of eggs at a time during mating season, then raise the young, and be done for the year. Humans have dramatically reshaped domesticated animals to fit their own needs. Think about sheep who don't shed/molt at all and instead their wool never stops growing, and it can overwhelm and even kill them if not shorn! The wild relatives of sheep, like bighorn sheep, don't have that problem - they shed like nature intended, and don't need to be shorn. Domesticated animals are out of sync with nature - with the surrounding nature, with their own internal nature, and no longer do what would be best for their survival. They are dependent on us.

 

[Frazzled chicken tender]

I need to figure out how to deep clean my walk in coop. Without waterlogging it as happened last time i hosed it down after spraying it with cleanser and rinsing it with waterhose.
2. scrape out old bedding from run. Replace with sand since it becomes muddy in winter
3. Level muddy areas with sand
4. Seed with rye grass
5. Build raised dirt bath area in covered run
6. Scrub ramp leading into coop

 

[K0k0shka]

I'm feeling very accomplished and almost ready for winter. I did the big (biennial) coop clean out, and also cleaned out my run for the first time in 4 years. It didn't need cleaning per se, but because I keep periodically adding more material (wood chips, dry leaves, mowed grass etc.) without ever removing any, over time it just got too high. It was time to harvest that gold for my garden! I removed the top several inches and dumped it in the garden, then laid down fresh wood chips and then a thick layer of dry leaves on top, so the run has been reset for the next 4 years! The heated waterer is plugged in, the solid door is back on the coop (I have a HC screen door for summer), and now all I have left is to wrap the run. I live in the second windiest city in the country and things really start flying around once it gets going, so my chickens definitely appreciate the wind blocks. I'll wait for the first snow forecast to close the coop windows though (I have plenty of ventilation up high as well).

My favorite run bedding! Smells like a fresh forest

 

[azurbanclucker]

I need to stock up on sunscreen and golf balls.