Winter is here!!! PIC HEAVY

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

WOW!!!


I can't wait to live somewhere where there is snow!!!

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Quote:
thats what i said until i had my first season of cold wet socks that never seem to dry

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

BBrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! We might get snow this weekend...not ready for it yet!!

Hey, I see a peahen in the rafters with your chickens. I didn't know you could keep peacocks with chickens.

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
A number of my birds came from a guy that lives about 35 miles south of here who is planning on moving to southern MN and couldn't take all the birds. He keeps chickens, turkeys, guineas and peafowl all together. The EE hen next to the peachick brooded peafowl and turkeys this last spring. I have one of the peachicks and two of the turkeys she brooded. The peachick...actually a juvenile peacock from what I can tell still spends every night with her. I keep 6 turkeys, 3 peafowl and 5 chickens together in the same coop and run. Everyone is happy, healthy eating, pooping and thriving just fine. I guess we don't have blackhead here. I'll be building two 12x12 runs this spring for breeding the turkeys. BTW...it's supposed to get down to 10 degrees tomorrow night so I put out the water heater tonight. Everyone was really POed that I was messing in the coop after dark. I got cussed out a bunch by everyone in the coop before I locked them down. I don't get home until right at dark and everyone was roosting when I went in there.

here are a couple links to video on Youtube from the guy I got these birds from. You can see the EE with her peachicks and poults as well as his coop in the winter. I did take the turkey he called Evil B$#@^&D...

He is great with me. Never a problem. He is the Tom on the roost in my OP. The videos are actually quite funny.

I'm the guy he is talking about starting at 7:30 minutes. I'm really not that scary....

His turkey's throw albinos...so I'm hoping I will have an interesting hatch this next spring.

 

[RioLindoAz]

I've never experienced snow...

 

[3chimama]

I enjoyed your pictures. ;D

 

[Weedchick]

We had our first real snow yesterday, about 4" when I went out to open the coop. I took my camera since this is the girls first winter and I thought their reactions might be funny. Our fearless roo, Russell Crowww, was the first to look out. And he just kept looking, until one of the campines squeezed past then tried to make a hasty u-turn. Russell and Sunny then both had their heads out and looked deeply into each others eyes ( darn! missed that pic!) as if to say "We're not in Kansas anymore Dorothy" . I went in and did some gentle persuading to get them all out. Today they are like old hands at it, but it's a little wet coming down and they go back inside when it starts coming down a little thicker. Supposed to get super cold this weekend, subzero in the outlying areas (that's us). Got everything buttoned up and ready for it so go ahead, bring winter on! Wish I knew how to add a pic...

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
To start. To everyone who has not experienced much snow or no snow. The romance wears off pretty quick. Okay, it wasn't quick for me, but the winters of 1995-1997 were really bad here. Tons and I mean TONS of snow 130 inches plus and temps down to -56F without wind chill pretty much took the wind out of my sails and brought the reality of BAD winters home for me. Everything died in the woods. There was less of everything for a few years. The deer took a really bad hit. 50% mortality the first winter (95-96)with another 25% mortality the second winter (96-97). A bit of snow now and then is great, but when you get the bad winters with a vengeance it's pretty brutal. Luckily we get very few winters like those here but lows of -20 to -30F are pretty normal for a couple weeks at least. November is Okay, but January and February in a normal winter here can be rough. Sometimes we get really bad storms in March and April...even into May sometimes. In the spring of 1996 I saw snow under the pines north of here in early June. What I'm saying is the EVERYHTING takes 2-3 times to accomplish when it get really cold out.

Now on to how the chickens are doing. They have completely acclimated to the snow. This morning everyone, not just the turkeys were out hitting the scratch at 6:30am. All looked none the worse for wear. Everyone's combs and head looked just fine. No frostbite to be found. I closed up the last little leaks in the coop sides while still giving plenty of ventilation at the top of the coop. Thankfully the playhouse now coop wasn't built air tight so I have plenty of ventilation without many drafts. Tonight will be in the single digits. I'm going hunting at 5:00am so my wife will be checking on the birds early in the morning. I'm sure they will be fine. They are a lot tougher than I originally gave them credit for.

 

[Weedchick]

Oh, when I said "our first real snow" I meant of this season, not us personally. I always go into winter kicking and screaming, but once the snow has begun I switch gears mentally and enjoy the different pace. Sometimes, especially a bad winter the pace can be exhausting.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Thanks for sharing the videos. That guy is a riot! I thoroughly enjoyed them

Wish I could buy his place, sounds like paradise!

You don't sound scary except that I thought you were female (then the beard would be scary

).

We get snow here buy it's dust compared to what you get. My DH would never agree to move anywhere where the winters are so treacherous.
We still get excited when it snows here. Were lucky to get 5" and it sticks for just a few days.

You bought an eclectic bunch of birds. Glad that Mean ^$*@%(@ found a home with you too.