Cold seems to be the recurring theme with bloggers here in the upper midwest. I think today’s high was around 14, but worse than the cold was the wind at 20-25 mph. This picture shows the ice chunks that Matt breaks out of the pigs’ water each day so that he can give them fresh water.
But overall everyone is taking the cold well. I take hot water out and make a mash for the chickens and ducks. Egg production has actually picked up just a little – from 2 to 4 to now 6 a day. Still, I should be getting way more than that. But in this bitter cold I don’t hold it against them.
How many layers do you have?
Brrrrr I just love taking hot water out to thaw the top of the buckets…We have a 250 gal heated tote int he barn now which makes it soo nice. I’ve been telling the ducks all about you:):):)
wcwarren – when I first read your question I thought, well, I have my jeans…and insulated coveralls…and my down coat. You know, layers.Ha!I have close to 60 layers at last count.Patti – the poor things are really going to miss their mommy!
It’s always SO nice to see chix pix! Lovely ladies… 🙂
“wcwarren” is kind of bulky. Please call me Christian. I set up this google account specifically to be able to comment on your site, and I am still ironing out the wrinkles. I am not the most techno-saavy man on the planet; I would prefer wrenching on tractors over punching in keystrokes. I attempted to post a comment on your “Cleaning the Coop” entry a few weeks ago, but it didn’t seem to stick. It seems appropriate to repost it now:”I have two rhode island red pullets that reached laying age one month ago. So far, only one of them has taken one day off. Otherwise, we get an egg per day out of each of them.By the by, I have been reading your blog for months, and I am absolutely ecstatic. You are living life in a state that my wife and I aspire to reach, and I don’t mean the State of Iowa. We have started with a couple of free-range egg-layers, but we are green to the ways of farming. I would be very interested in learning more about the details of your chicken operation.”Well there you have it. I was and still am interested in sharing information about farming, family, and, of course, chickens.Have a blessed day, Christian
P.S. Be sure to stay layered up whilst you care for your layers!
Christian – thanks for stopping back! I was wondering what I was going to blog about this week, so I think I’ll get busy and take some pictures of our layer set up.
Juli – I will have to get some more pics of the hens up here. This time of year they are definitely the most interesting thing to photograph around here!