My blog is slowly turning into a "lifestyle/fitness" blog?
I dunno.
Winter months can be brutal when you're taking care of animals who live outside.
Each year we have to prep for the winter months.
It's not something I was accustomed to doing prior to living out here.
Our chicken coop is not heated - there's a risk of fire with keeping a lamp out there - basically, the inside of their actual chicken coop is dry and warm. That's how they can make it through winter. If we put a heat lamp in there, if it fell or whatever, it could easily start a fire and the coop is far away enough from the house we likely wouldn't notice it right away.
Plus, the chickens have down feathers and are able to stay warm
We DID put in a heat lamp for a few days either last year or the year before due to FRIGID temps. Wind chills at NEGATIVE 25.
So yeah, we opted to put a lamp in there during those few days - but kept a really good eye on it.
But, our regular chores still need to get done, even if it's freezing outside.
Food scraps need to be taken out to them, the few eggs they are laying need to be gathered.
We have a heated water system out there for them, it's a metal waterer that sits on a metal pan that is warmed (we run a cord from the coop to our basement). So it keeps the water just warm enough not to freeze.
They are going through more food because of the cold. They spend energy trying to stay warm.
So I have to make sure their food is full and water is good about every 3 days. Again, not the worst in the world, but when it's freezing or raining, lugging water back and forth isn't the most fun.
I also have to carry 50lb bags of feed from the house to the coop. It's probably a couple hundred feet.
When there's two feet of snow on the ground? Not that easy!
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| Have to bundle up this time of year |
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| I'm glad I have my tall Muck Boots |
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| Steve made a path with the plow from our garage to the coop. |
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| It's kind of a far walk. |
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| Getting closer... |
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| Here's the short cut from our fenced-in area and sliding doors. I asked Steve to plow this path for me so I can make the shorter trek. |
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| Heavy ass water needs to be carried all the way to the coop. |
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| Through 2 feet of snow. |
That wasn't all that fun. It wasn't bad by any means.
But it was cold. And I was a sweaty mess.
I didn't get pics of the successful journey - I had splashed water on my pants and my gloves were wet. I wanted to get inside, washed up and in new clothes ASAP. Ugh.
Another thing I didn't capture is that after I carried the water bucket over, I then had to come back and grab the 50lb bag of chicken feed, threw that son-of-a-bitch over my shoulder, and hoofed it back to the coop, in two feet of snow.
At least it's done. I'll need to check on them again in about 2-3 days.
And I only got two eggs.
WTF.
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