Chicken Coop News

Today was rather cold, and the issue of keeping the water from freezing came to the surface again. Esmeralda's water was frozen solid when Wendy & Matt arrived this morning, and in the coop there was slush around the edges of the water container when Keith arrived. Temperature was just on the edge last night in the coop, and it stayed ok until the chicken door was opened this morning and the cold air could rush in. By the time I got to it the thing was stuck and frozen and had to come inside to get thawed. So it seems that we need everyone to be vigilant when it is this cold. Having people drop by several times a day is what is keeping our girls (and Pete, who is still with us) happy. Thank you particularly to Matt & Wendy & Frank & Keith Jr, who are here every day to help, either with the girls or shoveling the walkway or pen. And thank you to Boots, who is going to her first doggie school tonight, but who is already very well-mannered and does a great job of snow plowing around the pen. To relieve boredom and prevent further attacks we are also giving them treats several times a day in the pen, like bread and lettuce and scratch. I let them out of the pen for about an hour this evening, for variety. They only go as far as the compost bins, where they stir up the ashes and other goodies.

A word of caution. The metal water can may seem to be unfrozen when in fact the water cannot get through to the outside because there is a rim of ice at the bottom. Take it inside the house, use the big sink in the kitchen and thaw it before opening and putting luke warm water in it. It doesn't hurt to sponge it off on both sides at the same time to avoid slime build up. Put random straw in the compost. I did buy new food and scratch today, getting us back to the better food from JK Feed. Hopefully this will improve the quality of their stools, which has been pretty poor lately, and give them whatever nutrients they may have missed with the other stuff. They just don't seem as fat and plush looking these days, now that bug season is over. They still gave us 20 eggs today. Nothing from Esmeralda. Everyone has recently taken eggs, so we are out for the moment. That will change tomorrow we assume.