Hmph. Never did get above freezing today. Middle of the afternoon the clouds blew off, which the solar panels and batteries liked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes below zero tonight.
Glad I’m not in the trailer, sad I’m not in Mexico. At least the wind died down. And it’s supposed to be sunny all day tomorrow. Hopefully things will thaw enough that I can pry the horse apples off the ground, because that’s always a pain in the ass.
When the chickens finally came downstairs they spent the whole damn day pacing back and forth and complaining, like it was all my fault. Must have changed their water four times only to have it freeze into more ice blocks, and I finally took sufficient pity on them that I cooked up some rice and gave it to them hot. Well, warm. They seemed to approve. Maybe they think it’s termites.
They’re still laying eggs like the feathered little egg machines they are, though not as fast as in the summer. I can’t figure out what they’ve got against scratch, though. They eat their crumbles fine, and they dive onto whatever greens you give them. But actual birdseed they ignore. Which is odd, because when I first brought the sack home they hit the stuff like it was the last chopper out of Saigon. Now they won’t even look at it. Who can plumb the depths of a chicken’s mind?
Chickens have minds?
Do they still have gravel that they can peck into their crop to help with seeds? (just guessing here).
I always added some ground oyster shell to the feed. It’s real cheap and helps with their craw. I never used store bought scratch feed. I just gave them ears of corn from the garden when I had it.
Also – you might consider saving the shells, heating them above 220F while you are cooking something else, and then squashing the shells beyond recognition. Feed them back for quickly absorbed calcium.
At the Dollar Store (or where ever) purchase one of those cheap “push on” battery operated lights. Then turn that on in their Coop @ night. It provides enough ambient light to keep them laying just a touch better. Or you could snag one of those solar powered walkway lights people trash, remove the solar powered piece, run it outside and then put the light in their Coop.
True – it won’t run a Computer so they can watch a movie – but hey – at least they’ll match the main palace!
Perhaps they don’t trust the birdseed. Do they suspect fowl play?
Down to -50C: Russians freeze to death as strongest-in-decades winter hits
https://rt.com/news/russia-freeze-cold-temperature-379/
Must be all that global warming… Quick, start stoking the fires everyone!! It C02 really makes it warmer, we’d better get cracking…
But at least neither of us are there in Russia, thank goodness. Zero this morning outside was quite cold enough for me, thanks so much. 🙂
Somebody, somewhere always has it worse than we do.