Snow is Coming…

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Posted by Annie in Organic, Outdoors, Twain Harte News on March 5, 2013

We could be in for it this time!  The weather report says 8 inches at 4,000 feet and 1-2 feet at 5,000.  Let’s hope their right, the problem is the weather man is almost always wrong.  I’m expecting about a foot of snow, it’s cold and it feels like it’s going snow and hard.

Chick brave the cold

Which leads me to my other problem(s).  We now have a cat, 2 dogs and 12 chickens, which are only 8-days old.  I can’t believe how much they have grown.  Yet, they still are so small.  I’ve been having a time with the dogs and the cat.  They get so excited, when I let them out to see the birds, that they try to scratch under the pen.  But, realistically they are pretty good — all things considered.

I get a quite a work out, cleaning the pen and providing fresh food and water.  It’s fun but I’m much more careful with these birds than I ever was, when we had or farm and raised chickens. The biggest challenge in going to be keeping them warm with all this snow coming.  I have two infrared lights (I am not even going to thing about what that’s doing to our electric bill.

I know that it will be worth it in the end.  We will love having eggs and fresh chicken but I sure am tired.  Bundle up, stay warm.  I’ll keep you posted if not here, on Facebook, join us.

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Day five: Chickens

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Posted by Annie in Organic, Outdoors on March 2, 2013

Chickens in the yard.We’ve had the birds five days now.  We converted a dog pen we had lying around, into a chicken run, basically we wrapped the pen in chicken wire, including the top.  We’ve got owls living in a tree nearby, so we have to be careful.

I am amazed at how fast they have grown.  In just five days, they have more than doubled in size.  Their wings are getting feathers, some only have a little bit of fuzz left on them.  I love to watch them stretch out their legs and their wings, it’s a beautiful sight.

It’s been a job keeping the brooder clean and warm.  The temperatures vary so widely that I am constantly covering them up with blankets over the cage, and taking them off.  I’ve noticed the birds don’t need as much heat as they did when I first brought them home, that’s a good thing.

Chicken WatererYou should have seen them yesterday, when I moved them to the pen.  They were running around, playing, hopping over each other.  I sat and watched them for hours.  I swear they grew from the time I took them out, until I put them back in the brooder.  Amazing.

I hate having to put them in the brooder at night.  It’s not very big and they don’t have a ton of room.  They love it when I put them in the yard, they run and jump, playing with each other, you can just tell they are happy.  Soon, I’ll have the chicken run set up.

What is biosecurity?

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