Our "official" winter, thus far, has been cold but not a lot of precipitation in our area, so that's been nice! The east winds have been whipping through with 30 mph gusts that drop the temps from barely freezing to brrrrrr. So we put up wind break panels on the chicken runs. You may notice that we have clear plastic strapped on the top parts of the pens to allow sunshine in but keep the elements off the center of the runs. This only helps on snowy days, like today, or when there's a light rain. Heavy duty rains, of course, can turn the run into a real muck fest, so we throw out some hay to keep that manageable.
Also, you may be able to see a block on top of a garbage can lid near the corner of coop two. That's to help protect the power cord connections from the elements to bring light and water heaters to life on these dark, cold winter days. Coop one, in the background of coop two is empty. If you look in the "space" next to the wind break of coop three, you can see one of the Welsummers peeking out to see what's flashing? :)
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| Coop 2 |
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| Coop 3 |
Checked on the garlic and onions. Garlic stems look fine. Can't find any onion stems. Hoping that's normal and they will be back in the spring. We will see. I have enough seeds left to plant more onions in the spring, if necessary. That's it for the New Year 2016 update.
Update on our efforts to combine the Welsummers with the remaining Russian Orloff in coop three. I think it was about November 10 that we shoved the Welsummers into the coop in the dark of night and kept our fingers crossed. While two of the Welsummers did fairly well with the transition, the smallest of the Wellsummers was bullied by the primary Russian Orloff. We kept that Orloff because she was the best layer of the group. And, she still is the best layer, laying almost every day after finishing the molt. The smallest Welsummer even pushed her way out of the pen one day to get away from the Orloff! She was a mess! She ended up with a bloodied comb, losing all her tail feathers and neck feathers. We were not certain she was even going to make it through the week! Although she still avoids the Orloff, she is now being allowed to roost with the other three hens at night together. She has regained her feathers, her weight and is no longer getting beat up. She even laid her first egg since the transition on December 31. So, all in all, it took some time, but the hens are all back in action as a new flock.
