This first weekend of the new year has been colder than typical for the PacNW. We have snow today, albeit tiny little flakes. The day started with 20mph winds at 21 degrees F at about 10 this morning. We took extra precautions by putting boards and more tarps over the pens, along with heavy icefilled tires and cinder blocks to help keep them in place. We were getting gusts up to about 50mph which would not only knock stuff over, but the windchill would drop to -1 degree (F).
By 2, today, it warmed up a bit to about 25 degrees F as the snow was falling and the wind was gradually dying down to about 10 mph.
By the beginning of nightfall, the winds were gone but the temps were starting to drop to 23 degrees. We set up small waterers (1 quart) on paint cans inside each coop and a cup of cracked corn on paper plates to help the hens since they were certainly not inclined to leave the coops. As the snow started falling, we went ahead and closed up their coop doors (to the pens) long before it got dark.
Tomorrow we are likely to wake up to freezing rain. But with the heavy tarps on the pens, they should be fine should they decide to venture out, after today.
