Hi JeanMarie,
Right now it's not too bad out. We are suppose to get up into the 40 degrees mark. We have snow coming in tonight. At least it's snow and not ice. Believe it or not, some people are still without power here in NH. It's sad. As for the chickens, they love the shavings.
Straw or Hay for Chickens
That is a shame. I know that ice storm was huge!
Maybe I will try the shavings at some point. I need to clean out their coop at some point.
It really needs it. :/
Good luck, if it's as cold there as it is here, it will be frozen. I put the shavings on top of the crap. Once it gets warm enough out and it all softens, then we will use it as composte. If they leave crap inside of the nesting boxes, I just pick it up and remove it. DH is wanting to make them a new pen this coming new year. He wants it closer to the house but out of sight.
Well, I can understand the reasons for having it closer.
Hauling everything through snow and ice must get old. And preditors may be less tempted.
That's one thing I never had to worry about, preditors. DH put a really tight fencing around for their outdoor adventures. Nothing can get in. Plus we put a wooden then metal roof over the fence in area to keep snow and all out. It stays pretty dry.
Oh Rhodiegirl I would love to see pics of that.
Ok,
here's a picture of what their fenced in area looks like.
You said that right, I dont even think a fly could get into that. Great job!!!!!
He got the fencing from work. It was extra that they were going to throw out. The metal is really heavy material. It took three of us just to hold it up for my hubby to nail it into place.
I can get chain link seconds for dirt cheap, my FIL works for acme fence(use to be acme dont know the new name now). I might just see what I can get this spring.
ACME! Funny, like in whileecoyoty and roadrunner? JK
hey luvs, no breakfast for the kids. DH is getting something at the store when he gets the mail (sure hope there are eggs) hehehe
HA HA HA yea same place, JK.........Yea for hubby going to PO and picking up breakfast. Grandson got cold cereal, that is what he wanted. I had made homemade cinnamon rolls last night and it was a no go for this morning.
I use large pine shavings and straw hay. I paid 6 50 a bale. I plan on this spring to get them giant rolls of hay for the pens. Just depends on the cost, last winter they went for 90 bucks delivered and that was Bermuda hay . I have not even priced them this year.
Ok Luvs, you need to send me your recipe for cinnamon rolls. My guys would love that. Guys meaning hubby and our neighbor.
I know that shavings and straw isn't cheap. It is somewhat cheap around here though.
1 cup plus 1 tsp water
4 tbls veggy oil
1 egg (beaten)
3 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp yeast
I put this in order listed in the bread maker and set to dough setting, then roll out and spread a mixture of melted butter cinnamon and brown sugar on the surface then roll up and let double in size. Cut and Bake until done.
So maybe if I blend it all together the roll it out and put all the stuff on it then put it into a bread pan and let it rise, it should come out the same way, right?
you would have to knead it. In the bread maker I think it went thru 2 kneads and 2 rises.
Here's a better picture of what my chicken coup looks like (except without the metal roof.)
Nice Rhodie! It is big.
Yeah. I managed to get one good egg from them today then they went and messed the other one up. Dang birds. I didn't name them because I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
I have 5 pullets that look almost the same. I only can tell one from the group. hehehe!
Your weather probably has your girls in a tither! Cant imagine they are laying much. ;)
Well they will be in even more of a tither after tomorrow since both you and I have snow coming. They are saying 4 to 6 inches of snow. Then a bunch of wind to follow. Time to batten down the hatches again. I just put our neighbor's cat into our portable garage so that she will stay somewhat warm and dry. I had to thrown one of her blankets out because it smelled too much like cat.
nice coop..would like to take pics of mine, but how do i post them on here? do they have to be saved to a certain site? so far 7 of my 16 have started laying..we have snow coming too so ill bet they slow down..oh well at least the babies have started..
stay warm everyone!!
cndy, If they are saved on your computer (documents or pics) you can use the browse button on the reply portion down below. Then find photo and post. I sure hope that made sense.
Rhodie, that is real nice you take care of the neighbor's cat! Ya, the wind is already up and running. Knocked the roof in on a freinds barn. I am thankful he did not have animals inside. It has been crazy lately. I will indeed batten down the hatches and put paper weights on my chickens. hehehe Just kidding. I will tie them down. LOL
Don't speak too fast sewin, she still didn't stick around which got me pretty upset. There is no place where she can go to stay warm. So I had her in protection besides maybe somewhat warm. DH told me last night that he didn't see her. And this morning I didn't see her either. I'm about to give up because I tried my best to get her to come into the house. Now I won't even do that since I have Mitts. Roman is the type of cat who won't get along with any other cat. She fights them all. I've had to break up some cat fights because she wanted to get at them and those cats were my friends. They lived down the hill.
A lot of out door cats are like that. They only get along with their own group. Some are just loners. Not much you can do with that! At least you try. They manage to find places to hide and keep warm. There is about 15 or more strays across the street from me that an older man feeds and trys to capture to have spayed or nuetered. He really tries to keep them from breeding but people keep dropping them off. There is a collapsed barn they get into. It is dangerous for people but the cats get into it. When it collapsed some died.
How about the wake up this morning??? 7 inches and 20 degrees. Wind chill -15. The wind is whipping. brrrr! All my snow had melted. I woke up hearing my plow guy! sheeesh.
Well we don't have to worry about Roman breeding because her original owners had her spayed. The guy just don't know how to be living in his own home anymore. Since he decided to cheat on his wife being our friend he's been living with his witch of a girlfriend. And he basically ignores us unless he needs something. It's the type of story that really gets to me because he lied to all of us and really didn't care. Well needless to say, what goes around comes back to haunt you. He sort of cheated his company by working at his girlfriends house so his company in turn laid him off. That company being HP. He made his wife leave so that he could go and be with his witch of a girlfriend. What's really bugging me along with DH and our other neighbor is that he lives with his girlfriend all the time. She works from home because that's what HP has decided for their employees in NH. Then he has to spend every waking hour on the weekends with her in Nashua instead of coming up here. It's like his friends that he has known for 13 + years don't mean anything anymore to him. His wife will be spending tonight with all of us. She will be sleeping in our neighbor's house so she doesn't have to travel to go home which is the next town over.
WOW, what a tangled web he wove. Do they work from home because of the weather or because it saves on keeping the office open? Wierd.
So the cat is basically abandoned by that guy. :(
Since thier office in NH closed down and moved to Ma. they work from home 3 days out of the week and go into the office 2 days. That's the way HP decided to do it for their employees. So what he did was have his computer on at his house, set his laptop up to be online there and then have his laptop set up down in Nashua to work down there. Meanwhile the telephone company is getting paid by HP to provide internet service for him to work from home.
Yes, the cat is his and he doesn't care. Heck he gave his dog to his girlfriend even though his dog was in his wife's name. He figured that since his girlfriend had to put her dog down, she deserved another dog. And his wife didn't deserve anything. Yet his wife put up with him for over 13 years. She spoiled him rotten. He got whatever he wanted. Then when she got her own apartment she said that she wasn't helping him pay the bills anymore. She had her own to take care of now. Now if he will ever learn, he has to stop acting like money grows on trees and stop spending foolishly. That will be a hard lesson for him. Meanwhile the house is going downhill. No one lives in it. He only comes up if he really has to, otherwise you won't see him. And to top it all off, when he comes up, he makes sure the guys are gone to work first. DH and our neighbor have known this guy for well over 13 years. And this is the treatment he gives them. My friendlyness towards him has gone. I don't like the way he treats the guys and they both know my feelings. He could die tomorrow and I wouldn't care. That's how much he has hurt us. Especially me because he made me feel really bad.
He is obviously not thinking of anyone but himself.
Too bad he dosnt just sell the house. Especailly if no one lives there.
Ya know?