Quail_Antwerp: Words from the Barnyard...

[Beekissed]

Aly, I hope you got your water thawed....seems like we had the same problem, huh? You never saw people so quick to fill empty jugs and receptacles and to take showers when ours unthawed!!! AND do laundry, flush commodes, do dishes, etc.

Water is definitely a luxury, don't you think? I think that is why I could never be truly discontent like the advantaged folks of the world. I know just how good a hot shower feels because I was raised without running water!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Yup, it's thawed. Dirty dishwater was able to go down the commode today

And I made snow ice cream! Kids loved it.

 

[Beekissed]

I know I'm in the minority...but I hate snow or homemade ice cream!! Never liked it...something about the texture I never liked.

Hey, just noticed you changed the title of your journal....let me guess....does the SS stand for:

Silent Seether?
Sour Sister?
Stuffed Shirt?
Stand-offish Slanderer?
Stupid Snake?
Silly Suck-up?
Snitzy & Snappy?

No? None of those? Just SS, like the "everyone is allowed to be at any level of SS and still be considered SS" meaning? Yes? Well, I think you are just as SS as the rest of us then, don't you?

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

HAHA girl you're too much sometimes, ya know that?



Want me to change it back?

Well, I am not a big fan of ice cream, but my mom used to make it for us in the winter when we were kids and I had told my kids about it. So for two days since the snow came in they've been begging me to make them "Gramma's snow ice cream." So I did just to hush them up LOL

 

[Beekissed]

yeah, change it back, hon! Otherwise I'll never find your thread amongst all the others on here who aren't quite SS enough either!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

DH and I have been seriously talking about securing the pasture a bit more that would allow my chickens to be out there without worry of them slipping through the fence and to our garden. The pasture is waaaaaaaaay big enough to hold my 80+ chickens, and I am beginning to think this is the way to go. It would save me a TON of feed in the warmer weather.

The chickens already go out there now when I open the coops and scratch around a bit. It would be easy for me to add a door to their coop that allows them access out to the pasture area. At the same time, it would leave me my other coop as a breeder coop! I could put all of one breed into that coop (like one rooster and 4 to 5 gals) so that I can have pure hatching eggs = pure chicks to sell.

We also plan to add onto the coop I want to use as a breeder coop. The new side will be 12 foot long instead of 8 and be 8 feet wide. It will have a floor and a small area for brooding chicks, so that I won't have to keep chicks in the house. It will also have a designated feed bin area that would have my feed housed so rats/mice can't get into it.

I've also already started to plan for my garden. I am hoping we can build at least one or two raised beds for this spring. This will be the first year that we grow tomatoes from seed. I am also going to plant celery for the first time this year and some broad beans.

It's that time of year already, where I'm anxious for spring. lol

 

[MorelCabin]

You sound like you have so many great plans! Spring will be here soon I hope...then you can get all those great coop and garden plans underway! I can't wait for spring either! I am freezing today! The house just doesn't want to warm up.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

UGH I am definitely SICK of winter!

And I am definitely going to have HEAT in both coops next winter, and not just a heat bulb, mind you!

BOTH of my Lt Brahma roos have frozen feet. I brought them in and put them in an old ferret cage (with my female mallard who was also cold but not froze) on a thick bed of straw. They are making happy chirping noises. I didn't put them in the warmest room, either, as I was afraid it would put them in shock. I have them in a quiet dark, cool but not cold corner of my hallway. It is probably 80 degrees back there.

Their feet are yellow like normal, but they do have a couple red spots on them and they are swollen. They didn't act like they are in pain, tho and they are still walking on them.

I am going to do some serious praying for my two roos. I was so upset I checked everyone else in the flock. No one else has the frozen foot issue. My BO roo and the SS roos do have some frost bite combs, but not too bad.

DH and I joked about having a house chicken, or two. Well, now we have 2 roosters and a duck LOL The two roos are back there making happy chirpy noises. We'll see how they are doing in the morning.

 

[Beekissed]

Hugs for Aly's frozen roos! I have one and a half roos frozen and have been for some time now. It doesn't seem to hurt them right now and I've read that it will peel off in the warmer weather.

They will either lose part of the comb and wattle or the surface tissue will slough and they will look the same. I wouldn't feel too badly, Aly, as this is just something that happens.

I remember , growing up, our roos were all Leghorns and would get frostbit once....after that they didn't have to worry because the offending comb was gone!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Yea, but it's their FEET, Bee. Not sure how they will come out of that.