Friday, December 04, 2009

Cleaner Coop

Nice new clean straw! (fake egg) I pulled out all the old straw from the nest boxes and raked it out into the pen. After the rain? we are supposed to get this weekend, I'll be able to tell how the straw will perform as a mud barrier. I can always put leaves or wood chips on top. Kristine said she had to take the back roads home because the freeway was packed with people headed up to Tahoe for a snow weekend. Snow? I don't see any rain forecast.

Some of the hens came back inside to investigate the straw. I caught Morgan eating the new organic chicken feed. She was licking it out of the feeder. Bad girl. I placed flakes of straw around in the coop so they would block drafts and give the chickens places to cozy up and keep warm. If it gets really cold I will block the exit under the windows with a big 4x4 at night. I have done that before and it keeps the wind from blowing in. I have to find the heat lamp tomorrow and have that handy if we need to put it in the coop.

I really like the snow. I just don't like having the worry of Kristine and other people having to drive in the stuff. I wonder if all those people headed up to Lake Tahoe have insider weather information because all the sites I check say there is not much chance for precipitation (20%) this weekend. Maybe they are staying for the week?

Kristine brought home a bag of cranberries to add to the mandarin oranges she bought the other day. My plan tomorrow is to use Suzanne's recipe and make some homemade cranberries. No canning. We plan to eat them up!

There was a lot of smoke in the air. I don't know if it was from smoky wood stoves or from people burning leaves, but I know I don't like having to breathe smoky air.

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[3 eggs today]
I washed the fake eggs. Hope the hens add some more.
Smiles
~:>

6 comments:

diane b said...

Sounds like hard work keeping the girls warm. The cranberry dish should be delicious.

Callie Brady said...

diane: I love cranberries. Do you have them in Australia? I would like to make Suzanne's Grandmother bread next. The hens are chickens that do well in cold weather and they have all pretty much finished their molt. Now I want them to lay eggs.

lisa said...

It looks so nice and clean! Good job. I Went to Suzanne's and she was pretty neat! Thanks for sharing!

Carol Murdock said...

Hey Callie! I'm trying to catch up with everyone! My hens have now gone to laying! YEAH! We got 5 eggs yesterday!It's been 1 a day for months so this is exciting!
I've made my own Cranberry Sauce for years! I add Satsuma Oranges to mine! My daughter ate what would amount to a half 16oz can on Thanksgiving. :)

Callie Brady said...

lisa: Thank you. I'm glad you liked Suzanne's blog. Me too.

Callie Brady said...

Carol: We ate up the cranberries in two days! I've got to make some more. I hope the chickens start laying again after the snow melts.