First Snow 2009

We woke up today to find a lovely layer of white powder everywhere.  There was a couple of inches on the cars and various depths in the yard.  I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it, because we were.  This last 2 weeks have been spent buttoning up and preparing for it.   It was exciting, and might even stick around for a day or so!  Tonight’s low temperatures are in the low 20’s so I will have to thaw waterers in the morning.  Make sure you visit my home page, so that you can see the coops all covered in snow too!

There is no easy cheap way to keep water from freezing, but I sure wish there was.  Many a good hours have been spent and will continue to be spent on the topic.  The easy answer is to just haul out warm water when it’s too cold for the chickens.  Right now, I’ll be switching everyone over to 3 or 5 gallon buckets for the winter, so it’s easy to pour in new hot water in the morning.

I’m doing the whole grain feeding routine now, in addition to my Flock Raiser pellets and so far the chickens and I are very happy.  I’ll make a new post on that topic this week as I have so much to share!