Tuesday, November 18, 2014

the way things work

It was a brutal night. The temps hit the single digits (that would be minus teens in Celsius). I imagined frozen chicken thighs and wings in the coop and I nudged Ed several times at night to remind him that it was probably a really tough night for our cheepers. (We go back and forth on whether to get them a small radiant heating unit. I think we'll break down if this January repeats last year's cycle of bitter cold.)

The sun broke the horizon just after 7 a.m. and I volunteered to free the birds.


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For once they were not clamoring by the door. No wonder. Their bodies generate good heat when they are up in the roost together. The three girls upped the thermometer there by ten degrees -- all the way to a nearly tropical 19 F/-7C for the night.

But, they came down slowly and once again I felt grateful that Ed hadn't ripped the crumbling barn out the year he moved to the farmette. The cheepers are fairly protected from the wind in nooks and corners of the old structure.

Breakfast is utterly brilliant. It's always so sublime to have sunshine on your table on a cold winter's day!


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And then I sit down (figure of speech there -- I actually stand at my stand-up addition to the table) to take stock. I have very many projects that are just getting hatched and of course that is both exciting and energizing, but the way things work in these fields where there are many players and few of them with satisfactory outcomes (I'm thinking: writers, or very serious amateur photographers) is that you can leave too much of it to the stars and before you know it, you're sitting on your hands and puzzling over why nothing came of any of them.

What to do?

My first response nearly always is to get organized. To set up record keeping for future tax issues that will surely emerge whether or not I make a single other dollar with this stuff. To clean out my Word files (I know, so "important," right? Like cleaning your desk when you're a kid -- it makes you feel like you accomplished something even as you've accomplished nothing at all). And finally to organize in my head what the next steps should be.

Subject to change.

Of course.

I then sit down and write a draft of a children's story just because I have never done that before and I wanted to see what it would be like.

(Admission: great fun!)

And by now it's afternoon and it is still beastly cold, though the thermometer says something inspiring like 15F/-9C and I look up from the kitchen table (you surely don't think I use the standing desk all day long?!) and what do I see? A red comb way in the distance! A cheeper is standing in the barn doorway!

I'm out like a flash. With bread bits and seeds in my hand and a big grin on my face, like a mom who is happy that her kids are finally getting some Vitamin D from the winter sun (I doubt the cheepers get or need vitamin D from the sun, but you see my point).

I chat them up and slowly, tentatively, they all try to step out for a bit, one clawed foot at a time.


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But only Butter has the utter audacity to strut all the way to the sheep shed door. I fling it open and ask Ed -- do you have anything, anything to give her for her efforts? 
Just cat food...
Forget it. Let me tell you right now that there isn't a cat food on the market that doesn't have some bits of chicken in it.


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For a minute, Butter felt the warm air coming from the sheep shed, but then she recalled her loyalties and trudged back to the barn.

It was good to see them all enjoy a touch of sunshine! The farmette land will be theirs again, I can see spring already on their horizon!

Though the way things work with this polar vortex is that we have another bitter night ahead of us. Even as I know our cheepers will survive. They've got it in them! I can tell!

14 comments:

  1. If you need kids to test your draft out on, I know a couple. =)

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    1. Could they pretend to be younger? My first target is the three year old! :)

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    2. Nina, This is funny because that is generally what a chicken's mind set has been linked to. The ability to understand what a three year old can.

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    3. Well then I stand corrected. It's for a four year old. I know it's too sophisticated for the cheepers! :)

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    4. Owen's four! He's also quite decisive-it would either be a good book he wants to read again or "stupid" (at which time he'd cover his mouth and insist it was actually good and didn't need soap in his mouth). Never a dull moment. I'd love to read it, too.

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  2. Hi Nina. I'm a fairly new reader. I live near Chicago and we're freezing here too. I don't know where the polar vortex was before last year, but I wish it would go back!

    One question: Is Oreo still with the other chickens? I can't tell them all apart. Stay warm!

    Sandy

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    1. Hi Sandy!
      Oreo is the rooster with the colorful plumage. He has calmed down a bit and we agreed to keep him for the winter, hoping he'll really leave people alone . So far so good! Scotch is our brown hen and Butter and Whitney are the two white girls.
      I fell great guilt every time I enter the warm farmhouse and leave the brood behind in the very cold barn!

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    2. Oh Yay! I'm glad Oreo got a reprieve. I can understand worrying about them in the cold barn. I thought your idea of the small heater as a good one. Love your writing ! :)

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  3. I used to have those guilt feelings about my dogs being outside in the very cold, but they are made for it. Chickens have those warm feathers, the ones that we stuff into duvets to keep US warm... they have built-in duvet-jackets. They were meant to be warm in the cold... weren't they? Not having read up on chickens, as I'm sure you have, I have no idea really but it's just my gut instinct that they are provided for by their Maker with those insulating feather coats. Just as my dogs have theirs... Also, they don't have cold/hot sensors on skin like we have...

    Do you ever read about a whole flock of chickens freezing to death?

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    1. Bex, that kind of reasoning just doesn't work when the winds blow the and thermometer is savagely plummeting. Emotions rule. Besides, I have to think that at some northern cut off point, you cannot raise chickens without heat. When I read about chickens surviving the cold, I always want to know -- how cold is your cold? ...because our cold right now is beyond the pale cold.

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  4. Single digits....ouch. I like the idea of the radiant unit. Perhaps this could eliminate your concerns. I know what it is like to stress over bird's safety.

    Nice sunrise. Always something to look at or for.

    The gals upped the temp 10* wow...all wrapped in their down comforters.

    Wonderful breakfast lighting! That is as good if not better than the breakfast itself.

    Organizing 'always' makes me feel better. It's usually getting rid of stuck energy and or moving it around.

    Congrats on the draft and having fun doing so. Children's books also happen to be an interest of mine.

    Sweet peepers pictures.

    Have you seen the video of the little boy hugging the chicken? If you haven't it's adorable. You can feel the love, seriously. Just Google boy hugging chicken and it comes right up. I think this little boy will end up being an animal activist!

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  5. If the chickens can generate their own heat, why not create an insulated roosting area, where they can huddle together out of the wind and draft. Our chickens were on their own year round, and we had lots of straw where they roosted, which kept the wind away from them, and allowed them to build up their own heat. That was in southern Ontario.

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    1. Well, we do give them that. They have a coop and we insulate it on the outside with hay bales, blankets -- you name it. Tricky thing is that we have to leave some air circulation, because otherwise viruses may set in.
      I think the hens are okay -- they go up to the roost box which has plenty of wood shavings and they huddle. Oreo usually does not go up. He stays in the coop, but below the roost box. We don't know if it's because of his foot (he sustained an injury before he came to us and he doesn't really have much use of it), or if it's by choice. He is the most vulnerable. There isn't a draft, but he does not benefit from group heat. And probably I worry too much. I just remember when they were so free and happy in good weather. Right now, they are much quieter and they stick to the barn. I'm adjusting to this new stage. We got them in March, so we never went through a cold winter with them.

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    2. It has been a while since I lived on the farm! I found this forum discussing chickens in very cold weather, might be interesting, I am going to copy it in case I decide to keep chickens here in Canada, temperatures similar to what you are describing.
      http://www.permies.com/t/2956/great-white-north/Cold-climate-chickens

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