Good Morning! <=2017

[WLLady]

well, major snow storms east of lake huron/georgian bay, so careful what you wish for baron! lol. we've been lucky so far!
found out my heated hose from last year is actually still heated! whoohoo! i don't have much luck with stuff like that lasting more than one winter. and so far the heated dishes seem to be holding up okay, had to flip 4 of them out for newer ones in the last cold spell where we dipped to -10 that day. have to admit, i'm liking the cooler temps! and we have no snow quite yet, so it's still easy to get around and do stuff. although, i must admit i'm pretty done with mud.....
the girls are pretty much on strike now for a month, so they got their fall/winter de-mite dose of ivermectin about 10 days ago now, will do a barn cleanout this weekend for all new bedding now that the humidity will be lower. some of my new pullets are just starting to lay, found a couple little fart eggs the last few days! yay! love when the new girls start laying. and only a couple weeks now until the days start getting longer again. not sure i like this driving into work in the dark and driving home in the dark and having an office where i cannot see outside.....feeling a bit like a mushroom (kept in the dark and fed you-know-what....)
hope everyone has a wonderful day!

[baronrenfrew]

Bring it on!

[windwalkingwolf]

Well for the record - Penny is adorable! Just a lovely dog.
Also any rumours that www has house chickens are Fake News!
Thanks for the help yesterday all, Jaye did great for her first time processing.

Fake news ... says the woman who had a young chick sitting on her shoulder in Jan's kitchen.

Penny is a big sweetie, I think I may keep her :)
Last winter, I actually did a pretty good job of not having chickens in the house! But I think little Yippy the shoulder bird might be a permanent fixture lol. If I'm home, he has free run of my kitchen. I don't like the mess, but it's worth it for entertainment value! Though I wish he'd have dropped that stinky cecal on my father-in-law instead of Gill :D
And confession time, I know I said I was done hatching and wouldn't have chicks in the house over winter, but I have two eggs perking away in the incubator--a goose egg that I managed to find before Penny did, and a chicken egg added later. Because if a gosling hatches, he might want company :D
Anyway, Sunday was an awesome day for butchering, cool enough to cool birds and keep flies away but nice enough that it wasn't too miserable. I suspect those were the last nice days of the season, so I'm not sure I'm going to get another mass cull in... I'll probably end up doing the rest one at a time, whenever I'm feeling like a chicken for dinner.
Thank you Gill and Jaye for your awesome help, also Vian and Ron! My own spouse was very noticeably absent, having important things to do that didn't actually get done LOL. But even though he claims to be fine with slaughtering the birds, I know he's not. It's not the first time he had somewhere else to be, but I'll let it slide :)
But anyway, thank you once again for the help, themost excellent company, and also the delicious carrot cake and quail eggs!

[Killerbunny]

The was no issue, the turkeys had already done that to me in the am when I was catching up the ones to go to Jans!

[WLLady]

ARGH!!!! we have a colony of possums living under our shed! our hyper dog had a tangle with one last night, it played possum and spent the rest of the next hour growling at us from under the shed....sigh. there's at least 2.....i haven't seen them myself but hubby scared one out of the wood pile a few weeks ago, and last night well, there's at least 2!!!!
all the turkeys and chickens are in today, barn is closed up tight.....maybe a horse can manage to step on them.....lol. was wondering how we were going through turkey feed at record speed....i think i know now! and why the guineas were always up on top of the pen.....a possum would be enough to scare them up for sure! so. short of a garden hose on high....not sure how to get them out. traps are baited, but no takers last night. we'll see if we can get them in the next few days.

[baronrenfrew]

[Killerbunny]

Oh Jan, I may have forgotten to mention that the hen turkey you now have can open feedpails if you use them!

[windwalkingwolf]

That's hilarious! I no longer use pails or cans, because the goats and Hamlet the pig can open them :D bags stay in the Jeep or get put in old chest freezers. It's just a matter of time before they figure those out though!

[Jaye]

... and if your flock free ranges and you leave feedbags on the roof of a vehicle, I have it on good authority that those will be pillaged in short order.

[windwalkingwolf]

You wouldn't think a nine pound meat chicken would make the roof of a Grand Cherokee, but apparently, they can, and they're happy to share with the ones that can't!