Winter is a bit of a
holding pattern in the world of chickens. With our laying flock
in the woods, all I have to do is drop
off some feed and scraps, make sure it doesn’t get too cold for their heated
waterer, top off the
deep
bedding, and collect
the eggs. But soon we’ll want to move the flock back into the
pastures, so Mark’s been repairing
some damage where heavy snow knocked down a gate and fenceline.
At the same time, I’ve
already got eggs for the first round of spring broilers in the incubator. I was going to hatch
them a bit later, but a friend and I are swapping chicks so I moved up
my hatch to match her schedule. I’m giving her some of my
homegrown birds and she’s letting me in on her hatchery order — I’m
hoping three Pearl White Leghorns and three Red Stars will provide more
winter
egg-laying genetics.
Of course, the other big
task for spring is deciding about our chicken
coop renovation and/or nomadic
coop. I’m
still vacillating, but maybe next week I’ll have something to report?
