Ahead of the Weather

Open for Spring

Yesterday it was glorious here.  Yesterday the protective vinyl on the coop came down.  Yesterday was warm.  We (all the hens and I) are so hoping that the Things I get to do today do not include putting the clear walls back up over the hardware cloth that protects the hens at night from all the critters they need to be protected from.   The work of the flexible but solid stuff is to keep out the non-chicken-friendly weather.

Today it does appear that they need to be protected from the sideways-driving rain (if it were a real driver, it would lose its license, I'm sure, the way it lashes and gusts about) and from the accompanying, pounding hail.  But as tempestuous as the elements are today less than 24 hours away from the basking, calming warmth, it is sure to be different soon--at least by tomorrow.  In fact as I look, even now, the girls have braved the tail-end of the storm with its heavy mist to wade ankle-deep through the green spaghetti of yesterday's blog.

There's a heat lamp in the most sheltered end of the coop that gives my sweeties a spa-like place to warm up and dry out when needed.  They've spent a wise amount of their day lolling around under its rays.  Tomorrow the lamp will be shut off.  A little sun is back in the forecast, and warmth gains another inch in its toehold on Spring.

Note:  Those of you who read about the amazingly big egg on 2/28 can recheck that post for an update on the number of yokes housed in that giant shell.