Tuesday, March 6, 2012

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.

5 comments:

  1. second time to try to comment, I got "booted off" the first time. I love your hens, and I know how much they love the grass. Happy girls.

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    1. Both tries worked. Technology is on your side this time, regardless of what it looks like. We all feel your love. We had snow this morning and are promised 50 degrees by afternoon.

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  2. Is this glorious day the same one that hailed on us yesterday?
    Odd, but serious question-can chickens drown in rain like turkeys do or is that an old wife's tale?

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    1. I wrote the post yesterday, so "today" with it's rain and hail was what we were dodging at OCAC, indeed. Chickens cannot swim. "Madder than a wet hen" says something about their attraction to water. I'm betting they could drown and would if they couldn't get out of the water.

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    2. but not your cluck-clucks -- they would never drown because they didn't know to get in out of the rain!

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