11:30 pm, light snow & 12°. Eerily quiet outside, glad the wind has died down.
If I do get chickens, it would likely be 3, maybe 4 and no permanent chicken run. I want a chicken tractor. With so few hens, it would be easily movable & I could pull it in the barn or under the pole shed in weather like we’re having now. My problem would be getting myself out there in this weather to tend to them - of course I would, but I would be grumbling about it! I guess after 40 years of dealing with horses in all manner of weather, I enjoy being relieved of that work & with 5 horses at one point, it was a LOT of work.
Even one MULE and one Steer in the winter can be a lot of work!
I like the chicken tractor idea. Wish I could get my girls outside of their Luxury Accommodations, but we have too many predators around for that.
The only issues I’ve ever had - and I used to have a flock of 50 at any given time - was water in the winter months. I had no electric to the coop, so when we had Big Snow, it was a PITA to shovel from the house to the coop in the first place, then to drag water down there 2-4x a day. But, we all managed to survive!
I’ve been meaning to ask my neighbor how he’s been managing to get enough water to their horses in this cold snap. They have a minimum of 100 horses right now, and three separate locations around the ‘hood where they all live. The most valuable horses that she uses for breeding stock have plush housing in their horse barn.
Only -3 this morning. It appears that the worst of it is over, though I’m still not going out until Tuesday, when 20 degrees is going to feel like a day at the beach. ;)