Welcome to Thunderdome

15 here for tonight. I ran the heat lamp out to them yesterday. Next Monday they're calling for -3. Sure that will change a couple of times between now and then.

The stupids.... err, umm, the chickens, have been dealing just fine with the -2ish overnights we've been having, the fuckers just never leave the hen house to get to the water-heater I purchased to ensure they always have liquid water. The water heater doesn't fit in the hen house. So I am fetching them water twice a day, again.

Anyway, today I threw a tarp over the hen house, to keep the wind from blowing all the heat out of it. I put the tarp over and two minutes later stuck my hand in, and it was noticeably warmer. I'm actually wondering if their water will still be liquid in the morning, in spite of the forecast of 1, tonight.

When I built my coop, I put an outlet inside with about 2 foot of cord running through the wall to the outside. So I have a 150 watt red heat lamp in there now. It's pointed straight at the water. It keeps the light facing side of the water trough thawed, but the other side freezes when it's really cold. They huddle up around the lamp and I keep thinking about the deli heat lamps on the rotisserie chickens in the store.

I have one of those water heaters for use with a metal waterer that works well, but only when the mobile coop is sitting on a particularly level spot of yard. Otherwise the water just runs out. My everyday waterers hang.

For those keeping track at home, the water inside the hen house froze solid. So it isn't staying above freezing in there, in spite of the tarp.

Which is fine, really. Humidity is also an issue in the winter, the hen house is supposed to be ventilated to a certain degree. One side of the hen house is still open to the air, and there are cracks around the door on that side, so that should do fine. The tarp just keeps the worst of the wind out.

I don't know a ton about our product, but this is when the product should be applied. Our sales skyrocket in the cold.

Love my Gerber Suspension multitool. Don't love the belt sheath that came with it. To Gerbers credit, when the first one wore out and I emailed about purchasing a replacment, they just sent one to me in the mail. But the second one also wore out (though it lasted longer than the first).





Decided I wanted to make a new leather sheath. Wanted to add a spot for a minimag, and getting something out of my pocket is also a bonus.









This is my first custom leather piece like this. Some things I'll do different next time probably.

I just throw left overs in the run area for them. Chickens are super stupid. I think the sun rising entertains them. I do like the frozen food in the ice for hot weather idea though.

Need some cheap chickens? Shipping probably not included.

I was gonig to say you can have chicks shipped for like $1.50 each, but $1.50 for 1k of them is pretty cheap (cheap cheap... get it?).

I wonder if they're old and not laying any more.

FYI, I heard this morning that China has lost about half of their chicken population to, I think they said the Avian flu, and the thought is they won't be able to stop it.

This will have an effect on the trade war.

Leisher wrote: FYI, I heard this morning that China has lost about half of their chicken population to, I think they said the Avian flu, and the thought is they won't be able to stop it.

This will have an effect on the trade war.

Sure you don't mean swine flu? (The below is from yesterday's news)

Around half of China’s pig population—estimated at 300 million before the pandemic—have died or been culled since the first outbreak in August 2018. The real death count may be higher, given Beijing’s record of sloppy accounting and fear of releasing bad news.

I couldn't find any references for bird flu in China.

That could be it. I'll check with a co-worker. I was called into the conference and there was another person called in who didn't mute their phone, so I heard a lot of interference throughout.

Hope everything is ok with Vince. I notice he's been missing lately, and I immediately started thinking about his dad's situation and the storms lately.

His wife is posting the ocasional facebook update.

Speaking of living off the land, I tapped a Maple tree today. Sap always makes outstanding beer.