A Blustery Monday

Cold out here today in Leavenworth County, and supposed to get to 18 degrees tonight.  Keith has gone to buy another warming light for the coop side of the big henhouse.  You see, we understand all the controversy around "heating or not heating" in the winter.  We have always run a light on bitter nights, and we still get a certain amount of frostbite in the combs, etc.... but we feel it gives the chickens a fighting chance.  We use a simple red light, as we do for keeping chicks warm.  My old rooster pet, Butch, really appreciates it, and actually roosts close enough that he has burned his feathers in the past.

 

The only one that will not have one tonight is the little henhouse, the red house.  I am going to move part of those hens tonight, the tiny ones... and we do have a light in there.  I should have pulled the cord for it while Nathan was here Sunday, so he could crawl in there and connect it for me.  I'll do that sometime tomorrow.

 

The temps are supposed to get a little higher later this week.

 

We had some snow flurries this afternoon, too... small, dry flakes and it did not last long.

 

Keith called me about 10:00 AM this morning to tell me to look outside and see the sky, which had been sunny.

 

The evening news has just shown a short film of heavier snow than we had in Kansas City, north.

 

 

Look who has come out of their corner in the new henhouse.  I found four eggs in there this afternoon.

 

I'm going to move two hens from the little henhouse over there tonight, after dark.

 

'

 

Gertie slid between my legs when I was going in to lock the birds up, and Jackson made it very clear he did not want her in the henyards.

She finally went under the little white hutch and stood there.

 

 

She made a break for the big hen yard, and Jackson held her in one spot for a few seconds, sticking his neck out and gobbling at her.  She decided it was better to come with me, than to stay in there with him.  He literally chased her out, and I could not get a picture of it, because I had the egg bucket in my hands. 

 

 

She came back in and laid down by her big buddy.

 

 

"I'm the good girl, aren't I, Mama?"

 

 

 

 

What Came to the Pond

 

Last night, we set the camera near Troy and Kathy's pond to see what came in the night.  The camera triggered at 1:08 AM, but we did not see anything in the picture, though we knew something had gone by.  The coyote packs have been especially loud and busy these last few nights.

 

 

This morning, at 8:08 AM, as you see, the pond was visited by a doe (on the left) ... and by four wild turkey hens, you can JUST make them out below the tractor on the far side.  If you biggify, you may be able to see them.  Troy ran out of gas the other night, and left the tractor there, he doesn't park it there.

 

As you see, the pond is down at least 8 feet at this point, though it still has water in it.  In the eight years we have been here it has never been so low, nor in the 20 years that Troy and Kathy have lived there.  Their yard is unfenced on two sides, hence the wildlife goes to and fro here.  Tonight I hung the camera on another tree, one pointing north, so that it is lower to the ground, and will catch the animals as they come from the south and east.

 

 

Deer?  Turkeys???  Huh??? Huh????