Snow, snow, snow & Frozen Pipes

The snow has come and the garden is frozen over!

Our hosepipe has frozen solid, so lesson learnt to make sure it is drained before reeling it up to stop this happening as filling duck ponds by the bucket load is not a fun task! Thankfully chickens and ducks are on the whole very hardy animals. A day or so without a pond doesn’t make too much difference to the muckers, as long as the have a bucket they can dunk their heads in to enable them to preen and fresh drinking water they are happy.

A mistake was also made with the chicken’s drinker. I use plastic for the girls as I like to add ACV supplements and I forgot before the snow came down to empty the drinker. Unfortunately this meant it cracked. The girls didn’t mind having a water bowl instead for a day or two, but my purse was rather unhappy with me for having to fork out for a new drinker!

Sadly we have recently lost one of our OAP ex-barn girls. It was only a matter of time as they have had a happy retirement with me for a number of years. We were lucky that she went peacefully in her sleep. The only slight problem we have had is she was very much top hen and the others have been re-establishing the pecking order now she has gone. I’m proud to say one of the cockerels has stood up well to the role and Wotsits is now very much the man of the garden (well, unless Bumble & Bee come out of their run and he hides from them – wimp!).

I won’t be hatching this spring so think it is a good time to get the garden sorted and tidied up. The chickens are in need of a new house as both boys are on the large side and they also need a new fence to keep them away from the new lawn we are planning on putting down. We had intended to put it down last September, but as always we are a little behind on the chores…