I had a light bulb moment last night. I decided to disconnect the automatic door opener for the duration of this cold spell and open and close it manually. This has a few advantages. The girls were coming out at quarter to seven but I am going to let them out at quarter past seven. This gives them an extra half an hour to stay warm in the mornings.
This also means that instead of defrosting the frozen water container I can empty it when the girls go in at the end of the day and fill it in the morning from a watering can which will be easier for me and will also save me worrying about the girls coming out to frozen water.
This morning I decided to give the girls some warm mash as a little boost. It doesn’t stay warm for long but it must be quite nice for them when I first put it down.
A dish of warm mash for the girls
Emerald joins the girls
Mid morning I noticed that Dandelion had a slight crust above her right eye. I made the decision to start the girls back on tylan as a precaution. Now that I am manually opening the door it will be easy to mix up their water and put it in place before I let the girls out.
I hope that this may be the last time this winter that I will need to this. It will give me peace of mind during this really cold spell to know that they will be protected.
For the last few days Cinnamon has been very vocal and has been looking in the nest box. At lunch time today when I checked there was an egg in the nest box. There were also two little dips in the chicken shed so I am sure that this egg is Cinnamon’s first egg of the year. She always likes to try several places before deciding where to lay her egg.
Cinnamon’s eggs are also a different shape to Freckles. Freckles eggs are quite round whereas Cinnamon’s are oval and usually quite big for such a little girl.
Speckles egg on the left and I think this must be Cinnamon’s egg on the right
This afternoon we had a sprinkling of snow. The flakes were very small and round. They reminded me of polystyrene balls. The first few flakes are on the napkin, above, that the eggs are on for the photograph, which I took on the table below before the snow got properly started.
Fine flakes of snow on the garden table
A light dusting of snow
I will be keeping to this latest regime for the duration of this cold spell and I am hoping that the girls will come through it ready for warmer weather. Having two girls laying is encouraging.
Click here to see the history of my flock.
Good that 2 girls are laying. You certainly look after your girls well.
It is great to have the start of laying again. I do my best.
Good news about Cinnamon. Weather absolutely horrendous here for past 2 days – poor girls have ‘confined themselves to barracks’! Have managed to clear snow and ice from some areas within the run, but the showers are unrelenting, so it’s a task to undertake repeatedly. Still getting some eggs, however.
The weather has been awful here today too. I am lucky the run is roofed but the snow on top makes it gloomy and flakes blow in the sides. The worst bit is defrosting the water several times today. Glad you are still getting some eggs. There should be an improvement in the weather soon.