Wake Up! It's Spring!

Granary with attached poultry shed

     Last week it was 29 below at night, and only in the teens F above 0 during the day.  Last night's low was 26 F above 0, and today is predicted to go into the High 40's.  From this photo of the guinea shed, you can see the snow is beginning to melt.  There wasn't a bare spot in the whole yard 3 days ago.

One brave adventurer

    This was the first day I let the guineas out this year.  They're a little leary about it, but one brave soul is checking it out.  The others will soon follow.  All 6 of the guineas made it through the winter, but sadly we lost our 4 peafowl. Life goes on.

Enjoying the Spring weather

      The chickens seem to be enjoying this spring weather too.  Although I gave them no extra light or heat through the winter, they all made it through and kept supplying us with some eggs into January.  They stopped laying completely for the month of February, but we had enough for the family to last until now.  We only have 2 eggs left in the fridge, so they better get started again.

New nesting boxes

     Yesterday, I made five new nesting boxes with plastic bowls from the Dollar store.  Below them are the four old nesting boxes made from old dresser drawers.  Of course I put in new clean bedding for them.  I'm trying sawdust for bedding instead of using straw like I did last year.

     Being plastic they'll be easier to clean.  The bowls are screwed onto a wooden removeable platform so that I can take the whole unit outside to clean it.  I can see that when I give the coop a thorough cleaning this spring, I'll have to whitewash the whole inside of the building.  Maybe I should hang a picture or two to make it a little homier.  Any suggestions for the pictures?  I'm NOT doing curtains!

INTRODUCING SADIE, MY NEW HELPER

     Last fall I got a new helper.  Half Chou and half Shepherd, she's become acquainted with the poultry, and encouraged me to go out and do chores this winter when I felt like staying in the warm house.  Hopefully she'll continue to encourage me through this spring and summer to with the myriad of projects yet to be completed.  Whatever gets done, I know we'll have a good time doing it.