Chickens for bug control and food recycling.

[baymule]

We have had several days of 20* weather. I haul boiling water to all the animals to melt the ice so they can get a drink. Glad this doesn't last long!

 

[thistlebloom]

We have had several days of 20* weather. I haul boiling water to all the animals to melt the ice so they can get a drink. Glad this doesn't last long!

Did you get your woodstove installed yet?

It's almost 40 here, I've been cleaning so have the kitchen window wide open. There is also a low fire in the woodstove. I don't need a lot of heat, but don't want to let it go out and have to rebuild it tonight, so I keep feeding it like a baby bird.

 

[baymule]

Did you get your woodstove installed yet?

No, I will have to build a platform for it, hardy plank the wall with furring strips behind it, and I want to tile it and make it look nice. Then we'll call someone else to install the stove! I have other projects in front of it, may not get it done this winter, but it will be ready for next winter. Right now I am researching mosaics, and how to do them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

@baymule have you told @seedcorn of your arctic weather. He may adopt you as an honorary yankee.

My lows the last two mornings were +4 and +6. I use black rubber tubs for water, just knock the ice out and refill them. If I set them in the sun they stay thawed in the mid teens when the sun shines.

I've got a frost free hydrant so water is always available but there was drama with this. There is always drama somewhere somehow. The day before this cold spell hit the hydrant started leaking water through the nozzle. That would have been a disaster since it could not drain. But a little research online told me how to adjust the linkage which really was not hard. That fixed the problem.

 

[henless]

No, I will have to build a platform for it, hardy plank the wall with furring strips behind it, and I want to tile it and make it look nice. Then we'll call someone else to install the stove! I have other projects in front of it, may not get it done this winter, but it will be ready for next winter. Right now I am researching mosaics, and how to do them.

We had a wood stove installed. We put down small square patio type blocks for the base and I plan on putting corrugated tin behind it for an additional heat shield. It really helps with the heating, specially with the low temps we've had the last few days. Temps in the 20's don't seem cold to most people, but for us in East Texas, it's freakin' cold!!

Thankfully I only have dogs & chickens to keep watered. I have a cookie tin heater for the chicken's water which works really well.

 

[baymule]

@Ridgerunner it got down to 16 night before last! Now don't go putting ideas in @seedcorn's head.....if freezing my patatootie off is a prerequisite for becoming an honorary Yankee, then I'll just keep my Texan-Southerner moniker.

What's a frost free hydrant?

 

[seedcorn]

16 above-heat wave. Other night 16 BELOW. Great news is NO bugs. No cockroaches, no flies, no mosquitos, etc.....

I do miss the heat......and the garden.......going outside barefoot, no coat.......come on spring!!!!!!!!

 

[baymule]

16 above-heat wave. Other night 16 BELOW. Great news is NO bugs. No cockroaches, no flies, no mosquitos, etc.....

I do miss the heat......and the garden.......going outside barefoot, no coat.......come on spring!!!!!!!!

No bugs here either and it is NOT below degrees anything, nor minus degrees.....back up in the 50's today!

 

[ducks4you]

Birds didn't want to step out in the snow at all they have a huge coop
but the water system I put in froze so was hauling water out to them

@PennyJo I run an outdoor extension cord and use a heated dog water bowl for my birds. I also use this:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71gyKajTATL._SL1500_.jpg
You open it up, close on your two cords hooked together, then close the top cover a few inches away from the connection and screw it on top of the undercover. It keeps most of the weather away from your connection. I have one where my extension cord and the cord for the heated bowl meet and where I have my 100 ft long heated hose connect at the outside spigot.
You could also use this:
http://www.littlegreenhouse.com/accessory/electrical.shtml

 

[ducks4you]

Hoorah!! After two months strike my chickens are laying again. Jesus must be on his way and my birds hope to be raptored.