Skip to main content

Record Low Temps

The news is all aflutter with statements about record low temps for eastern NC today, tonight and tomorrow morning, complicated by the 25+ mph winds bringing the wind chill factor down to zero degrees tonight. And yes, I know I know I know... For all of our northern folks, this is the norm for this time of year. I know. For here, it isn't, and we have to find ways of dealing with it. It's one thing to adapt and take care of yourself (and potentially freezing pipes) but it's another thing to safely get livestock through this without major ordeals.

Chickens & ducks: Have extra cracked corn thrown out (which helps generate internal heat), and going out every couple hours with buckets of fresh water.

Goats: Plenty of hay, alfalfa pellets free choice, and refilling their heated water bucket as needed. All four are presumed very, very pregnant and therefore we need them eating, drinking, moving and staying warm.

Horses: The big one was blanketed for the first time this year (due to the winds) and both her and the pony got some turnout time in a small forest-blocked pasture with hay. Fresh water refilled regularly and they will be stalled tonight with heated water buckets.

Baby chicks: They don't care what's going on outside because they've been living the high life inside under heat lamps with endless feed and water. I, however, would like for Mother Nature to get things fixed outside ASAP so that I can kick these chicks out of the house and into the brooder pen outside! They are cute. But also smelly and messy and dusty. Times 30.

So that's the day, in a nutshell, leaving out the necessary soap work. Spending tomorrow getting ready for the weekend market and repeating the cold weather chores from today. Twenty-nine days until Spring and it can't come fast enough for us here on the farm!

(null)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Barn Improvements

I've been putting off a much needed barn improvement project for a while in hopes of catching the necessary materials on sale. Specifically, high grade rubber mats for the stalls and aisle way. The heavy stall mats I needed finally went on sale today so Seife & I headed into town. We will need to remove the old mats in the stalls and do some leveling of the clay floor before we put the new ones in place, as well as have some sand brought in to raise the floor level in the aisle way because we occasionally have flooding problems when it rains a lot. Project benefits: Reduce bedding costs (which are at an all time high) because rubber mats keep the bedding from being ground into the dirt/clay floor. Reduce flooding problems by allowing us to raise the floor level and then protect it with the mats Reduce dust issues... our barn is very, very old and the aisle way is made up of very, very old fine dusty dirt that gets on everything. This will also help keep our milking stat...

Egg Hatching 101: Day 14 Bones and Shifting

Day 14 means only one week to go!  Time to start getting your brooder planned out and ready if you haven't already done so. Chicks will be hatching before you know it! One Day 14: Bones in the chick are starting to ossify (harden), including the skull. The chick is beginning to shift around in the egg to face the wider end → See our entire  Egg Hatching 101 Series  up to this point here. ← This post is part of a series about hatching eggs on The Farm at Beaman’s Fork blog . Want to help support the farm? Please visit our online store or visit us at the New Bern Farmer’s Market!

Heated Buckets

We recently installed heated water buckets in the barn, one in each stall for the horses and one for the goats. I probably should have done this years ago but I think I've finally had enough of busting ice in the morning only to have it refreeze a couple hours later. The buckets have cords, so you have to put some thought into where you are going to hang them. The cords are wrapped in a protective metal spring to deter chewing, but especially with goats, the cords need to be completely out of sight of them. I don't trust their wandering mouths. I placed the goat bucket pretty much on the ground (still attached to the wall by a bracket) so that it is low enough for the chickens to access it also if needed. They frequently come in the goat stall for water, especially if all of their drip waterers are frozen. The cord goes through the slats in the wall so they can't reach it. I also put a bungee cord around the bucket to keep them from moving it at all (and possibly exposing...