Freezing Day Around the Homestead (and another lesson learned) ~ Chickens, Deer and Bees!

Today was the 6th day of really cold temperatures here, and I was worried about the bees. We decided to do a hive check at the same time we brought the chickens breakfast and let them out for the day.

The high winds cleared off the greenhouse for me. Still holding up, thankfully!

It turned out that the bees were fine, but our chickens weren't the best.
Bees first.....

The "second garden" (because it was the 2nd garden we put in haha) as we call it grew mostly squashes, brassica, carrots and herbs. Last night the deer were in it!

They dug up and cabbage stems, squash I had missed and a row of kale/basil was disturbed

smart deer!

whole sunflower heads gone now!

hidden squash

Back to the bees. We are going out to make sure the entrance is clear so the can still send workers out to check things out, to make sure it is still stable and to give a listen to see if we can hear any activity. Mostly, to make sure the entrance is cleared. The rest is only for our own peace of mind, really.

back of the hive, looks good!

the entrance is actually pretty good

Cleared it off for them, found a few dead bees. This is normal, it means they are doing their jobs...but it makes me a bit sad

Listening for sounds of life......faint buzzing. All seems well

Now to the coop! It isn't as far as it looks haha!

As soon as I slid the coop door open I realized something was wrong...the birds all came out in a rush as usual, but there was steam too!?! All of the girls had a tiny bit of frost on the feathers on their backs, but our silkie roo had crystals forming on his head and tail feathers and fine frost on his fur/feathers. Oh no.
Kick it into high gear. Rooster comes inside and I go back out to fix this.

Mr. Hendrix inside thawed and drying off

It turns out the top ventilation panels had frozen shut. You need ventilation to prevent moisture build up. Those were chipped open again, but I decided since we are running another week at these temps to get more bedding down. The coop is also big for our flock of 11 since we are planning on adding more girls in the spring. This can be a problem as well, to much air and not enough body warmth to heat it.

Roadtrip to get more straw, woodchips, as well as cracked corn to beef up the chicken scratch at night (digestion provides warmth all night if fed at bed time) and we decided to get deer feed and salt licks too for the deer!

The farm we get our straw and feed from. I love this place....and the toys here! #farmgoals 😉
*The sign says "Area patrolled by Attack Cow" haha!"

Cold air, don't care....

So many bales and barn cats!

Scratch, corn, sunflower seeds for the chickens and deer feed. We buy from this farmer and skip the big box feed stores.

Back home to finish the coop. I removed any poop and spread 2 bags of woodchips to a depth of about 4" in the coop to add to the deep litter method. Then almost a whole bale of straw went in, bringing the litter "bed" to about a foot. For extra measure at least for the week, we closed off one side of the coop with a straw "tunnel" made of extra bales. Finally, a treat of cracked corn and sunflower seeds to digest all night and create more warmth. With the ventilation cleared at the top, things should be warm in there tonight.

It is a long way from the driveway to the coop!

Ooops, the bales bailed!

Early sunsets

Woodchips then straw for our deep litter method

Closing off the other half

Bedtime treats...for warmth

Mr. Hendrix, now dry and warm reunited with his ladies. Good night little chickies, keep warm

Thank you for reading! Take care of you and yours❤