The whole focus of this week has been on dealing with the animals in the snow. From freezing conditions through the day to -12deg centigrade at night, keeping four moulting chickens warm is a challenge. The handles on the eglus were freezing so I have fashioned some covers out of pipe insulation which work well. Keeping the chickens and rabbits with water is a several times a day trip.
Cleaning them out has also been challenging as the drawers on the hens eglus froze despite all our digging out of snow. The rabbits have faired a bit better they tend to use litter trays in the run, though at one point they were frozen to the ground, at least their bed area was clean.
We had an avalanche of snow of the north side off the house the other night taking all the cast iron guttering with it. We are waiting for a quote for the repair job - won't be cheap - but as it is an area that never gets sun at this time of year it will be a while before the work can be done. All we can be thankful for is that no-one or animal was hurt.
The snow has also come off the solar panels so we are starting to make a little elecricity, nothing compared to what we are using but at least it off sets till the longer brighter days of spring and summer.
Cleaning them out has also been challenging as the drawers on the hens eglus froze despite all our digging out of snow. The rabbits have faired a bit better they tend to use litter trays in the run, though at one point they were frozen to the ground, at least their bed area was clean.
We had an avalanche of snow of the north side off the house the other night taking all the cast iron guttering with it. We are waiting for a quote for the repair job - won't be cheap - but as it is an area that never gets sun at this time of year it will be a while before the work can be done. All we can be thankful for is that no-one or animal was hurt.
The snow has also come off the solar panels so we are starting to make a little elecricity, nothing compared to what we are using but at least it off sets till the longer brighter days of spring and summer.
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