Lazy Winter Days…… uuhhhmmm….. sure!

Now I have mentioned that there really isn’t too much going on around here in the winter right??  The snow is up past your knees, it’s cold, and getting geared up for going out there takes 30 minutes – minimum.   So I am convinced that everyone just fires up the woodstove and they park themselves in front of the TV for hours of Netflix complete with popcorn.  Sounds right up my alley!!  I sludge through the snow on weekdays to get to work, but I have these lovely, cozy visions of how winter weekends will be spent! But as appealing as that sounds…. apparently I was mistaken.

It is becoming crystal clear to me that a homestead is 24/7 the minute you have animals.  I mean the logical, intelligent side of me understood that, but it was so much easier to gloss over all that before we got the chickens. And in the fall the chickens were fun…. really!!, I looked forward to heading out on the weekend mornings and helping Chuck change the water, put out the feed and gather the eggs.  Until the snow came……  whole different story heading out to that chicken coop – that seemed so much closer before we got snow – three times a day – everyday.

So I am adjusting……  For morning feed, don’t bother getting out of your jammies, just pull your slippers off and stuff your bare feet and pajamas into your boots. Throw on a jacket with a hood over your pajama top…. if you are having a rough morning, apparently it is acceptable to just pull your housecoat over the whole dang thing. Get out there, get the job done and get the hell back in front of the fire.  The fact that it is black as pitch out there and I require a flashlight to even get there has not escaped my notice. Chuck is pretty smart – he makes me go with him before I have my coffee….. otherwise, if I have a nice hot coffee in my hands, I ain’t going out there!  He keeps this trip out there quick – just get in with the food and out with the eggs.

Later in the day the chickens apparently need something other than the chicken feed that we are giving them.  Since they can’t dig around in the yard for the little grubby bugs that they normally eat – we need to give them chicken feed and then some “treats” to keep them happy until spring. Now I know you are all sitting there wondering what the heck constitutes a treat for a chicken.  Well, I am happy to tell you…. chickens like fodder.  Yes, I had to google it too!  Fodder is apparently sprouted barley seeds, and chickens go crazy for them.  And oh goodie!  You can grow fodder at home.

So Chuck checks out the benefits of fodder for his little darlings.  What works best – apparently barley and wheat – and how much of it should they eat. He discovers that it is relatively simple to grow fodder in your own home.  Hours of research online and the skills of our resident MacGyver (hugs Darren!) and voila! we have a full on fodder growing system.  Water pours in the top bin and holes in the bottom allow the water to run into the next bin – and so on.  It actually sounds really nice when it is running.  Darren gets it all set up to a timer to run automatically  and in 7 days we have a ton of fodder…. I think we forget that we only have a handful of chickens – but  what a success!!  Chuck takes the initial batch out to the chickens who decide they love it…. good thing because we have enough of it to feed them for a week.  Chuck puts the fodder in a springy, hangy, thingy….. very technical term here, that the chickens peck at and chase around.  Google tells us that chickens can get bored in the winter because they don’t have the enormous field to run around in – and they can get a little nasty with each other – so this gives them something fun to do.  I had no idea!  Not as much fun as Netflix and popcorn, but great fun, I guess, if you are a chicken!

Now what to do with all that fodder??!!!!