A Very Chicken Christmas

The brutal winter cold came early this year! Normally I'm prepared for "North Pole" type weather around January or February, but this week has been quite frigid. With windchill, we've been having below zero temps in southeastern Michigan which has made my daily chicken chores take a bit longer.

Chickens actually are quite winter hardy, like so many other types of outside animals. Instead of keeping warm from the outside in, like humans, livestock keeps warm from the inside out. Let me explain. When humans get cold, we wear more layers of clothes and heavier coats to keep warm. Most outside animals don't wear coats, so God made their bodies to handle the cold a bit differently.

Chickens eating their breakfast of cracked corn.

Although many outside animals grow an extra layer of "fluff" to help them endure the winter months, their main way to stay warm is eating high energy food. High energy food includes things outside that is high in fiber and calories, such as nuts, bark, twigs, acorns, grains, berries, alfalfa, and corn. The fiber and calories warm the animals internally by revving up their digestion and sparking their metabolism.

Every winter, I have to remind myself that my girls were designed to survive the cold and I have to trust in God's creation...otherwise I would be tempted to stuff 70 chickens inside my house, haha. I've been going through a 50 pound bag of cracked corn a week by giving my chickens a "Christmas" sized portion every morning and evening, which has done a very good job of keeping my flock happy and quite a bit warmer. I also threw a 20 pound bale of straw on the ground. Straw is excellent at keeping a barrier between the frozen ground and chicken feet.

Because the girls are staying inside the coop right now since we have six inches of snow on the ground (they DO NOT like walking in the snow), they are not as exposed to direct sunlight....which has greatly slowed down their egg production. Out of 70 chickens, I'm getting between two to five eggs a day. They've had to preserve their energy for extra warmth by skipping their daily egg. So, I've had to stop my egg deliveries until the egg production picks back up again in March.

A change of topic...

My rooster, Maui

I'm typing a preview to next week's post so I force myself to do a task I've been dreading...taking the spurs off of my rooster, Maui. Roosters don't typically last very long on the farm due to protecting the flock and getting eaten, but Maui is two years old...the oldest rooster I've ever had.

A rooster's defense is a sharp, bone-like thorn sticking out of the side of their ankle called a spur. They use their spurs to stab predators in the face during an attack, giving hens enough time to get away from harm and hide.

Maui's Spurs

Spurs never stop growing. They keep growing and growing and growing.

Maui's spurs are at least three inches long, making walking, roosting, and mating super difficult. Because I love Maui, my husband and I have to take a Dremel tool to saw his spurs down to a reasonable size to make his life much better.

Obviously I've been putting off this chore, because I'm not sure how Maui will handle me holding him down while my husband cuts a part of his body. The Dremel tool is loud and vibrates. Roosters tend to get defensive during an "attack" even though this "attack" will greatly help him live a better life.

So, now that I have this in writing, hopefully I can give a full report about this "fun" experience in next week's post.

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly