No storm damage but a fluffy bottom
My Twitter feed today has been full of nearly squished chickens, roofs flying off sheds, greenhouses half blown away and house roof damage but despite living near a lot of very tall trees, this was the extent of the damage we experienced in yesterday/last night’s gales:
Because we live next to woodland, wind always sounds much worse than it is around here – even light winds create a constant roar through the trees – and every morning after windy nights, I wake up expecting three trees to be smashed through the greenhouse, half our roof tiles on the floor and the chicken coop have blown away to the marvellous land of Oz. It’s always a relief when I see that hasn’t happened.
The bird feeder isn’t even broken – just the twine that was holding it up – and I’ll get the chickens up to that level of the garden tomorrow (when it’s supposed to be sunny) for seed clear up. I’m sure they’ll love that chore.
Speaking of the chickens – four small things:
- John’s dad surprised us with a trailer load of woodchips yesterday so they have a nice fat layer in the run – lots of fun to scratch around in and much better for draining a storm’s worth of rain. The woodchips always smell great – usually like a pleasantly woody men’s aftershave but today they (or at least the garden) smelled like raita/yoghurt and mint sauce. Not like mint but specifically like yoghurt and mint sauce. I don’t know why but I’m not complaining.
- I mentioned this on Twitter earlier but for those not on that mighty social media timesink, the partial roof I put on the run last month survived the winds just fine, therefore I am ace and a master craftswoman. And/or the chicken run is in a sheltered dip and I got lucky.
- Rain/mud issues aside, this winter (so far) has been much better than last winter for our girls – I’ve not had to defrost their drinkers at all (I was doing it twice a day during the coldest bit of last winter) and they’ve kept laying well – we got four eggs (from six girls) just about every day in December despite the short days, them getting older and the fact it’s been moult season.
- Blue the chicken has been the last to moult and since the others are all refreshed & perky, she’s dropped right down in the pecking order these last few weeks. As my new joint favourite chicken, I’ve felt sorry for her so I’m pleased to see her bottom is getting nice and fluffy again. Hurrah for fluffy bottoms.
Have you suffered any weather-related damage to your house or garden this winter? Do you have any ideas why the new woodchips smell like raita? How do you feel about fluffy bottoms? All important issues of the day! :)
About Me
I'm Louisa and I live a Really Good Life. I grow, I craft, I cook and I make the most of what I've got instead of forever craving more.
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Louisa, is our house still standing??! Glad the chickens are surviving the winter! Katie x
Actually … what I meant to say above is that just our bird feeder fell down but OTHER HOUSES ON OUR TERRACE COLLAPSED ENTIRELY. ;)
I am surprised that none of our 7 hens (4 ex batts) have started moulting yet this year. We have been getting between 4 and 7 eggs a day from them all throughout Dec and there was only the once that we had frozen water to deal with. All in all, I will be very happy if this winter continues as it has last month.
Me too! I did enjoy the snow last year but this year has been considerably easier. I’ve not had to scrape frozen poo off the bottom of the coop once ;)
Yesterday we had to remove the covering from our mini polytunnel as it shredded in the winds. Luckily I had enough fleece to cover the winter salads growing in there, so hope they recover. The cabbage cage was tilting crazily and some pots and buckets had blown around, but no damage to our old house and outbuildings. This morning I discoverd the wooden arch over the gate into the garden has fallen apart in the wind,its only held up by the honeysuckle and clematis, so will have to hack it all down tomorrow when hubby is available to help.Sounded terrible when the wind was lifting the slates on the roof and slamming them down again, so we’ve been lucky really.
So your Chooks new plastic roof held up to the test! Marvelous
Perhaps the Woodchip has rotted slightly and the smell is related to some yoghurt like bacteria. I have had yeasty smells and one palm tree rotted in a most unpleasant way that I initially thought was due to our dog. As such I would recommend against eating any. (wood chips or for that matter, rotten palm hearts) One of our chooks managed about 3 years without moulting. It is so much nicer to see a fluffy bottom than the hen pecked alternative. Now that all three have moulted it is almost like they have gotten out of the habit of pecking feathers, although since they have been cooped up a bit more in the cold weather they seem to have got a bit worse at pecking. Lost a bit of Wendy House Roofing felt, but nothing serious. I went out at night in the wind and dared not go any where near the big trees, It amazes me just how much those huge solid tree trunks can sway +/- 15 deg.
Hi Jan, oh I would have hated to hear slates banging like that – glad it didn’t result in any actual damage though. Will you be able to repair/replace the arch without damaging the honeysuckle/clematis or are you using it as an opportunity for something new there?
And hi Jan #2, yes, it might be something like that. When we’ve had chippings from the same (council) place in the past, they’ve been warm so they’re clearly already rotting down a bit.
We don’t have much of a problem with pecking, thankfully, only when something else is afoot (such as when one of them is ill with something else).
Oh big trees swaying! The trees in our garden & in the nearby woodland are very leggy and boy, can they sway!