Winter on the Farm

Winter poses a variety of challenges even for a small farm like ours. Though our goal has never been to receive an income from the farm, it still needs to operate like a business and generate profits from some parts that pay for other parts - feeding us along the way. With this in mind we've been trying to keep up egg production this winter. A lot of hobby farmers put their layers in the freezer come winter as it's not worth the hassles. I might agree in some ways but it's nice to have a relatively steady (albeit tiny) income from eggs sales which will eventually go toward our hay purchase in the summer. Our two lambs will go to slaughter soon and we hope to sell some lamb to friends and coworkers then. Here are some of our solutions to the obstacles that winter provides.

Lack of Light

As anyone who has kept chickens would know, chickens need a supplemental light source starting in the fall to encourage egg production. The pituitary gland behind a chickens eye is stimulated by light which creates a hormone that eventually reaches the ovary via their bloodstream and kicks egg production into gear - amazing! So with two incandescent bulbs on for several hours at the start and end of each day, these ladies are showered in light for 15 hours/day. With this we've been able to keep the chickens from molting and maintain pretty solid egg production. These girls were 18 months old when we got them at the end of September so their egg-laying days are numbered anyway. Overall this fall/winter, egg production has been rather good from our 40 - then 35 (cat attack) - now 32 (1 drowning in the big water trough, 1 egg eater was "offed", 1 skunk attack) hens.


Frozen Eggs

As Christmas mail volumes have increased at work (I'm a letter carrier) I've been getting home later in the day. This means the eggs aren't collected as soon as I'd like so two problems have resulted. The first is that the eggs have been freezing and second is that the chickens aren't coming outside due to the cold and then get bored and end up eating their own eggs. This is a strange behaviour that can be difficult to change as I understand. Our neighbour Edie gave us some egg-like rocks she found on a Lake Superior beach last summer and I've added those into the laying boxes in hopes that a harshly unsuccessful peck at the "egg"will discourage further attempts. Otherwise, I've loaded the two end laying boxes and all of the lower laying boxes with straw in hopes that some insulation might help with egg freezing. Usually we get a lot of sunshine in the winter and this is less of a problem as the barn is south facing but this hasn't been the case this winter thus far. All this put together has resulted in cleaner eggs and more of them so some moderate success.

Chicken Sh!t




Another issue with winter, again with the chickens, is that they don't like to venture too far. Starting in the fall these "free-range" ladies weren't getting much further than the barnyard and once some colder weather set in the furthest they would get was into the part of the barn where the sheep, llama and alpacas eat and sleep. Unfortunately, the quaint little scene of chickens mingling with the mammals is incredibly frustrating because the chickens will invariably end up perching atop the manger and sh!tting all over the fresh hay. Obviously, no one is interested in chicken excrement flavouring on their hay and
it goes untouched and thus wasted. So with some fencing I picked up at the free store (dump) a few months ago, I put together a bit of a chicken yard for the hens. They don't use it as much as I'd like them to but if I'm able to keep some wasted hay or straw on top of the snow they will come outside and get some nice fresh air. I usually dump kitchen scraps into this fenced area instead of in the barn and that gets the hens outside at least for a few minutes.





Hydration Station

Keeping all 43 beings out there well watered in the winter is a bit of a challenge. My friends Brendan and Marcelle at Sleepy G Farm have this great setup with a frost-free outdoor faucet conveniently located near their chicken barn. That is definitely the way to go but before we invest in such a thing I use a good old toboggan to haul water out to the barn. It's good practice for the syrup season to lug buckets of water up from the basement everyday! In order to keep the water in liquid form I've got a heating element in the big trough and an aluminum covered element that sits under the water fount for the chickens. Both work rather well, though our electricity bill does reflect this additional load.

With all these extra issues in mind we're contemplating whether or not to continue with egg production for the rest of the winter. The mammals are relatively easy to take care of in the winter. All they really need is a constant supply of hay, water and shelter and they're happy. Ippi and Izzy will go to the abattoir soon so hay needs will decrease a bit. The chickens on the other hand are a bit of work. Feeding, watering and egg washing take up a fair amount of time and though I really like having them around it may be more economical to keep hens just in the Spring/Summer/Fall. If we end up putting the layers in the freezer, eventually destined for the soup pot, I'll be sure to first freeze many dozen eggs worth of blended eggs into ice cube trays to enjoy for the rest of the winter. I've done this in the past and when cooked they're almost as good as freshly scrambled eggs, but without the trip to the grocery.

Some of the livestock we acquired over Christmas....

And a pic of Nina.....

Ella saying hi to the sheep...

 





And finally, another tricky thing about winter is keeping kids' mitts and boots on. We use duct tape to seal them to Ella's coat. It works rather well.