As I started out on my first snowy adventure here at Gentle Breeze Farm, it occurred to me that I was in fact doing exactly that. Really, that is the perfect word to describe the scenery that stretched before me. Somehow, there was a charge in the air and the clear ringing of beautiful birdsongs, simultaneously set over an incredibly tangible stillness. A flock of robins passed overhead and off in the distance, a lone red-tail perched high in a barren tree. At my feet, the snow wasn’t quite heavy enough to completely cover the thick grass, so I couldn’t determine every visitor who passed through in the wee hours, but I did manage to pick up the trail of a coyote. I tracked its prints a good way, until I lost them in the woods where the roots and tree cover broke up the snow even more. A resident rabbit leaped from where it was hiding and made haste to find a new spot to hunker down. I am so thrilled we have them here.
Gentle Breeze is only an hour from where we used to live, so the seasons and weather are nothing new or surprising, but somehow in the new landscape and the new set up, it is like experiencing each one for the first time. This will be our fourth winter with the chickens. Snow is nothing new to them, and yet as the temperatures dip and the snow falls, I have already been out to check on them twice. It will actually be our first winter with outdoor ducks, though…. Last winter we had just one duck and she had been attacked in October, so she spent the whole winter inside our house. She had her own bedroom. Now do you think we needed a farm? HA! But, I am sure I will over-react, and I’m sure they will be just fine. They’ll be out there surviving precisely the way the Lord created them to. Well, almost. I will be installing Cozy Coop heaters.
There is always the debate over whether or not to put a heat source inside the chicken/duck housing, and really it comes down to being a personal decision. You just have to decide what you can live with. Outdoor animals do naturally grow in insulating feathers and fur to protect them in the cold. And they eat more to help keep themselves warm. I wouldn’t want to provide so much heat so as to hinder this natural response that their bodies have. Additionally, since heat sources have to be powered, a high source of heat could be a risk if the power goes out. Once the heat was cut, the temperatures would drop quite quickly which could shock the systems of the birds and risk their lives. Definitely no good. However, I am also the type of person who worries to the point that I will get up at 1 a.m. and trudge out in the cold and wet just to open the chicken hut and make sure they aren’t freezing to death. This is why I bit the bullet and wound up ordering the Cozy Coop heaters from Amazon. They put off a radiant heat, so basically, the girls can cuddle up to them if they need that extra warmth, but they don’t significantly heat the space surrounding them so no extreme temp changes no matter what happens. We have used them since the first winter with no hiccups, so I have become a fan. Easy for me to mount to a sidewall and keep out of the bedding, but they also come with stands if that is your preference. They have worked consistently for four years now and give me the peace of mind to stay inside through the snowy nights, so I find them pretty handy. But again, that’s just how we have decided to handle things here.
Similarly, with the horses, this is not my first winter. I had Smokey last winter as well, but up until now, he has always lived on someone else’s property. I always chose to keep him somewhere that I knew he would be able to be what he is; a horse. To me, that looks like being out 24/7. Of course, he always has access to shelter so he can choose to take it if he needs to, but it has been my experience that horses seem to thrive when given the choice to roam freely. I have chosen all that in the past for him, and he has survived and been perfectly healthy. But it changes things somehow, when you are making these decisions on your very own farm. I can’t quite pinpoint the reason. I suppose it may just take some time to acclimate to. But on the first few very cold and wet nights, I felt compelled to walk out into the pastures late at night and at about 5:30 the next morning, just to lay eyes on them and make sure my equine friends were still doing okay. They were.
Interestingly, the cows and the feral cats are the two I have no prior experience with and also present the easiest and most difficult scenarios, respectively. Time will tell, how things play out, but so far, the cows are the ones I worry about the least. They do a very good job of tucking themselves into the barn when they feel the need to. Perhaps, it is because they were here before I was, or perhaps it is something else I can’t quite explain, but I just feel like they know what they need. I give them their clean hay and fresh water and they pretty well seem to manage the rest. The cats on the other hand, go against everything I am used to. I have always had cats, and they have always been in the house, so it is very difficult for me to close the door on them outside in the cold. They are scheduled for trapping and treatment this coming Monday, so hopefully I will have some better options for them soon. If I know there is no risk of disease to our indoor felines, the laundry room may very well become the feral’s winter shelter until I can find some loving homes. Good grief. We shall see!
One way or another, cold weather is here and now we begin the challenge of learning what that looks like here on the farm!
Until next time!