Winter at the Farm!

 A heavy 18 inches of snow before Christmas put us right into winter in Northern Michigan. The steers and goats don't seem to mind the cold or the snow but the chickens are not too happy to be "cooped" up all day.

Chickens are locked up tight for the winter. We let them run around the farm until the snow was too much. Chicken feet don't do well in the cold snow.

Just as beautiful in the winter as it is in the spring, summer and fall.
 

Egg Layers

We started off with 12 egg layers in the summer of 2011 (1 rooster and 11 hens). This year we added 12 more. We should have plenty of eggs by mid summer. We bought our chicks from the local Farm store. They are supposed to be pullets but, just like last year, it looks like there will be a couple roosters that will be going to the butcher.

With the 11 hens, we average about 7 eggs a day. I read that if you keep a light on in the coop in the winter months to extend the daylight hours, they will keep laying all winter. It worked.

We let the chickens run free range during the daylight hours. They work their way back to the coop by night and we lock them up tight. I do believe they put on about 2 miles a day making rounds around the farm, occasionally going back to the coop to eat, lay an egg and water. We also leave water outside the coop for them on hot days.