I do believe in global warming and that we should do something about it – but it’s harder to believe on days like today when it’s currently -9 (F) and the high is only going to be -1!
my dry leather gloves stuck to the pump handle. That’s just too cold.
It certainly is! Doesn’t the chicken water freeze again right away at these temperatures?
I went out to do errands this morning – I was very glad I had a car with heat that works and I could park close to the places I needed to go. (And now I’m home again I’m glad I have a warm house)
That’s a reasonable question. We have a heat lamp in the coop, and the waterers are large enough that it takes a few hours for the water to freeze.
When it’s this cold, I keep one in the house thawing while the other is in the coop freezing. The chickens, for their part, are invariable more interested in the food.
Irritable –
Do many people keep chickens in England? I know of only one person in Long Beach California who does, but it seems a reasonable idea. Do you have an “allotment”?
The chickens don’t mind the cold – don’t freeze to death?
Martin, my brother and sister-in-law live in England and keep chickens. They keep them on an allotment. As best I remember, some other people with allotments near theirs kept chickens also.
I hadn’t thought about chickens or chicken coops in a long time. And recently, my daughter told me her friend has a few chickens she raises for eggs and they don’t live in the country.
I think it is a new trend to get back to growing our own – so to speak.
(as a child when I visited my Aunt – it was my job to gather eggs for the morning breakfast. :))
If you are interested in learning more, I ran across this article on Mother Earth’s site
Irritable, check out Wikipedia’s Allotment (gardening) entry, in particular the section about allotments in England, since that’s the country we’ve been talking about.
Apparently it’s a legal requirement in England to make a portion of land available at low rent for people to grow their own food on. (I didn’t know that)
Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about chickens but evidently it’s fine to keep them on the allotments my brother and sister-in-law rent.
Thanks for your comment, Elaine. My brother and sister-in-law say that home-grown eggs are way better than store bought ones. Has that been your experience too? I stayed with them when they had fewer chickens and not many eggs yet. I had the opportunity to have one of their home grown ones and it did taste good.
I know the egg question was directed at Elaine, but my experience is that the home grown ones are richer in both flavor and color than even the cage-free eggs we buy at the store.
Irritable, I’m sorry I didn’t think to ask you about egg flavor – after all, you were the one who first mentioned keeping chickens!
It sounds like your experience matches my brother’s family’s. I wonder if it’s because chickens raised by individuals tend to be fed higher quality food than cage free chickens raised commercially.
My dad pointed out that Birmingham Alabama was the same temperature as Anchorage Alaska yesterday.
Helen, have you seen Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth”? I don’t remember the details, but he explains there how wider variation in temperatures (both colder and warmer) is part of the effects of global warming – as is wider variation in rainfall & other moisture (some places drier, some wetter).
Not that that helps much when your nostril hairs are freezing with every breath!
to answer the egg flavor question – I will defer to Irritable. It has been over 40 years since I had fresh eggs and biscuits from my Aunt’s house. My memory is they were the best ever…but who trusts there memory at 60? :)
Regarding the weather and global warming – I can only tell you I have lived in the Cincinnati area my entire life (boring isn’t it?) – and the weather has gotten weirder and weirder in the last 10 years. We had 75 degree weather one day in January and had a tempature of 10 degrees the next day. that is not normal – even for Cincinnati. :)
Comment by: Irritable
1Fed the chickens this morning, replacing their frozen water with non-frozen, and my dry leather gloves stuck to the pump handle. That’s just too cold.
Comment by: Helen
2It certainly is! Doesn’t the chicken water freeze again right away at these temperatures?
I went out to do errands this morning – I was very glad I had a car with heat that works and I could park close to the places I needed to go. (And now I’m home again I’m glad I have a warm house)
Comment by: Irritable
3That’s a reasonable question. We have a heat lamp in the coop, and the waterers are large enough that it takes a few hours for the water to freeze.
When it’s this cold, I keep one in the house thawing while the other is in the coop freezing. The chickens, for their part, are invariable more interested in the food.
Comment by: Martin Gugino
4Irritable –
Do many people keep chickens in England? I know of only one person in Long Beach California who does, but it seems a reasonable idea. Do you have an “allotment”?
The chickens don’t mind the cold – don’t freeze to death?
Comment by: Irritable
5Hi Martin, and thanks for the question, but I’m afraid I can’t answer it, since I live in the United States.
But I have to think that there are people in the English countryside keeping chickens.
Comment by: Helen
6Thanks for answering my question, Irritable.
Martin, my brother and sister-in-law live in England and keep chickens. They keep them on an allotment. As best I remember, some other people with allotments near theirs kept chickens also.
Comment by: Elaine
7How funny to see this on the blog.
I hadn’t thought about chickens or chicken coops in a long time. And recently, my daughter told me her friend has a few chickens she raises for eggs and they don’t live in the country.
I think it is a new trend to get back to growing our own – so to speak.
(as a child when I visited my Aunt – it was my job to gather eggs for the morning breakfast. :))
If you are interested in learning more, I ran across this article on Mother Earth’s site
Comment by: Irritable
8Soooo…
What’s an allotment?
Comment by: Helen
9Irritable, check out Wikipedia’s Allotment (gardening) entry, in particular the section about allotments in England, since that’s the country we’ve been talking about.
Apparently it’s a legal requirement in England to make a portion of land available at low rent for people to grow their own food on. (I didn’t know that)
Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about chickens but evidently it’s fine to keep them on the allotments my brother and sister-in-law rent.
Thanks for your comment, Elaine. My brother and sister-in-law say that home-grown eggs are way better than store bought ones. Has that been your experience too? I stayed with them when they had fewer chickens and not many eggs yet. I had the opportunity to have one of their home grown ones and it did taste good.
Comment by: Irritable
10What a great idea.
I know the egg question was directed at Elaine, but my experience is that the home grown ones are richer in both flavor and color than even the cage-free eggs we buy at the store.
Comment by: Helen
11Irritable, I’m sorry I didn’t think to ask you about egg flavor – after all, you were the one who first mentioned keeping chickens!
It sounds like your experience matches my brother’s family’s. I wonder if it’s because chickens raised by individuals tend to be fed higher quality food than cage free chickens raised commercially.
Comment by: Eliza
12My dad pointed out that Birmingham Alabama was the same temperature as Anchorage Alaska yesterday.
Helen, have you seen Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth”? I don’t remember the details, but he explains there how wider variation in temperatures (both colder and warmer) is part of the effects of global warming – as is wider variation in rainfall & other moisture (some places drier, some wetter).
Not that that helps much when your nostril hairs are freezing with every breath!
Comment by: Elaine
13to answer the egg flavor question – I will defer to Irritable. It has been over 40 years since I had fresh eggs and biscuits from my Aunt’s house. My memory is they were the best ever…but who trusts there memory at 60? :)
Regarding the weather and global warming – I can only tell you I have lived in the Cincinnati area my entire life (boring isn’t it?) – and the weather has gotten weirder and weirder in the last 10 years. We had 75 degree weather one day in January and had a tempature of 10 degrees the next day. that is not normal – even for Cincinnati. :)
Comment by: Helen
14Eliza, I haven’t seen that movie. Thanks for pointing out that wider variations is part of the effect of global warming.
Maybe the worst is over – it’s all the way up to 12F as I write this!
Elaine thanks for your comment.