The chickens were OK kept inside there house but keeping liquid water available to them for more than a few minutes at a time was a real challenge. First I tried giving them warm water but it still froze within an hour, as I work night shift that was not a problem, they don't need water during the night, but after a 12 1/2 shift I need to sleep for 8 straight hours. So giving them warm water at 08.30 when I get home was just not going to cut it, as it was dark long before I get up at 17.00. A google search, a trip to the supermarket later and liquid glucose added to the chickens drinking water proved successful. Vaseline applied to the chickens combs and waffles helped to prevent frost bite. I'm really exposed here, not that far from the north sea coast, we had many nights of -20 C even the days were about -5 and the snow was deep between the back door and the chickens house.
The water butts were frozen (it seemed like completely) for about 5 weeks then thawed for a couple of days before freezing again for weeks.
I keep about 4 gold fish in each of my water butts, firstly because I love to see life in strange places but more practically because they eat all the biting insect larvae that would use my butts to mature and then bite me and my animals. They have really thrived on eating insects and the occasional pinch of fish food, and they along with some oxygenating weed weighted to the bottom keep the water crystal clear. I know the worst thing you can do is break the ice as the vibrations kill the fish but feared my lovely goldfish were ice cubes or worse slowly suffocating! But the ice was so thick, there was no way I could have broke it, like I said, it looked like it went all the way to the bottom! I was trilled when the ice finally melted and it seemed like all of the goldfish were fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment