Winter Homesteading

Now that temperatures regularly drop below freezing at night . . .

. . . I often find the chickens' water frozen solid when I let them out of their coop each morning.

I've even started setting an alarm to check their water early in the afternoon on cold days

to make sure it hasn't turned to undrinkable ice.

The shorter days also mean that egg production has slowed down.

Some of our friends' chickens have stopped laying altogether,

but we still get about one egg each day.

Even Reesey occasionally lays an egg in her recovery tote!

Since the chicken tractor is parked for the winter and our hens can no longer forage much,

I've decided to experiment with sprouting to vary their diet

and give them something interesting to peck at in their run.

I'm starting off with lentils, since I have them on hand.  We'll see how that goes.

I'm also taking another shot at growing herbs under grow lights.

When I tried it last winter, the only thing that did well . . .

. . . was a thyme plant stretching toward the light from its mason jar.

It seemed pretty happy though, 

so hopefully I can find ways to help other herbs flourish too.

Whether my winter homesteading experiments pan out or not,

it's fun to try new things and I'll have "snow regrets."