Rescue Journal

ahhh yes...it is almost winter again.

Carol  ·  Nov. 5, 2011

the two things i truly dislike about this time of year is....the dark and the ice.

since it is a weekend..i will be putting the barn guys to bed...which means trying to get off of work early and shorting my much needed paycheque or trying to put to bed in the dark. and i hate the whole rushing home trying to beat the sunset...A..i always lose and B...the animals are freaking out when i get here cuz god forbid it is dark outside... so.... collectively they decide that someone MUST have forgotten to put them to bed.
daylight savings time starting tomorrow just makes the whole situation even worse.

DST has got to be the stupidest idea that anyone got a good chunk of the world to buy into.

and ice formation is a big issue...A...it ups our heating and electricity bills especially with outside waters needing to be heated...and B..ice is freaking dangerous to our elderly and frail farm animals esp. the horses...they could slip and break something and that would spell the end of their life.

plus KO thankfully pointed out to me that i have to do something about floyd and crosby with the cold weather cuz their houses are too small for heat lamps. i m thinking of moving crosby into the rabbit room for the winter...it is warm and safe and she doesn't move around much anyway. but what to do with floyd?

does anyone know if ducks become less sexually active in the winter? cuz edwina has finally quit faking headaches and hiding in bed and she is again happily out all of the time.

i suppose i can move him down to the bigger and empty chicken house but that is 2 pens away from his friends and he is already upset enough just being seperated by a single roll of wire.

winter is only a great season if you don't have to worry about it hurting or killing or upsetting, your farm animals.

Comments

Brent

Carol, I looked up those pig mats and they look pretty interesting and safer than a heat lamp.

teri

Have you thought about pig mats instead of heat lamps for the ducks? You put them on the floor and the birds stand on them. Keeps their feet warm, which keeps the whole bird warm. Also safer than heat lamps, and they don't burn out.

here is a link to an example.
http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod;11051;ft1_swine_industry;pg106120.html