Blizzard of 2013
This isn’t really about my garden or my chickens.
Well maybe, my Dad called snow “poor mans fertilizer”. Well mother nature just dumped 22″ of fertilizer on my garden.
My poor chickens have been traumatized by the wind and the snow. I did get them to come down into the run late this afternoon. They don’t like change, and the run and ramp down to the run had white snow on them so the brave chickens stayed in the coop all day.
Me I ran the snow-blower most of the day. When I wasn’t behind the snow-blower I was trying to fix it. My snow-blower has tracks instead of wheels and one of the tracks came off. After much thought, many tools and a lot of colorful words I got the track back on. We got a lot of snow. My driveway is about 200′ long and wide in some places. When I close my eyes tonight I’ll see snow and a red snow-blower.
To prepare for the storm, I wrapped most of the run with tarps. This was to be a classic “Nor’easter” so I made sure the east and north sides had tarps.
9:15 am Friday snow has started to fall
It started snowing lightly Friday morning and it stopped Saturday about noon. This is what we got.
view from the kitchen door
chicken coop and run
run ramp with snow
When I opened the coop door I was surprised to see snow in the nesting boxes. The wind was blowing the snow everywhere and there is a small space on the nesting box cover because of the hinges. This is where the snow was getting in.
snow in nesting boxes
gap in nesting box cover
I will add some weather stripping to this cover, it’s got to be drafty too.
Here are some more Blizzard pictures. The tracks are mine from my snowshoes.
view of driveway from road
View down road with my mailbox
Did I mention we got a lot of snow??
“Red” and I
Ed
mygardenmychickens 
I was worried about your chickens : > )
I couldn’t get the snow blower here to work. Luckily I have a “slightly” smaller driveway to work with. Glad you guys (chickens included) managed to weather the storm okay.
Those are some lucky chickens! Looks like you guys take great care of them:)
My girls are in their coop under the stairs…which is much easier for me as well…but even when they are up in Cluckingham Palace, they boycott the run and have been for weeks. They don’t like snow or wind…they do have a big coop so they just stay in. A friend told me she put plastic around her run in the Fall and her girls go out…less drafty for the coop as well…maybe next year…it was quite a storm wasn’t it?
Yes, it was. The blizzard of 78 was worse but I didn’t have chickens to take care of then. Do your chickens “grumble” about this weather or the fact that they aren’t allowed out in the yard. My chickens have been very noisy. I think they are complaining.
Ed
They are noisy in the coop under the stairs…they still have trouble finding a good spot to lay their eggs there….but once that has been settled they are mostly quiet. In the regular coop they noisily crowd around the door when I come in …looking for treats….otherwise I don’t know cos I can’t hear them….but in general they are chatty girls anyway….maybe your girls are just normal New Englanders, always complaining about the weather.☺
We are getting some wet snow today. No real accumulation all winter. Thanks for the photos of the tarps. It gives me a good idea of how we can manage snow next winter. Right now, our coop, run, and started pullets have been ordered. Now we wait….
I was just visiting your blog. I was thinking of taking down the tarps last week, good thing I didn’t. There is about a foot of snow out there and it is still snowing and very windy. The ladies and Jack would rather be in the run than stuck in the coop and with the tarps they can. I will make some changes on how I secure the tarps next winter but I and the chickens are pleased with how they’ve worked so far.
Ed