Winter storms, wily coons and building a better breed of chicken

It's been another cold and snowy winter so far here in Caldwell County. We enjoyed the first white Christmas in a blue moon and ended up with nearly 8 inches that stuck around til a week ago. Now, we're expecting a big winter storm to arrive tonight with another 6-8 inches. It's been real cold too, down around 10 degrees last night and no higher than 30 all day today. Good weather for staying inside and reading and watching football. The big pile of firewood I stacked last January looks smaller and smaller these days as we go through about 8 pieces of wood a night. I've been eyeballing some of the red oaks around the house thinking of how good they would look sawed up, split and stacked into the pile. Without using our electric baseboards at all and relying on the woodstove and a ceramic space heater to keep us warm, we have managed to keep our power bill down to about $100/month. Which is a good $30-40 less than we were paying a month last year at this time, however it isn't too comfortable waking up in a house when the air inside is below 50 degrees. So we've been discussing having a heat pump put in and some newer windows to keep the heat inside. We've had Sears out here to look over the house and give us an estimate and were floored by their proposal to install 2 heat pumps, one for the downstairs and one for upstairs. We need to do something that will keep the house more livable in the winter and summer, but it looks like for now we'll need to get a few more estimates and then just do the downstairs.

Going back to work has been a real blessing for my sanity and self-worth. I don't have the time to spend on farm chores and household projects that I used to, but I definitely appreciate the weekends more now. Commuting up to Boone in the winter isn't as bad as I had worried it would be, but still quite an adjustment for a guy who used to take the bus to work everyday.


sunrise view from bluffs just before Blowing Rock, Hwy 321

It's 40 miles and about an hour each way. I've loaded my truck up with about 400lbs of Quikcrete over the back axle, put on some all terrain tires and gotten used to rolling slow in 4wD through a couple of stretches. The snow isn't usually much of an issue but when we get some sleet or freezing rain, I've learned to be as cautious as a werewolf's dentist especially when I'm going downhill.

headed back home to Lenoir after a day of heavy snow

I've really enjoyed being back around other people and having a regular schedule again. One thing I really savor is the sense of superiority I feel when I head off to work on Friday mornings while April is still sleeping on the first day of her perpetual 3 day weekend. I've done the math and in approximately 2 years I will have caught back up to her in total days worked despite being a househusband for over a year. Petty competitive things like that add spice to any relationship. April has been really awesome about helping pick up the slack on the chores I'm not getting done these days like bringing in some firewood from the porch each night, vacuuming up dog hair and making sure the chickens have adequate and unfrozen water. Despite her providing them with sweet, liquid nourishment; one of the roosters has taken up something of a vendetta against my sweet wife. The big white rooster has made April's trip to her car each morning more of an adventure, cornering her against the garage door while puffing and flapping and occasionally nipping in for a peck or two. He learned quickly from my right boot that these tactics were both ineffective and impolite when he tried them on me; but I don't think April has been able to land a solid "behavior modifier" on Mr. Rooster yet. So she has resorted to a little trickeration involving stale bread or tasty compost bin fodder to distract him while she sprints to the safety of the garage. I told her not to appease the terrorists because they will only increase their demands and I expect the rooster will soon be expecting our finest meats & cheeses in exchange for her safe passage.

On a less humorous note, another chicken bandit arrived on the scene this week absconding with three hens from the safety of their coop at night with no evidence but a few feathers. Each morning I would rise for work and check on my girls, the headcount would be one fewer. I did the usual lockdown and kept them inside their coop 24-7 until I realized they were disappearing at night from inside the coop. I rigged up the game camera I got from my brother-in-law for Christmas to try and catch the bandit in the act but ended up with a whole bunch of candid chicken pics and not much else. So, I decided to enlist Clyde the Blue Heeler as my poultry protector since the 3 roosters weren't doing much of anything to stop the thief. I left Clyde outside for a day which resulted in him scratching up the front door trying to get back inside to his buddy Otto and a bald bottom on our German Shepherd who spent the day biting his ass fur nervously due to being separated from his buddy. I was ready to try leaving Clyde locked up in the chicken coop overnight to deter the weasel, fox, raccoon or chupacabra who was stealing my hens when I finally figured it all out. A wily coon has actually removed 3 or 4 large rocks from around the foundation of the coop and wormed his way in before opening an unlatched door into the coop and grabbing a sleeping bird and making his getaway for three nights in a row. I rebuilt the foundation with larger, heavier rocks, concrete blocks and boards and have started latching and locking the side door to the coop every night. So far, no more losses but I am seriously considering purchasing both this contraption (Niteguard) & a livestock guardian dog puppy to raise with the chickens so I can continue to let them freerange. I am looking at Maremma and Komondor breeders within a 12 hour drive of us and am wide open to any suggestions on a good breed to keep the hens safe. I learned from butchering chickens this last summer how valuabkle a good livestock guardian dog can be, even watching the sky for hawks and warning his flock by barking for them to seek shelter from death from above. The main thing we will be doing differently this time is raising a working outdoors only dog to stay with the chickens all the time instead of a couple of treat guzzling, bed sleeping layabouts like Otto and Clyde. Bless their hearts...

The reason we are feeling the need for a full time bodyguard for the birds is that we will have 45 new residents here on Cardinal Ridge come April 4th. We are working toward building up a flock of about 100 chickens, but given that we only had between 18-25 at any time this year; I wanted to do this incrementally. Knowing that I am at high risk for further predator losses I am planning on both using the livestock guardian dog and trying to encourage brooding behavior with my hens so they can start to add numbers to the flock the natural way. After some research into more primitive breeds of chickens that do well free ranging in environments with lots of predators using natural camouflage and being more aware of their surrounding than the egg production breeds, I decided on these additions:


10 Golden polish- known for laying lots of white eggs and broody hens, their plumage should blend in well with the woods around here

10 Rose comb brown leghorns- The dark color and quick actions make for a good range bird where there is danger of predators. They are real hustlers, range far, and look out for themselves very well. Well adapted to cold climates

10 Anconas- Famous for laying large white eggs. Their dark color and active temperament make them a good bird to raise where hawks, owls, and animal predators are a problem because they do not show up like white breeds; and they are very quick and alert. They are an old breed in the Mediterranean Class, coming from the area around Ancona, Italy

10 Araucanas- A choice more for the saleability of their beautiful eggs than their ability to survive predation. Known a the "Easter Egg Chicken", this unusual breed gets its name from the Indian tribe of Chile where they were first discovered. Araucanas lay beautiful colored eggs of blue-green shades from turquoise to deep olive.

5 Sumatras- Finally, a substitute for the peacocks April convinced me not to order. This breed came from the island of Sumatra in far off southeast Asia. It is a graceful, longtailed fowl with lustrous greenish-black plumage throughout, small comb and wattles, very rare and beautiful.

Hopefully, we can get a few broody hens raised from this motley bunch and the roosters will do their job and we can start hatching new chicks the old fashioned way instead of ordering new babies each year. We selected for qualities and appearance with careful consideration for our location, predators and climate and are interested to see which breeds will do best here and what genes will be passed on to their offspring. Kinda feels like being a mad chicken scientist...