winter farm animal care: what we do to keep everyone cozy
first off - winter is my favorite season. more so northern winters. i love everything about them.
winters in texas are very unique. instead of an entire season, texas has daily winters. for example: one day will be 80 and extremely hot, the next will be humid beyond belief to where you can’t go outside without sweating than another where you walk out to a frozen windshield and forced to make chili that day. with this being said, preparing for winter is more of a daily task than seasonal task. i don’t care for it.
for our ducks, {and two chickens}, we bed their barn with a deep layer of straw. this next part is controversial, we do add a heat lamp. the key is properly. we added a heat lamp when our rooster was culled by a predator and rosemary was lonely. we wanted to ensure she could stay warm herself if she didn’t have anyone to roost with. she now has panini and they are great. the lamp stays on until the temperatures get more steady. we are also expecting kids from our does and they will have the heat source when the temps are colder than we like for the babies. our ducks don’t use a heat lamp, nor do they sleep in the barn much. they like to lay at the very entrance and frolick in the rain, sleet and whatever may come. ducks are fantastical at being hardy in any weather. another key component is ensuring the poultry has a draft free area, that way they are protected from the wind and elements.. this helps them retain more of their heat. which transitions into how we prepared our goats.
a little backstory on who is with who now
currently, we have three pregnant does. mama oreo, our first lady. piper, our sweet older gal. & then smores, our pretty with a bitch attitude girl. (she is for sale after she kids!) mama oreo is housed with the ducks and winston and have full access to the barn. they are set up. the boys are now altogether again. freddie has been holding his ground impressively. he’s definitely our smallest guy aside from mr. winston. but he’s stout and full of grit. he’s a strong one, while being gentle with the ladies. that’s probably why he’s the ladies favorite. orion, sully and freddie are locked in. dusty is set to be culled, but i am undecided on the date. i’m thinking mid march. another conversation for another day.
for the goats, we got them an area where they would stay dry and the wind wouldn’t affect them. the boys are more sensitive than the girls it seems. they will find any sort of coverage and huddle together, while the ladies lay in the open. we provided an area that was full of straw so they could lay in that, but the boys started consuming the straw, thinking it was more hay and we took it away entirely. the girls knocked all the straw off their platform and chose to lay outside on the ground by a tree. all in all, straw was clearly not the ideal choice for the goats. they waste so much hay because they decide to lay in that instead.
for ducklings and chicks, they stay indoors for a little while before we are comfortable letting them stay outside consistently with fluid weather. if it is early spring or summer, than they would be brooding outside, but until march or they get some feathers, i don’t feel extremely comfortable with them outside. i also am trying to rehome one of our pups who will kill my birds, so i’m avoiding outside at all cost currently.
overall, winter prep is not awful. it’s just a lot of checking the weather to see what we are up against. we believe in letting the animals do their natural instinct and basing it off that. our ducks and chickens do well without straw or bedding, in fact they prefer none. for the eggs, it is beneficial because it keeps them dry. our male goats prefer just to lay in their hay and have a draft free area, while the ladies just lay wherever.
farming is different for everyone, so what works for one may not work for another. my best tips are:
take guidance from the animals
experiment with different beddings
do things properly if using a heat lamp
