Baby its cold outside

Sometimes I feel that we may have done ourselves a disservice by naming our home Windy Acres. Maybe things would be different if we had named it Sunshine and Rainbows. The wind seems to blow cold and strong all day long. It's cold (really really cold), it's snowing, it's windy and did I mention that it's cold? Heading out to the chicken coop for the morning routine takes more time with all the bundling up that is required. I feel like Ralphy's little brother in A Christmas Story whose mom bundles him up to the point of immobility. The walk seems longer and longer with each degree below freezing. The chickens take a quick peak through their door and decide that inside the coop is much a better place. With all the snowing and blowing, there isn't really anything of interest outside for them.

January is always a little sad for me. The hustle and bustls of the holidays is over. The Christmas decorations and lights are packed away. Family and friends are back to their normal routines. Ventures outside are only if necessary and as quick as possible. Everything is gray (the sky, cars from the salt). All you really want to do is build a fire in the fireplace, hunker down with a good book and drink some hot chocolate. Spring seems soooo far away (and here in Indiana, it is at least another 2 months). The one bright spot is that the seed catalogs start arriving in the mail. I can start dreaming of the things I want to plant and changes that I want to make to the garden this year.

Egg Production Updates
Once the roosters were disposed of, peace and harmony (for the most part) returned to Little Deuce Coop. One of our Buff Orpingtons did get pecked a bit on her comb. but we caught it early, administered some anti-biotic ointment and she seems to be back in good graces with the rest of the girls.

Egg production has been up despite the cold weather. The week before last, we had a record week with 60 eggs. Generally, we seem to be getting 4 to 5 dozen eggs per week. We're on the lookout for a small fridge to put inside the shed as eggs are taking over my refrigerator. As you can see, it's quite the production line in our kitchen getting all the eggs ready for packaging and sale.