Well, we made it through the winter.  Winter for me here in Iowa was more mild than last year, snow wise, but much colder.  The chickens handled it surprisingly well.  I put a CFL bulb in their coop (which they did not like) for warmth (I guess it’s supposed to be a heat bulb.  Duh)  Anyway, after a few nights of them sleeping on top of the coop away from the light in super cold weather I decided they must be hardy enough and not need the extra warmth, so I removed the light.  I did however wrap their coop in the fall with bags of leaves, including the roof.  This seemed to work well enough that they weren’t in trouble through the winter.

No problems there.  Dragging out to deal with frozen water twice a day was a bit of a pain.  Especially when it was dark on both trips.  We managed.

But, now that spring is here the chickens are really earning their keep.  They’ve been pacing the walls of the dog kennel wanting to get outside to explore and eat, not unlike me in my house, although I don’t have to go outside to eat.  When I’ve let them out they have done a fantastic job of digging up the garden and working in the leaf shreds and compost I’ve put on top of the beds for them to look through.  I had heard about how good they did this, but even I’m surprised at how well they do this.  It’s kind of shocking even.  Better than advertised as far as I’m concerned.

We’ve had a mishap or two with plants and the cold frame, but there is enough other stuff for them to get into that they don’t come back after being shooed away.  They are even starting to learn that when I come after a while it means they need to get back in the kennel for the night.  They don’t seem to mind pushing back from the buffet and going home to rest for a while.

Keep an eye out for more chicken info in the coming months.  Drop a note to us on the Barnyard about your animals.

Slate has an interesting article about whether you’re better off buying certain items at the store or making them yourself. Their primary focus is cost, though the author does address quality to some extent. They leave out plenty of other factors that might come into play – supporting local growers, sustainable farming practices, or various other ethical considerations. But let’s face it: money is on a lot of people’s minds right now.

The article runs into some accounting problems, like apparently including the cost of canning jars in the cost of making preserves. If you’re doing that, what about the canning kettle? Or the stove for that matter? Canning lids I could see, but canning jars are a buy once, use forever item. The author also talks about buying organic strawberries. Were they in season? Were they shipped in from another time zone? Strawberries can vary a lot in cost and quality based on these factors.

Still, the article’s definitely worth a read. It also ties into our current lead article pretty well, and we thought it could make for an interesting discussion topic in The Barnyard. What do you make from scratch? What did you think would be hard but turned out to be easy? What did you try and give up on? What are you thinking about trying? Let us know!

This website was recently shared with me so I’m sharing with you.  It’s about scavanging a garden together for little to no cost.

The 2009 No-Cost Garden