Oh hey there November!

Seems like October went by way too fast.  Halloween didn't have the party like I had thought about having but we did get all the critters and Rob moved in, got them all housed, and have feed. (Yes for Rob too).  The chickens are growing like weeds.

 Developing their combs.  I am still not sure how many are cockrels but I know my favorite grey one is, so he will get to live on and be the rooster of the brood.  I hope the hens produce more grey birds like him.  I need to find a good picture of him (or take one).

 Since the chickens were growing so well we needed to build them a bigger brooder. So we moved them into what looked like a work room in the garage (now more barn).  It let them spread out more and I could put in a bigger feeder and waterer.  They were going through their quart size ones every twelve hours.

 You see that little gap all pallets have?  Did you know that if you put the gate on the outside of it the chickens can get through that?  I need to learn to think more like a chicken.  Only two escaped (that I know of).  They weren't too keen on going far.  The red one was sitting on one of the iron girders the room is built on and I caught it and put it back in.  The black one walked out will I was feeding and all I could do was stand there and stare as it wandered under the floor.  If I reached for it I knew it would just run further, it was in the two foot gap between the hay and the brooder..  I hollered for Rob but he and Kevin (thank you for the help again) were in the midst of working on stuff.  I talked, asked, begged, cajoled, and eventually the chicken listed (it was chirping for its buddies) and it walked back in on its own.  And I learned a valuable lesson about chickens and pallets.

Everyone is getting comfy and snug for the winter and we are doing well heating the house with just wood so far.  We will need to get some more wood soon though.  We have a little left up in St. Louis that is seasoned we can bring down but it won't last through the colder weather coming.  I am trying to decide what would be cheaper, a few cords of wood or some propane.  I will be cutting down some trees to start clearing the land and so we can have the dry for next year.