Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The barn window last night.

Yesterday I woke up with a cold and the thermometer saying 10 below zero.

Today the thermometer says 16 below zero, and I'm feeling worse.

This is tough weather on the animals especially if they do not have shelter. 

Luckily with our new barn, this is not an issue for us.

Cows are pretty tough Critters and the colder it gets the thicker there fur gets, which can be darn right adorable when they get very fuzzy. They can handle the cold pretty well as long as they have the opportunity to stay dry and get out of the wind. 

They also need to be fed very well to keep their body temperature up. 

Pigs, however, do not handle this cold as well at all, even though they do have hairs on their skin they are not furry. They have a much harder time keeping their body heat in and who can blame them would you like to go outside naked? 

The birds are vulnerable to this type of weather, the chickens especially. 

The Ducks are better suited,  they have a thick layer of fat and very thick waterproof feathers so they actually very much enjoy the snow and like to play in it.

 They can have problems with their beaks freezing shut if you're not careful about how you feed them because Ducks prefer to eat their food wet, it is healthier for them and safer because that is how they are naturally made to eat.

Chickens have a harder time keeping themselves warm and are susceptible to becoming very wet and chilled. Our hens are in the barn and the coop with heat lamps and this helps them, they do perfectly fine in this weather if they have that opportunity to warm up. 

 Below 20 degrees I tend to keep my animals inside, not for long periods of time if I can help it because they get stir-crazy for more than a few days at a time and the barn will get very messy.

This causes another problem for farmers in this type of weather because it's harder to clean out their stalls.

A lot of times their manure freezes and there isn't a heck of a lot you can do about it. Sometimes you can chip it off the cement floor and remove it, but sometimes you just have to give them a whole heap of new bedding and bury it so that they're not laying on it.

As I have said before I like the cold but this kind of cold can be dangerous and unpleasant, and it is worse because I have a cold right now. 

Farmers tend to not work outside when it is this cold if they can help it because as I just said it is truly dangerous to be exposed to this kind of cold for too long. 

I have deep sympathy for all the wild animals when it becomes like this. 

This is good timing for me because it's so cold I can't work outside anyways so it's nice to be cozy and held up in the house while I'm sick.

Hopefully, this will blow over in a few days because regardless of whether a farmer is sick or not, the Animals still need to be fed and kept clean and warm.

so I will be pulling on my boots and charging out to the barn twice a day the entire time I'm sick regardless. 

This is just how we do it, it's built into our life.

I'm not saying that I don't give my body time to rest and recuperate from being ill, but I still need to do, what I need to do, for my animals and that is just the fact of a Farmer's Life. 

Stay warm everyone and please remember to dress properly, it is very important!