The Freckled Farm Soap Company

Tag: Cold

  • Helping Farm Animals Deal with the Cold

    It’s almost officially winter. It won’t be long before we are dealing with extremely cold temperatures!

    Helping Animals Deal with the Cold - The Freckled Farm

    Most farm animals are built to deal with the cold to some degree. They have thick skin and a thick coats, but when tempatures drop well below freezing, like they did last winter, they may need a little help. Below I have outlined some ways we help our animals stay warm and healthy even when the temperatures reach frigid levels!

    1. We deep bed both our barn and chicken coop. When the temperatures start to drop late fall we do one last deep clean of the barn and chicken coop, then start a very thick layer of straw. It is imperative that you make sure you get good quality straw that has never gotten wet. You do not want your straw molding. On a daily basis (for the barn at least) we clean up any manure and extremely soiled straw then add a clean layer of straw. Most of the poop falls through the straw to the bottom of the bed (with the exception of the llama poop since they poop in one spot and it starts to build up), where it begins to compost and generate heat. The heat from the composting matter heats the barn and keeps it (in our case at least) significantly warmer than the outside air.
    2. When building our goat shelter we opted for a true barn as opposed to a lean-to like so many do for their goats. We wanted the option to completely close up the shelter if need be. If we are expecting extremely cold temps we can close the barn door, trapping in the heat from the deep bedding and their body heat. It’s also extremely helpful when you are kidding when it is still cold!
    3. One of the big challenges of winter is keeping fresh water available. In freezing temperatures the water buckets freeze in no time. We haven’t gone as far as to heat our buckets yet, although I feel that time is coming as our herd grows… We just check them often, either dumping out the ice and adding fresh water or adding warm water to thaw the ice.
    4. Finally we increase their feed. In the winter we more than quadruple the hay rations for the animals. They do not have grass or forage to eat (when it snows they won’t even leave the barn) and we want them to maintain weight, if not put a little more on, to help pad them for winter.

    While most animals can deal with cold temperatures without much issue, following the few steps outlined above you can help them get through the harshest points of winter.

  • What’s up Wednesday – 1/8

    It was a cold day on The Freckled Farm yesterday… as it was for most of the country. Monday and Tuesday night we closed the animals up in the barn and coop. Normally we leave the doors open to the pasture and run, but we wanted to prevent any wind from getting to the animals and to allow the deep bedding to do it’s job. The animals faired well through the cold weather, although there were points when I was working in the pasture that I could see the goats shivering. They ended up spending the entire day in the barn, only coming out when I was doing farm chores. We have one chicken though who decided that she wanted to molt late in the season and still hasn’t gotten all of her feathers back. I have worried about her quite a bit, but she seems to be doing fine.

    On Tuesday Kevin went out to feed the animals around 5:30am and the temperatures were in the negatives with the wind chill. He closed everyone back up after they were done eating and I went and let everyone out once the sun came up. I had to go out several times during the day to remove the ice from the water buckets. This is my least favorite winter chore. We thought about getting heated buckets, but the breeder of Tina and Hillary told us to avoid them because they lower the goat’s resistance to cold, and if the bucket should break or the electricity go out the cold water could end up hurting the goats. So I trek out the barn and coop every couple of hours to remove the layer of ice that has formed on the water and add warm water. Last year there were only a few days that we really had to fight ice in the water buckets. If we lived in an area that is as cold as what we are dealing with right now all the time I might have consider investing in something else to combat the problem!

    In other news, today is our first day at My Courthouse Market in Goochland, VA. This is an INDOOR farmers market located inside the YMCA in Goochland Courthouse. The market runs from 3pm-7pm. Come and visit us!