trystinn | Reporting in from the Snowpocalypse

Despite weather predictions, its still under freezing here. We've lost a few more branches and likely the butterfly tree. I've been trudging back and forth through the snow, carrying water bottles several times a day. For the most part, the animals appear to be doing okay. They aren't loving the snow, but it gets pretty cozy in their coops at night with their combined body heat and the infrared lamps.

Unfortunately, we lost one of the bantams last night. My favorite, too. *sigh* I have no idea what happened as there's no marks on her or obvious signs of distress. All I can figure is she fell asleep perched in a draft, given her body was near the door.

In what is likely unrelated news, the bantam pullets have matured enough to catch Napoleon's interest. When I popped open their coop yesterday, I interrupted him settled over a pullet (a different one). Should be seeing eggs very soon, I think.

There is, unfortunately, a very slight chance that he may have been a bit too over-enthusiastic in mating his females and caused the pullet to die. While he hasn't any spurs to speak of, there are other ways a cockerel can kill a pullet, including positional asphyxiation - where essentially, the cockerel's weight prevents the pullet from breathing. I'm not confident this is what happened, as I find it a bit hard to imagine that in the freezing cold night the chickens decided to have a quickie. They may have, however, huddled together for warmth and suffocated her - though I consider that somewhat unlikely as she's one of the bigger gals.

I have extra infrared lamps and will likely be setting them in the coops tonight. *sigh*