At the beginning of this week, the east coast of the United States braced for the biggest snow storm of the year. Winter Storm Stella. It was compared, pretty much, to the Blizzard of 1993, I remember, because I was just turning 18 and preparing to spend Spring Break in Florida with my favorite aunt, who just happens to share the same birthday as mine. I spent part of it being snowed in and the other part stuck at the airport with my grandfather, hoping my flight wouldn’t be cancelled.
It was. He wound up getting me a new flight, so I could spend my 18th birthday with my Birthday Aunt. I miss my grandpa.
Flash forward 24 years and here we are – Winter Storm Stella.
I feel like we were well prepared. I bought extra chicken feed, wood chips and we had half a bale of straw. Given that our coop is actually inside a retired dairy barn, they had plenty of buffering against the wind (which was considerable at times) and the most part, the chickens had all they needed.
This is the view of things Tuesday Morning, BEFORE it really got bad outside. Snow had maybe only been falling a few hours.
Yikes! I know, right?
Our friendly neighborhood turkeys? Spent most of Tuesday hiding in the lilac bush. They have a roost in their owner’s barn, but that really didn’t seem to matter. They did some wandering, looking for food in Mom’s bird feeders, and kept returning to the shelter of the lilac bush until the day started to turn into evening, and then they switched to the evergreen bushes on the other side of the house.
For a while there on Tuesday, I was afraid we were going to have to bring them into the garage overnight, but during a lull in the wind, they left us, flying off towards their own farm, and we did not see them again for the rest of the storm.
My chickens, spent the same two days safe and warm in their coops. They got extra BOSS, warm spaghetti, and other good things to keep them happy… although, I did have to explain to Abby what was going on. You see? Abby is the boss and everyone knows it. So when I showed up LATE on Tuesday morning, and didn’t let them outside, she started to scold me. So I had to pick her up, carry her to the door and let her see the wind and the snow and after she’d seen enough, and was satisfied that I wasn’t just slacking my duties as a Chicken Mom, she stopped scolding and told the others to be calm about it, too.
Abby is a really good hen. Smart. I don’t know what she told them, but it worked and there really weren’t too many incidences to speak of. They even kept laying eggs, which I was concerned about, given the circumstances.
Here’s what it all looked like this morning, after 2 days of snow and wind and more snow.
And here are the chickens, safe and sound after being cooped up for two whole days.
I normally given them the option,but the way the wind was blowing, opening the door would have been a very bad idea. Very bad. So they were very pleased to see the light of day, feel the sun on their feathers and the wind in their feathers.
There a Chick 