21 November 2010

A taste of winter

It hasn't been quite as mild as last November, but it has been warmer than average and sunnier, too. It had also been fairly dry, but on Tuesday this week we had some significant rainfall (over an inch), as the bars in the graph below indicate.The line shows the highest temperature for each day.


On the following day the wind got up and our greenhouse suffered the loss of one of the plastic panels on the west wall:


And of course, it would be one of the ones at the highest point of the structure. Mike got it back up again today, but it wasn't a fun job, as the temperature didn't get above 1°C/34°F.

We also spent some time in the chicken coop this weekend, shoring up its rodent defences and sweeping off the largest cobwebs from the roof. Seems we've still only got one chicken laying - and I still haven't worked out whether it's a new hen or one of the original set.

2 comments:

Esther Montgomery said...

It must be a worry when things like this happen. Will that chicken stop laying too for the winter, or do you always have a few eggs?

Esther

Amanda said...

Hi Esther

Last year the new chickens started laying in late September and continued through the winter. But the new chickens this year were born later in the year, so it's possible that they won't start laying until the spring.

I discovered today that the one that's still laying is one of the older ones. These hens are all moulting, during which time they stop laying for up to 16 weeks while they grow their new feathers. So it's likely she'll stop too, soon. I'm missing their eggs!