Dear reader - it has been a long time since I've updated you on "the girls". We just celebrated their 1st birthday last week and the brevity of time came into focus for me. Everyone survived winter for starters. I was really expecting to find at least the weaker ones frozen to the roost at some point. Mr.BCF made some attractive blue tarp flaps for the bottom run - tarps, so many uses. We also put a lightbulb in the roost to keep them from being found frozen to the roost. We had to play with this one. The initial lightbulb/aluminum reflector combo proved problematic. It has a big springloaded clamp on it which you simply attach to the overhead beam. But, girls will be girls and they simply can leave anything alone. They (fill in the blank here) until it fell down, night after night (I never caught them red-winged, but I have my suspicions). Often this would knock the lightbulb out, which defeats it's purpose. So, with a dented lampshade and fear that I would end up with 6 whole chickens in my freezer, I put on my inventor's hat. I got 2 bungee chord and lashed a flowerpot to the lampshade (they happen to be the very same circumference). The girls stayed warm and I could sleep at night. So, it is Spring now and the girls are 1. We had a party, complete with cake and guests. Our guests brought cut apples and Red River Cereal - what a party! BCFjr. couldn't have been happier except for the fact that he wanted his entire class to show up on a Tuesday night. I prefer a more intimate affair...party favours were a carton of eggs - of course.
