January On The Farm

My old camera died during one of the coldest days of the year (at least I hope it was one of the coldest), so I bought a new camera and tried it out through the window near my computer. It was brutally cold outside, through dirty glass, and had both sun and shade. I was pleased with the photo, and it showed my side yard in wintertime:

And speaking of photographing snow (which is difficult sometimes), these are Cottontail Rabbit tracks which I often find outside my door on wintry mornings. I suspect the rabbit(s) is eating sunflower seed which has fallen from the bird feeders. Yes, those are my footprints all around the rabbit's:

And speaking of bird feeders, it hasn't gone well this year. The huge flock of House Sparrows which lives in my barn hayloft was gobbling up all the seed. Then Blue Jays and Cowbirds arrived en masse and chased everything else away, even the House Sparrows. The Chickadees, Cardinals, Chipping Sparrows and Juncos got bullied away from the feeders. And besides, a thick layer of bird poop appeared on my steps and porch. I think I will have to stop feeding the birds when the seed runs out:


Indoors, however, things are calm and peaceful in the chickens' room:

  I have seven Barred Rock Bantams and four Easter Egger Bantams. They are through laying eggs for the season except for one bird who lays a nice, pinkish egg every other day:

The Barred Rocks are getting kind of old to be much good at egg laying, but they still lay in the summertime:

That brown/gold hen on the bottom right is the bird who lays the pinkish egg every other day:

The fantail pigeons are happy and healthy in their own room. Those who are permanently paired stay together through the winter:

I read a study once which said that although pigeons mate for life, they also fool around with their neighbors when they get a chance:


The cattle and horses seem immune to the cold and snow, though I did let the cows into the barn for the coldest nights. They ate all the hay I'd put down, pooped all over everything and then went back outside anyway:

Most days are comfortably mild and the herd is happy:

I noticed that the apple trees had a ring of melted snow around each base. I looked it up and learned that the dark colored tree trunks absorb the sun's energy faster than the white snow, then radiate it outwards: