Winter On The Farm

The sheep farmers delivered a fourth load of hay stems which their sheep wouldn't eat:

 The next morning, this was all that was left, just enough for my cows to use as bedding. Two days later, our heavy snows began, preventing their truck from getting into my pasture - so there won't be any more deliveries until we have a thaw (but not too much of a thaw, lest the ground become too muddy):

 One of my little Easter Egger bantams began laying one small green egg every four days or so. That's just right for my use, though I have to collect them before they freeze and burst:

 All the action this time of year is at the hay bale feeder. It's eat, eat eat - alternating with rests for cud chewing:

 The little horses, of course, don't chew their cuds but they do take breaks to enter the barn to escape the wind and eat a different kind of hay:

 Blue and Remy continue to surprise me with their attraction to waste hay. If the much bigger cows were protecting the bale feeder, I'd understand - but I've never seen any sign of that:

 The bantam hens need their room cleaned, but that will have to wait for a break in the weather:

 The Barred Rock bantams are getting a bit old now for laying hens, but for me they are pets, and fewer eggs is actually a blessing:

 The little hen inside the house has grown her feathers back and is looking good, but with the extreme winter weather we've been having, I haven't been willing to put her back outside yet:

 The pigeons' room is getting stinky, at least when the room is above freezing. That job too will have to wait for better weather:

 I can see pairing and nesting behavior, but there have been no eggs laid yet:

 And every two to two and half days, I go out and move the bale feeder, then unwrap and deliver one more hay bale. It does not look like I'll have enough to get through the winter, but I have small bales up in the hayloft which I can use: