This was originally posted in January 2016. I have come a long way since then.
My hands hurt. My back hurts. My legs hurt. Yesterday was clean out day. It has been in the minus -6 to -10 with a wind chill every day this week. Everything is frozen. I started with the chickens. I had to literally shove them out the door as they screamed at me not to.
I scraped as much as I could out, then threw in some clean shavings. Then off to the rabbits. I have this hoe that I use. It it very short and you can screw a longer handle into it. After digging out the frozen shavings in the floor pens, I moved to the cages. I love the slide out pans. Just take them out and dump them. Usually. But not this time. I scraped and banged and scraped some more. I don't know how other people clean their cages, but I don't know what I'd do without that hoe. Then I went out to my parents where my chicks are. 19 birds in close quarters with very little outdoor time. Again, the shavings on the bottom were frozen solid. It took me almost and hour and a half using a snow shovel and a lawn edger. I cannot wait for all this snow to disappear so I can start my barn. And I will be employing a poop board and sand instead of shavings. I want to get my birds home so they can get the attention they need.
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