Cold Gator...Hot Chicks

This post is not earth shattering, except for the fact I only mention Dooley once. It does, however, represent the kind of posts I hope to do more often this year. I want to share some detail about how we solve problems and make life simpler out here in the woods. I have shied away from detail in the past because I know a lot of my viewers are farm owners and have their own and often better solutions for the kind of things I will be writing about. That being said…………….,

My dad owned a drugstore in Charleston West Virginia.  On occasion he would take barter in trade for merchandise. Over the years he traded for antiques, firearms, moonshine, a pony, fresh vegetables and so much more. Perhaps the most unusual thing he ever got was a baby alligator (this was back in the day when you could buy alligators in Florida at roadside gift shops).

 I became the keeper of the alligator. My mom wouldn’t allow me to keep it in the house so it lived in a large galvanized wash tub out beside the porch. I used to feed it by putting raw hamburger meat on the end of a stick and pushing it down near his mouth. When the winter months came I put a light bulb in the tub to keep the alligator warm. One night the bulb burnt out and the poor thing froze to death. I learned a lesson from that.

   I have one 60 watt light bulb in my chicken house for cold nights. It’s one of the few things I use my free electricity for. I did some tests with a thermometer to determine the placement of the bulb and wattage to get the temperature just right. I didn’t want it to be too warm. On a really cold night like tonight it will be a comfortable 50 degrees or so in the chicken house. Remembering the alligator, I have a second 60 watt light bulb wired in line with a 120 volt relay. If the primary bulb burns out, breaking the circuit, the relay trips and lights the second bulb. I know my chickens wouldn’t freeze to death without the extra heat like the alligator did, but I love my chickens and they deserve comfortable accommodations year round. In appreciation the chickens seem to lay more eggs when the light is on overnight. The switch for the chicken light is in the cabin. I used to have it low enough for Dooley the dog to reach it until I caught him turning the light off and on one night just to annoy chickens. That was in the early years. Dooley is a much mellower dog these days.