Tag Archives: Rural Living

What Do Chickens Do In The Winter?

I know, your all wondering… how are the girls? Are they cold? What are they doing?

I’m asked this so often, I thought that today would be the perfect day to talk about it.

It’s this cold out today! seriously cold…

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Win and I took a walk down to check on the chickens. They were right there, greeting us like they always do.

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I didn’t have a treat handy, but I’ll find something to take down later. This is their hopeful scramble… Dad is much better at remembering to take them things. Actually, he probably would have taken them homemade oatmeal or something…

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Oreo didn’t care if I was there, she was staying inside. She’s one of our original hens. I think she arrived in 2007, our first chicken year.

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There’s a heater.

DSC01473 along with the oatmeal… I sense a pattern here.  It’s said that they don’t need heat, and I don’t think they do, but we feel better with just a little bit of heat to take the edge off.

Here’s their friend Zoe. She has a very nice hutch but she lives in the coop when it’s super cold out

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They still lay eggs, at a slower rate, but it happens.  We do put a light on for a little while at night to prolong their day time just a bit. The production slows down but it doesn’t quite stop completely.

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They also take turns sitting in this chair.

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and enjoying the view.

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sounds good to me  🙂

Stay warm today!

Michele

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The Great Chicken Integration!

So, last night at 10:00 just as I was about to take my shower and get my jammies on Michael said “come on outside, it’s time to move the chickens”…  of course my immediate response was ” really? seriously? you want to do that now? do we have to? how about tomorrow night?” Please!!

He said, “nope, no way, their getting too big for the tractor, let’s go!”

(meanie!)

So off we went, with a flashlight, in the dark, to the far corner of my back yard.. One by one we dug them out of their little house in the chicken tractor and gingerly placed them, two together, in the nesting boxes in the coop with with big girls.. trying hard not to step on poop or anything else that might be out there.

Doing this meant that I slept lightly, worried about what today would bring. We’ve moved babies up quite a few times and there’s still that mother part of me that worries about what’s going to happen to them out there. I raced out at 6am with my little guy  to check. It’s his job to feed them in the morning and I was concerned that he might encounter an unpleasant situation. Well, they were all in a tizzy but everyone was alive and well. The big girls were outside squawking because their territory had been invaded and they wanted to be fed their treats (have I mentioned that their a bit spoiled). The babies were hopping around the inside of the coop,  kind of upset and disoriented but busy exploring their new home. I went out to check again a few minutes ago and they were all outside in the run together.. at opposite ends but definitely sharing the space.

Before we know it we’ll have a really healthy and beautiful flock of egg layers out there!

Mission accomplished!! Whew!