Chickens Are Ready For The Winter

Meredith's profile showing through the lighted doorway.

That is Meredith's head looking out on the right side and the south end of a buff Orpington headed north on the left.

After spending Thanksgiving Day roaming the woods and generally avoiding the company using the yard, the chickens gathered outside their coop on Thursday at night fall.  Because snow was falling, they were anxious to get inside their house.  The Buff Orpingtons had never seen snow before.  Meredith has been through four winters but who knows how far back she remembers?  On Saturday I wanted to move the coop to the winter location next to the garage door.  But first I had to get the chickens out of there.  With an inch of snow on the ground they did not want to leave.  They don't want to put their dainty feet in the cold white stuff.  I had to manually remove all six chickens and put them on the wood pile or the small section of patio that did not have any snow.   Meredith does not mind being picked up but the buff Orpington's really dislike being handled.  The chickens watched as I cleaned out the coop, put in fresh wood chips and installed the heat lamp.  Installing the heat lamp is tricky because in order to reach  the hook I must lie down on my back half in and half out of the coop.  Lying in a chicken coop is something I only want to do right after it has been cleaned out.  I filled up their food container and added grit to the mix. Now that the chicks will not want to wander they won't be ingesting rocks from the yard so I must add them to the feed.  The chickens need the rocks in their crop like I need my teeth in my mouth - to digest food.  With the light and six nearly full grown chickens in there they should be warm and cozy all winter even with the door open.