Blue Tamago

Aaah, autumn, that's when the leaves start turning, the air is clear and crisp right? Well, all I'm thinking about now is that it's friggin freezing. Seriously, it's only the end of April and we're get sub 10 degree temps already? And what is with this freezing arctic wind? This morning in the coop, 6.2 degrees and the inside of the coop was dripping with condensation, despite the ventilation. Mind you, the bedroom in the house wasn't much better, 8 degrees and the windows were dripping with condensation. Makes me wonder what winter will have in store for us. Penguin and I have a morning ritual. I give them their treats/breakfast for the day, (today was raisin toast) and he gets a cuddle and preen. He falls asleep during his cuddle and gets nice and warm while my toes in the wellies loose all sensation and freeze. I still feel rather amazed that Penguin trusts me so much that he'll fall fast asleep in my arms. None of the other hens tolerate...

You know when it's cold when you go out to greet your chickens in the morning and you get a chicken wanting to be picked up and cuddled. Buffy decided that being held by a warm human was such a good idea that he really snuggled down. His rested his head back to such an extent that he was having trouble breathing! No thanks at all to the human holding him, shielding him from the wind -__- This made me realise that I had better start preparing their coops for winter. I've read on many forums that chickens can brave sub-zero temperatures and they will be fine in the much milder Adelaide winters. But it's hard to think that when you go out in the morning, it's 7 degrees and Penguin and Buffy both want to be picked up because they are shivering. These are a few things that I did to keep their coops warmer at night.

Call it the scientist in me, but I had to see if there was any truth to this: Eating cheese before bed will give you crazy dreams or nightmares. 

As the days start rolling towards winter, daylight hours get shorter. For our chickens, this means more time in their run and supervised less free-range time outside their runs. I know that when winter is here, I'll be driving home from work in the dark and I won't be able to let them roam around outside after work. So we started thinking of several environment enrichment options.