They had a few mercilessly cold nights, we bring them hot water in the morning and let them stretch their legs on a little straw patch. They look relieved and happy to have made it through the night.
They had a few mercilessly cold nights, we bring them hot water in the morning and let them stretch their legs on a little straw patch. They look relieved and happy to have made it through the night.
I take it they have heating inside that coop? How is it powered?
They don’t. Feathers insulate well and we picked a breed that’s hardy in the cold (Rhode Island Red). The only way I can rationalize it is that people didn’t have heating in coops for hundreds of years. I’m also astonished by how animals spend nights outside (deer, coyotes) and by outside I mean outside, not even in a coop. It’s making me realize that we need to evaluate their capacity for resisting cold independent of how we feel about it. Even just saying “resisting cold” is biased, as far as I can tell chickens don’t even register it’s cold until -5°C. Spending the night at -10°C is no problem. Anything bellow they start having a rough night and we try to give them fresh straw and warm water to help.
They look pretty good from here.
Cest laquelle la prochaine qui passe à la casserole ?
None of them for a couple of years at least. They’re layers and just started laying. So they have a few bright days ahead of them 🙂