Last Forage of the Season

This weekend we had our first snow of the season. In between snowball fights, we hauled our Eglu coop into the garage to protect the chickens from the bitter cold of winter. Before we brought them in for the long haul, we experimented with what they would do in the snow. Normally eager to run all over the yard, they refused to move from the one patch of grass that was left over from the protected shelter of their henhouse.

The last forage of the season

With some coaxing (okay, I admit I picked the chickens up and tossed them off the grass), they stepped around in the snow, but they were clearly bewildered and uncomfortable. There was very little pecking and scratching, a hen's favorite occupation.

Cold feet!

Amelia shakes the fallen snow off her back.

Inside the garage the chickens seem less busy and content as well. I feel bad for them, really, but it's better than wind in the feathers and snow underfoot.

Other news is that I have to admit an erratum from my last post. I thought we had a champion chicken laying a dozen eggs a week, but as it turns out, two of our hens are laying. I had it deeply etched in my mind that we would get brown eggs from our Rhode Island Red, white eggs from our Orpington, and blue eggs from our Ameraucana. When the brown eggs started appearing, I assumed they all belonged to our Red, Tilda.

Tilda is just about to lay an egg in the nesting box.

Over the weekend I opened the henhouse to check the nesting box, and Honey was all hunkered down in there. Had she started laying, too? Ten minutes later my son Xavier came in with a warm brown egg, and my foolishness was revealed! I double-checked my reference book, Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, and Orpingtons do indeed lay brown eggs. Poor, underappreciated Honey had been producing all week with Tilda getting all the credit.

Alethea Morrison, Creative Director
All photos by Mars Vilaubi