Tags
cats, chickens, cold weather and chickens, desert gardening, greenhouse, new mexico, raccoons and chickens, snow, winter
The view this morning:
The chickens really do sit still when they sleep.
We used to worry about them in the snow and cold, and contemplate things like letting them into the laundry room, which opens to the outside, for their protection, though we only actually did that the night they were attacked by raccoons (which we didn’t even know lived here in the middle of Albuquerque). Two years ago we had a major cold snap here, with temperatures dropping down to -6 degrees, the coldest it had been for nearly 40 years. We set a lamp up in the coop, herded all the chickens in, and leaned boards against the door so they would stay put.
Sometime during the night they forced their way out, then went to sleep on the fences where they always sleep, with no apparent consequences. So now we just don’t worry about them.
But the snow was lovely; it transforms everything, not just the chickens.
The street
The woodpile
The pallets
The bell tower
The coyote fence
The greenhouse
You can imagine it’s not very warm in there.
Even the cats like the snow, because they aren’t in it. I like having the choice: knowing that I can go outside and let my feet go crunch crunch crunch in the snow, let it slip between by hood and my face and freeze my cheeks, and then I can go inside and drink hot chocolate, waiting for my Chocolate Applesauce Cake to come out of the oven.
Cheers, and Happy New Year!
OpportunisticOrchardist 