By Diane Lockspeiser

There was a question online: “How do you keep your chickens warm in Winter?” Most answers were sensible things like providing a draft-free place to roost. Some suggested making them a bowl of warm oatmeal. I know they would like that, but I’m certainly not doing it! Some answers felt downright silly to me, like knitting them hats and sweaters.

I loved one person’s answer. He wrote simply, “My chickens come with feathers.”

Like the other birds out there, inhabiting the trees and bushes of Wintertime, chickens have soft downy feathers next to their skin. They puff out the tough outer feathers to allow air to form an insulating layer, holding in their body warmth like a down jacket.

They sit on their feet to warm them. Those feet also have some sort of separate circulatory system to allow them to withstand being colder without affecting the body warmth of the chicken.

They can tuck their heads into their feathers for warmth. Since they can still get frostbite on their combs (that part that’s usually red), the hat idea is maybe not so silly after all. The blackened part with frostbite usually falls off, though. The chicken is then not as picturesque, but it doesn’t seem to affect them otherwise.

My seven chickens all stopped giving me eggs back in the Fall. The egg laying had been gradually tapering off during the Summer. The skin on their bottoms was bright red and they were losing large patches of feathers. Having unsuccessfully tried several remedies, I decided to just let them die out. I still give them food and water, of course. Once they were gone, I would thoroughly scrub down the coop and start all over with new chicks. That was the plan.

I started letting them roam loose, figuring that if they weren’t going to give me eggs, they could at least eat the bugs. Gradually, I even stopped opening and closing up the chicken entry door for nighttime protection, no longer caring if a predator carried them off.

Ironically, the fox has stopped coming here since we got our new dog, Max. The bald eagles still circle the fields on occasion, but the nearby crows gang up to chase them off. The open fields have mostly been full of snow anyway, and the chickens understandably don’t like to walk on the snow.

We had a few warmer days when the thinner layer of snow beneath the giant spruce trees melted. The ladies emerged from the coop to hang out there. To my surprise, I realized that they are looking better than they have in a very long time, despite the bitter cold weather we’ve had. Still no eggs, though.

 I will continue to do the very little I still do for them until they are gone, but I’ve decided NOT to start over again once that happens. As much as I’ve enjoyed having chickens over the years, these days I am feeling my age and therefore enjoying having daily fewer chores to do!~