Dirty Chickens Are Clean Chickens & First Snow

DIRTY CHICKENS ARE "CLEAN" CHICKENS

In the chicken world, you don't want your chickens to be too clean. Chickens are the type of animal who actually take baths in the dirt. Yup, the more dirt they get under their feathers and right on their skin, the "cleaner" they are. Why? These dust baths help to keep unwanted pests, like mites and lice, off of your chickens. Which is really important to someone like me.... I'm not scared at all of mice, snakes, rats, spiders, etc. But bugs that live on you (like lice and mites) make me want to run away. Just run away and never come back. (Note: human lice are different than chicken lice, but yuck all around anyway. And another note: I mean no disrespect to anyone who has had fought the lice battle in their own homes. God bless you. I will be calling you from a far-away-land to ask you to help my abandoned family if it happens to us. I promise to help you with the snake in your house/yard in exchange.) :)

So whenever I see my girls dust bathing themselves, it makes me very happy. I also have provided my girls a little bin that they can dust bathe in inside their coop for when the weather is wet and therefore no dust is available. It's a combination of playground sand, fireplace ashes, and Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth. Some people are wary of Diatomaceous Earth because it can cause respiratory troubles if inhaled in large quantities, but I think its pros (killing lice and mites without using pesticides) outweigh its cons.  Here is a video of my ladies enjoying their dust baths.

Click here to see the Dust Bathing Video: Dust Bathing Video

Hanging out on the ladder in their run.
Like the hen-carved jack-o-lantern?

FIRST SNOW

We had our first snow of the season last night! This is our chickens' very first experience with snow!
They seemed okay with it. All of our chicken breeds are cold-hardy, so they should do pretty well with the colder temps. In fact, I caught Daffodil tasting the new white frosty "treat". Maybe I can convince them it's ice cream?

And Jessie and Cooper were excited to play in the snow again. Here's a video of their morning romp. Click here for the video: First Snow Romp

It is the middle of November, so it was time for a little snow in our parts. This one was easy. Just a thin layer of snow. And now that it's mid-afternoon, it's all melted away. I'd say it was a perfect introduction of snow for our hens.