As you can see, a new barn is taking shape. To let the cat out of the bag (the chicken out of the coop?) I’ve written a children’s book featuring Snowball. It is a silly piece of fiction and will be illustrated with photos. Some of the scenes take place in a barn, and so I decided that I needed a new one. I didn’t, really, but what a fine excuse to build a larger barn and to get more chickens. The book is due out in the Fall of 2008, and once the contract is finalized, I will post more details here.

Speaking about children’s books – I hope that you have perused my list of favorite kid’s books featuring chickens on the Chicken Keeping site. I’ve just added a new one, Why did the Chicken Cross the Road? which has double-page spreads, illustrated by well-known children’s book artists, that purport to answer that age-old question. Very funny.

It was 25 degrees today, but the wind had died down and most of the chickens were standing around in the sun. I brought them cabbage leaves and stems (I’d made a “Chinese Chicken Salad” a la 1980 — a classic). The few girls in the henhouse came hurrying out for the treat. All 10 hens were at my feet. But where was Candy? Not in the yard, not in her hutch, and not, from what I could see peering through the little chicken door, in there on the henhouse floor. She loves cabbage and I was a tad concerned that she wasn’t hopping over. So, I went into the coop and there she was – settled in nice and comfy in the bottom right-hand nesting box! She had on the expression of a broody hen. No doubt Candy knows that the very nesting box she had claimed is the chickens’ favorite. Another rabbit joke played on the girls? Or simply Candy realizing that what the hens like, she might, too. We’ll have to watch and see what the girls do when they notice that their number-one box has been claimed by a bunny.

It’s 8 degrees this morning. Where are the chickens? Outside pecking at the scratch corn. Where is Candy? In the chicken house, drinking warm water and eating the laying hen pellets. But, the wind is supposed to pick up and it is going to be brutal out later, at which point the girls will go indoors and annoy each other. I’ll put a cabbage in the henhouse later today to keep them busy (and healthy – greens are very good for hens).

Cabbages are cheap, right? Not if you’re shopping at Wholefoods Market and the only options are organic green cabbage or savoy. I bought a head there anyway. I spend a huge amount on American beefhide rawhide flips for my dog, Lily (she goes through several a day – doggy prozac for my crazy puppy). I also buy Lily supposedly indestructible toys which she shreds, sometimes in minutes, or, with luck, a few days. I also make tug toys for her (not hard to do, just braid strips of polartec and sew in a squeaky toy). All of this is to say that I spend a heck of a lot keeping my dog happy. So why not buy an expensive cabbage for the girls? I won’t do it often – those big cheap cabbages satisfy just as well -but this once? They’ll need it today. I think of it as an expense like those rawhide flips for Lily. And if that’s elevated the hens to a status above “backyard chickens” well, that’s obvious already, isn’t it?

BTW, Marge is laying lovely brown eggs. That’s the nice thing about hens, for all the trouble and expense you get something tangible, and absolutely perfect, from them.

We’ve been having a record-breaking mild winter in New England, but last night it got down to 15 degrees F. Did I worry about the girls getting cold? No! I find it amusing that the only chicken fanciers who worry about heating their henhouses are those who live in warm climates. People in the moderate Northwest advise heat lamps. Folks in the south put in a heater if there’s a frost. But trust me, the hens will be fine.

We do have a heating pad under the waterer; chickens must have fresh running water at all times. This simple gadget is made for use in barns and it is lovely not having to bring water out to the barn several times a day, like we used to before we got the coop wired for electricity. Local feed stores, or the mail-order companies listed on my chicken keeping Web site, sell these.

My coop is draft-free, but well-vented, so dry. We keep it bedded in clean wood shavings. You can tell the girls are fine – this morning they were out in the yard, scratching around, comfortable as can be in 20 degree, windy weather. My dog, Lily, on the other hand, is a giant rat terrier, and a total wimp about cold weather. She put her nose out the kitchen door and turned tail and came back in. (See a photo of Lily.)

Some chicken breeds do need a tad more care in cold weather. If you have chooks with large combs, or roosters with showy wattles, you can smear some vaseline on them to prevent frostbite on these exposed, sensitive areas. Frizzles (those are chickens that have twisty feathers) aren’t as well insulated, so they might appreciate a heater. And I hear that the naked-neck birds (yes, they’re out there, and personally I think them quite unsightly, but to each their own) need a heater.

For those of you with only one or two hens – your girls might be more comfy with a heat lamp, since they don’t have friends to huddle up with. Then again, perhaps this is an excuse for you to get more chickens?

The molt is over and the darkest day of the year has passed and one of the chickens has celebrated by laying an egg! Some people know that the calendar has turned to Spring when the seed and flower catalogs arrive in the mail. My reminder that winter doesn’t last forever is a McMurray Hatchery catalog in the mailbox and an egg in the nesting box.