The ground remains covered by a deep crust of snow and ice. Flurries are floating in the air. But the goats know that warm weather is on the way. They are shedding.

Goats have an undercoat of wooly, sticky fur, and an overcoat of long, rough hairs.

The boys are itchy. They rub their bellies against the fence line. Birds come and gather the fur that’s stuck to the wire to line their nests.

The goats need help shedding their heavy coats. They ask the Goat Maid to give them scritches. I use a tool called a shedding blade.

Ah, says Pip.

The birds are going to have very soft nests this year.

Chickens need to take a bath at least once a day. Not a soap and water bath, but a dust bath. All chickens get external parasites, and the most common is lice. This is not the same pest that is feared by all parents of grade school children! Poultry lice are avian specific. They are soft-bodied insects that feed not on blood, but on the detritus of feathers and skin on a chicken’s body. (Photos on my FAQ.) All hens have a few of these moving about on them near the vent. Chickens keep the population of lice in check by taking daily dust baths in dry dirt, which acts to desiccate and kill them.

In the summer dust bathing is easy to do. Hens scratch up a dirt wallow and laze in it in the sunshine. It is a communal activity that they enjoy immensely (video here.) But, what to do when the ground, what can be seen of it, is frozen hard?

To keep your flock healthy and comfortable in the winter, you need to provide them with a dust bath. I use a kitty litter tub that I half-fill with inexpensive coarse builder’s sand (available at most hardware and lumber supply stores.) I stir in about a cup of food-grade diatomaceous earth. (Be very careful that this is not the agricultural DE advertised for dealing with slugs in the garden – that DE is microscopically so sharp that it can kill your chickens.) The sand, by itself, makes for a good dust bath, but the addition of food-grade DE makes it a tad more effective at drying out and killing the lice.

I place the dust bath in a sunny corner of the coop. This is yet another reason to have a spacious coop with windows that let the light in. Chickens won’t dust bathe in a dark, cramped coop. I clean it out weekly using a kitty litter scoop. In their enthusiastic bathing, the hens kick the sand out and so I replenish it every few weeks.

I know that there’s something appealing to the hens about fresh sand (like clean sheets on a bed for us?) because when I fill up the box, the hens jump in.

Opal, the Delaware, is always the first. She’s also quite large, but the other girls find a way to squeeze in. There’s quite the queue.

There’s much chortling and wing flapping. It reminds me of a bunch of tots enjoying a kiddie pool in the summer. There’s never enough room, but that’s part of the fun.

Here a three more photos to start your week.

Phoebe still has her winter layer of fat and thick fur coat. She eats as if winter is never going to end.

Phoebe the rabbit

The goats have a layer of fat, too. Whether it is for the winter or just the way they are is up for debate. They are shedding.

Pip and Caper

Scooter sheds all year round. As much as he tries, he cannot put on a layer of winter fat. Instead, he spends the cold months cuddled up on beds with blankets.

Scooter, a 10 1/2 – pound mixed breed dog

Here are a few faces to get your day started.

These three hens are good examples of different comb styles. Onyx’s barely-there comb is one thing that makes this breed “winter hardy.” Opal’s upright comb was a tad less plump during the worst of the cold weather, but is now full and red. Misty’s comb, which turned whitish and shrunk during the bitter cold days, is back up and as crazy-looking as ever.

Onyx, a Barnevelder hen

Opal, a Delaware hen

Misty, a Blue Andalusian

This face, a tad shaggy this winter, is now shedding.

Tonka, an 8-year old Paint gelding

All of these faces make my face smile.

Way back in 2006 I blogged about how I hang a cabbage to entertain the chickens when they’re confined due to bad weather. Over the years, I’ve posted photos (some, like this one, have made the rounds of Pinterest.)

Since this winter is never-ending (0º F this morning, and a big snowstorm predicted for Sunday night) I’ve had to provide the chickens with more than cabbage to banish the winter boredom blahs.

In the Gem’s coop, I have a suet feeder hanging from a chain. I can fill it with anything from greens to a slice of stale bread. The variety is good for their minds and health.

The chickens can’t gorge on the treats. They have to work for them. The feeder swings. The hens have to peck precisely through the mesh squares. It helps to keep them occupied while we all dream of springtime.