Today is Scooter’s eighth birthday.

This is Scooter’s expression when he is happy. Really.

He’s a funny little dog.

He is a dog of very little brain. Truly. I’ve had him since he was 10 weeks old. Before that he was in a loving home. He’s never been abused. Trained entirely with positive reinforcement. And yet…let me tell you about how he is with his leash.

Lily is a smart dog. A veritable dog genius. But, it doesn’t take a brilliant dog to recognize that a leash picked up by the person indicates that a walk is imminent. Lily hears me get the leash from the basket and she whines with enthusiasm. Scooter sees me walking towards him with his leash, and he curls up on the couch and squeezes his eyes shut. His thinking is, If I can’t see her, then she can’t see me. I continue to approach with his harness (soft cotton, custom-made for his odd body.) He shivers. He looks more pitiful than usual. I snap it on. Lily, Scooter and I walk out the door. As soon as the door closes behind us, Scooter wags his tail with surprise and happiness. A walk! Who knew?

Eight years, and he still hasn’t made the connection between the leash and the walk.

Brains aren’t everything.

11° F this morning. Cold. But,it’s not too cold for chickens if you house and care for them properly.

It’s essential that hens stay active and eat throughout the day. When it’s bitter cold and the wind is blowing, the hens won’t want to go outside. They’ll stand around in their coop. This isn’t good for them. First of all, manure accumulates, and although it’s frozen, it’s still a source of lethal moisture. Coop air is dusty. Combine that with the damp, and you’ll see respiratory disease. So, scoop up the manure daily. Next, bed more deeply. This will keep them warmer (insulation from the cold seeping in from the ground) and will keep the coop drier. I like bedding that also keeps them busy. This bagged chopped hay and straw has lots of tiny tidbits in it for the hens to find. (The brand shown here is Koop Clean. I’ve written about it here.)

Here are the girls, right after I mucked out manure and added extra bedding. Note that all heads are down because they’re busy pecking and scratching!

I also toss in chopped alfalfa, good nutritionally and to encourage foraging activity. This is what it looks like in the bag:

The hens won’t eat all of it, but it mixes in fine with the bedding.

Because the hens kick up such a lot of dust, and bedding goes flying,

I elevate the waterer.

(That purple tub has sand and a cup of food-grade diatomaceous earth for winter dust bathing.)

It’s very, very cold, but the girls are fine!

For more about winter care for your backyard flock, read this FAQ and yesterday’s post.

The temperature dropped 30 degrees in one day.

But these bitter cold temperatures don’t have me worried about my hens. They don’t need a heat lamp. They don’t need hot meals. They have dry, spacious and draft-free coops, with fresh water and good laying hen pellets. I keep them from getting bored by giving them things like pine branches and cabbages. Their feathers (almost 10,000 on each bird!) keep them plenty warm.

Still, they do burn more calories in the winter, so although I advise not to feed too many empty carbs in the form of scratch grains and breads, when the thermometer gets this low, you can indulge your hens with treats. I happened to have a box of multigrain cheerios languishing in the pantry. None of the humans liked them. This morning the sun didn’t shine, and the ground was hard with ice. It’s the perfect day to treat the hens.

I called the Ladies outside, but someone was blocking the door.

Once Phoebe and Twiggy came out, the others followed.

Everyone ate.

Phoebe loves this weather. Last night, as the cold front blew in with high gusts of wind, she was hopping about the pen, doing leaps of joy.

The Gems got their share of the cereal.

The goats don’t mind the cold at all, and they don’t need the extra calories! But, they got a handful of cheerios, too.

It’s supposed to stay very, very cold all week. I wonder what else is going stale in the pantry?