First Snow and Tender Chicken Feet



Baby it's cold outside!



This is the first winter for my Dots and so this is their first snow. We've kept them inside the Dot House to protect them from the zero temperatures these past few days so since it is 8 degrees today I let them outside. They were hesitant once their feet touched the cold snow and some ran back into the house. I gathered hay and spread out a carpet of hay so they could walk outside with some protection. They eventually moved out onto the hay and began doing their chicken thing again. They have the free choice to go into the Dot House when they wish.

Are Brown Eggs More Nutritious Than White Eggs?

Some people believe that brown eggs are more nutritious.  The color of the eggshell says nothing about its nutritional value. The fact is that chickens with white earlobes lay white eggs and those with red earlobes lay brown eggs. Yes, that is TRUE!! For some reason this doesn't apply to the Americauna or Easter Egg Chicken that lays colored eggs and I'm not sure why.

The Farmers Market in CA where I shopped every Saturday for 10 years always charged more for brown eggs. I heard customers talking and they assumed the brown eggs were more nutritious. The nutrition has to do with the feed and not the shell color. Save yourself some $$ and don't pay more for the color of the egg shell.

And then there were 14...

Our chickens are normally free range but we lost two Dots before Christmas to some wild creature behind our barn. Mark has seen coyotes and bobcats nearby so until there is more food available in the wild, we are keeping the Dots in their safe pen.

If you look closely or enlarge this picture you

will see the coyote in the center of the picture
in our horse pasture

Their laying has fallen off since it has gotten very cold here. We were still getting around a dozen a day through Christmas; however since we've had zero degree weather, we've been getting about 8 per day.

I plan to get more Easter Egg chicks this coming spring so I have more colored eggs and I get to enjoy the baby chicks again. You'll see them first here!