cooped up

The girls are NOT excited about the descent of winter weather.

Even the little girls 

who just encountered snow for the first time

are like "WTF is this?!"

They quickly decided it wasn't worth getting off the perch for.

So they're all cooped up.

 

The Littles are still not quite big enough to add to the big girls coop,

and the winter is too competitive for prime perch space anyway...

So in the interest of minimal bloodshed and stress,

we're going to wait to join the flocks in the early spring.

 The coop for the Littles is so little...

 Luckily Boo had the foresight to expand their roosting area and their run

which soon we will be enclosing to protect from the elements.

The walls of their made-in-China coop are really thin,

so naturally we were starting to fret about their comfort and health.

We ended up getting them two 150 watt wall heaters to take the edge off of any deep chill.

They turn on right around freezing temperatures

and that keeps their water in a drinkable state,

and makes them comfy. 

The heaters turn off quickly after they've warmed the small area up,

so it seems pretty efficient...

 but we'll see what it does to our utility bill!

***Check out Emmaline's swooping tail feathers above... 

looking more and more like a Roo every day!***

 

 Meanwhile all of the original hens are going through their molting process,

which just seems absolutely nuts to me!

Specky finished her molt in the early fall...  

somehow her internal body clock 

had more foresight about the weather change,

 and did the job more quickly. 

But Jersey and Lorpy and Commie and Brahmie 

are all at different stages of feather replacement

and egads, 

some mornings the coop is a real wreckage!

Feathers everywhere...

Poor Brahmie is the worst off of all.

Thank goodness some of her neck and chest feathers are finally starting to come back in

... she's been looking like a plucked chicken for a couple of weeks!

Brrrrrrrr!  

Good thing they have their little comfort heaters, too!