Now that Day Light Savings has ended and the days are progressively getting shorter, I'm finding that there is very little time to see my chickens in the daylight. Last week, it was light until about 6:30, so there was an hour or two after work for them to play in the yard and for me to watch them from the kitchen windows. Now, however, it's dark by 5:30 and while I'm still able to watch them wander around the yard and run for a bit, it's mostly done by lamplight and floodlight, rather than daylight.
The mornings are also filled with darkness, which I'm beginning to love: the chilly morning air, the dark sky, and sounds of chickens jumping down from their perch and cooing as they wake up to me turning on their light.
Only seeing my chickens in the dark is I guess what having chickens and working daytime hours looks like during a Minnesota winter. They seem to be doing just fine with the lack of sunlight (we're still averaging 4 eggs per day!) and I'm ok with the shorter days as well.
Old Man Winter is a-knocking...and these sleepy, short days are making me want to curl up inside and say goodnight to the chickens when they find their way into the coop as we're sitting down to dinner. (Unless your chicken name is Birdie...she likes her sleep and can be found on the perch in the coop as soon as the sun starts tucking behind the houses. She's a funny one--unfazed by artificial light.)
