My coffee is down to the bottom of the cup here on a Saturday morning sitting next to the woodstove, because it’s cold and rainy threatening snowy outside. The chickens went outside as long as I sprinkled some cracked grains for them, but the seem mostly huddly now, eitther under the porch overhang, the densest lilacs or back in the chicken palace (this is the West Flock I’m talking about; I can’t see the East Flock from here).

I took a couple pictures of the new West Flock chicken palace on my iPhone, and here’s the best of them.

Tis a cute thing, about 7′x17′ inside, dirt floor, nesting boxes on one side, food and water in the middle, 8″ beam roosts on the huddly side. The sides are old barn siding, shingled down like lapstrake sides on an old wooden boat. The windows and door are all recycled too. The ladies and gents all like it now, took a couple days to get used to it, but they all head in there to roost ahead of closing time nowadays and nobody tries to roost for the night in the trees or on the fences anymore. Of course, it’s also colder now, so there’s good reason to want to huddle/cuddle.