Monthly Archives: February 2011

Chickens Love Dust Baths

When we first got our chickens we thought it was so strange that they would make a hole in dry dirt and then roll around in it covering themselves in dust. Why would they want to take a dirt or dust bath? It seems like an oxymoron to say dirt (or dust) and bath in the same phrase, but that’s what it is.


Greenfoot and Henrietta sharing a bath

It helps them to stay clean, keep any bugs or parasites off of them -they love to shake it all off after they fling the dirt up and into their wings and feathers- and it cools them down. If you keep chickens, you should not try to discourage this behavior. It is instinctual and important for their health. Plus, sometimes they like to have a communal bath! 🙂

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Cold in the Cold

We’ve been noticing how our energy level rises with the warm weather and drops with the colder weather. If the weather outdoors is a barometer for our energy and health (or is it vice versa?) then when these temperatures took a dive from the high 60s into the  deep negative zone (was it really -30 out?!), so did our health! Britton and I were both out with fever, sneezing, coughing, stuffiness, and gunk for most of this week…and we’re still trying to come out of it. The cold brought us a cold!

We usually don’t get sick, but this stuff laid us out. We took two days off work (Britton still worked from home on one of them, the workaholic). The dry, dry air from the furnace only made it worse, and our little room humidifier pooped out on us. So we were dry and staticky and feeling yucky. But, I would rather have that than no furnace at all, like the animals outside…

Speaking of which, Britton built the chickens their own “furnace” with the heat lamp, a blanket covering and extra straw in their coop inside the greenhouse. And it worked! It never went below 0 in the coop! And during the day when the sun was up, it was in the 50s when everywhere else it hadn’t hit the postive numbers.

Even though we were all stuffed up and stuffed in the house, it was nice spending some time together with Britton, dozing in and out of sleep, taking long hot showers, hanging out in our robes all day, playing with the pets, making chicken and barley soup, watching old movies and daytime TV that we NEVER see. (For those of you who don’t see daytime TV, you are missing out on some of the weirdest shows out there -soap operas; infomercials; old syndicated shows; and lots of commercials urging you to sue people, to go to a vocational school, and, of course, to buy cold medicine!)

So, while it was kind of fun (minus all the tissues, hacking and lack of energy) to stay home together and hang out in this other world we never see, I’m ready to be out and about again. I am ready for spring, summer, and Puerto Rico. I am ready to be done with this COLD and be on the rise.

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Días de la Semana

This month’s tip is about the days of the week:

Days of the week, like months of the year, are not usually capitalized unless they are at the first of a sentence.

Monday – lunes

Tuesday – martes

Wednesday -miércoles

Thursday -jueves

Friday -viernes

Saturday -sábado

Sunday -domingo

To tell someone what day of the week it is, you’d say,  “Hoy es el martes”. “Today is Tuesday”.

The weekend is: “el fin de semana” which literally translates to “the end of the week”.

¡Feliz martes!

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