Frost in the Valley

There was 'frost on the pumpkin' yesterday morning and then again today. The drop in evening temperature has been earlier this year.   The hens have found the hen 'condo' as suitable nesting boxes to lay their prized eggs.  The move hasn't disrupted the hens from laying at all. All of them seem to feel right at home in their new space. The nearby pheasants have been curious about their new neighbors, specially the rooster.

The nipple waterer is slowly catching on.  In a given day these gals go through every bit of 2 gallons of water.  Every day I typically rinse out the fountains with a mixture of bleach and good old water, and then refill them.  That hasn't been too bad since I have been doing it during warm weather over the last five months.  But with the temperatures on the decline that won't work as well.  I'll use the open heated water bowls for the pheasants and doves, like I have done in the past.  But the hens go through so much more water.  Plus open water with chickens isn't the best.  Hopefully everyone catches on to the nipple waterer.  Look for pictures if indeed this works.  It seems like it will and it might take me weening the hens off the water fountains to encourage the results.  From my observations chickens seem to be pretty quick to adapt to change.

Autumn has become my favorite time of the year.  The contrasts in light increase as the angle of the sun is lower in the sky.  The shortening of days seems more noticeable to me, than the lengthening of days in the Spring.  The Autumn air gets crisp and the warm colors bring cheer to the soul before the chill of Winter.