It's freezing overnight, and two of thre three drinkers are frozen each morning. The 3rd one is on a heated pad, which throws out just enough heat to stop it freezing.
This waterer has just plain water in, as I don't like the idea of constantly heating cider vinegar or oreganico. The hose was frozen today, so I had to bring it in the house to scrub it and refill it.
I don't do all the drinkers on the same day. I do one drinker every other day. It's not particularly efficient, but it means that the Hens have access to fresh water every two days, and I throw less supplemented water down the drain. They choose what to drink, and they don't always choose the fresh water.
When they had access to the garden to free range, they would often drink out of muddy puddles. I had a couple of bucket-on-the-side drinkers, which I only changed every couple of weeks, and they liked those.
It's harder for them now as they don't have so much choice.
Every morning I go out to say Hello, and to do a comb count. My first priority is locating Nora, who is our oldest hen. I'm relieved every day when I see her. Next priority are the triplets, Gloria, Poppy and Katy. They are only a year younger than Nora, and were hatched from bought-in eggs from Castle Farm Eggs. We had 8 of them hatch that year, and we kept them all. Poppy was always a Garden Girl. Gloria was an allotmenteer until we lost all but Poppy to a Fox; Gloria came back from the Allotment to be a friend for Poppy. Katy was a harem girl at the allotment, but I can't imagine her not being in my garden flock now.
The Girls spend a bit of time in their "outside" area, and then they sit around in the covered run or dustbathe. There are plenty of perches, and some use them, some sit around on the floor. They investigate the vegetables I've hung up, of peck feed from the treat feeders. There are a few squabbles, but I guess it's too cold for them to do too much.
I wonder if they are bored, or if they are reasonably content just sitting around?
