Every morning, the chickens, peer out. If they don’t see bare ground, then they won’t come out of the roost. We feed and water them there. Sometimes we shovel a path for them and they come out, peck around and retreat to the roost. Some winters, they are inside for weeks, even months.

We have a light bulb on in the winter, this fools them into think there is daylight and they lay eggs. Chickens need about 14 hours of light to lay eggs, and it is not difficult to fool them into thinking it’s Spring. The white hen has a regal bearing, she seems to be the leader of the hens.

Chickens have a serious and purposeful bearing about them, they can sometimes fool you into thinking there is something deep going on in there. But I think that’s an illusion. We food them into thinking the day are long, we fool them into thinking there are bugs on the ground. Still, there is something regal about them, they have character.