The first snowstorm of the 2009-2010 winter arrived at the Kuegler mini-farm during the night.  Inside the house there were great cheers at the school cancellation announcement.  However, outside in the coop, the reaction was quite different.

Entering the chicken pen, I found at least six inches of snow covering the ground.  As I opened the coop door, I was greeted in the typical manner with the girls crowding the entry, ready to jump out.  However, seeing the white coating on the ground, they stopped short.

Thankfully the chickens reacted quickly, and no one fell out of the coop and into the snow.  That would have produced an angry chicken.  Seeing that their food was filled, and they had plenty of water (and snow) for drinking, I returned to the house.

About a half hour later, I decided to see how many chickens had braved the snow.  The answer? Zero.  I am sure they were quite thirsty, as their water is on a platform outside of the coop, and most mornings they fight over a drinking spot.  However, today, the desire to stay out of the snow outweighed their desire to quench their thirst.

By midday some of our girls finally had braved the snow, although they tended to hide under the coop and peck at the snow around the edges.  Taking pity on the girls, I shoveled a path in their pen while I was outside shoveling our walkways.  Providing a glimpse of bare ground, the remaining water deprived chickens left their coop for a drink.

As we learned last year, snow is not their thing.