{"id":19309,"date":"2017-02-13T19:29:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T19:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=19309"},"modified":"2017-02-13T19:31:37","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T19:31:37","slug":"a-welcome-change-in-the-weather-and-the-length-of-daylight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=19309","title":{"rendered":"A welcome change in the weather and the length of daylight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to the forecast, yesterday was the last really cold day, of the recent cold spell. There hadn&#8217;t been any freezing nights or frozen chicken waters but it felt colder because the daytime temperatures stayed so low. For the past couple\u00a0of days the temperature hadn&#8217;t risen above 1.5 degrees and there was no sun and a bitter wind plus a few snow flakes.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday for the first time five of the girls were in the shelter together. Emerald never goes in the shelter. Beyond the first day when she was curious about it she has never shown any further interest in it. Peaches and Barley often like to go in the shelter before bedtime. It&#8217;s as if it is a sort of halfway house when they have had their bedtime corn but don&#8217;t want to go in to the darkness of the chicken shed just yet.<\/p>\n<p>If the weather is horrible or wet Peaches, Barley and Speckles will perch in the shelter. That is what it is for but we really intended it to be a place of respite for the little girls. Yesterday was the first day that these three plus the little girls were in the shelter. Rusty and Freckles were in the back of the shelter with the three bigger girls perching at the front.<\/p>\n<p>I suspect that the little girls may have already been in the shelter when the bigger girls joined them. I thought this would make a great photo but as soon as I went through the gate the little girls ran to greet me.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19341\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=19341\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19341\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19341\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19341\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/three_girls_in_the_shelter.jpg\" alt=\"Three girls in the shelter\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/three_girls_in_the_shelter.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/three_girls_in_the_shelter-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/three_girls_in_the_shelter-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-19341\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Three girls in the shelter<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Peaches and Speckles are at the front and Barley is further back, you can just see part of her. Freckles is now pecking beyond the shelter. As I got closer Speckles jumped out to greet me.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19343\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=19343\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19343\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19343\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19343\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/barley_and_peaches_in_the_shelter.jpg\" alt=\"Barley and Peaches in the shelter\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/barley_and_peaches_in_the_shelter.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/barley_and_peaches_in_the_shelter-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/barley_and_peaches_in_the_shelter-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-19343\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barley and Peaches in the shelter<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I managed one shot of Barley and Peaches before they too jumped out.<\/p>\n<p>This morning it was so much brighter than recent days and the pop hole opened at half past seven which is the earliest this year. The girls enjoyed a sunny day and there were huge craters in the driest area which showed they had been dust bathing.<\/p>\n<p>They have recently all been in the chicken shed by half past four in the evenings but today after a trip out for a few hours we arrived back home at five o&#8217;clock and were surprised to find the girls still out. The day has definitely been lighter and brighter.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19344\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=19344\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19344\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19344\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19344\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/rusty_evening.jpg\" alt=\"Rusty\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/rusty_evening.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/rusty_evening-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/rusty_evening-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-19344\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rusty at five o&#8217;clock in the evening<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_19345\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=19345\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-19345\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19345\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-19345\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/freckles_evening.jpg\" alt=\"Freckles\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/freckles_evening.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/freckles_evening-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/freckles_evening-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-19345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Freckles at five o&#8217;clock in the evening<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The forecast is for better weather this week and the days are noticeably getting longer. It has felt like a long, cold, winter but now it feels like we are heading towards spring at last. We are so glad that we are moving towards spring and I feel sure that the girls are too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the forecast, yesterday was the last really cold day, of the recent cold spell. There hadn&#8217;t been any freezing nights or frozen chicken waters but it felt colder because the daytime temperatures stayed so low. For the past &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/?p=19309\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19309"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19367,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19309\/revisions\/19367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carolschickens.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}