No, this isn’t a recipe involving mangoes, this is one of those “what the?” posts.
Overnight the temp got down to 0.2 C (which is near enough 32 F). Nothing froze (unless you count my feet) but it was coooolllld. So cold that I didn’t go out to top up the chicken feeders and clean out the coop until about 10 o’clock when it had reached 10 C (50 F). Still cold, but this is the temp when bees start to leave their hives and so I figure I can leave my house.
Finally, some reasonable shade
Imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner and saw all of my chickens sitting in the shade! Are they dumb or what? Surely they weren’t hot. Maybe the sun fades their feathers? Okay, I understand that they effectively wear a down jacket 24×7 but surely their little bodies are acclimatised to their outer wear and they can cope. If they seek the shade when it’s 10, how in the world can they handle 40 (104 F)?
I don’t have a photo of my chooks huddled in the shade because as soon as I am within eyeshot, they all clamber at the gate enthusiastically awaiting whatever treat I might have with me. Pavlov made a big mistake when he studied dogs to understand conditioned response to food stimuli – chickens are way ahead of the pack there!
I Wanna Treat
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 