Here I am putting insulation on the chicken coop roof. (The long gimcrack in the foreground is the feeder.)With my ravishing good looks in coveralls and high-fashion cap, I’m ready for the cover of Vogue.

I heard once that ducks are cold-tolerant because they’re descended from wild ducks that live in cold wildlands; and chickens are not so cold tolerant since they are descended from jungle birds. While I believe there is some truth to that idea, nobody has told our birds. We’ve recently experienced a cold snap (it was –4 this morning, brisk for early December) and it’s the ducks that are hiding out in their shelter while the chickens venture forth to freeze their beaks.

Until last Saturday, the chickens had no protection from the cold save half an inch of very expensive T-111 and a measly piece of metal roofing held on by three screws. (I always meant to get back to that.) Still, even as the temperature dropped day by day, the chickens never chickened out while the ducks ducked back inside. (I’m clever as well as good-looking, how ‘bout that?)

So I found some R-30 batting on sale at Home Depot (almost 50% cheaper than the R-19 batting, go figure!), and brought it home to give the cluck-clucks a little insulation. Or a lot; R-30 is substantial insulation. All we had in the roof of our old house near town was R-19 insulation. (That’s the real reason we sold the house.)

To get insulation into the chicken coop roof I ended up taking the roof completely off, which is about the time I remembered that I was going to come back someday and finish screwing it onto the frame. (So much for doing it right the first time.) I cut the batting into four-foot strips and fastened it down using string—er, “carpenter’s cord’ or “surveyor’s cord” or something. I didn’t know how else to fasten it to a thin wooden frame. Then I turned the whole schmere upside down and reattached it. I left a gap on one side for ventilation, but the chickens, including the chicks, are so happy they’ve started laying eggs again.

This is a good thing, since if they keep laying, all those eggs will eventually pay for the insulation. That is, if my modeling career doesn’t take off.