Bath Time on a Winter Morning

On warm, sunny winter mornings like this, I put a water dish out in the chicken run in addition to the water bowl inside the coop.  While everyone drinks out of the outdoor dish, the ducks also use it as a bath tub.  Poultry aren't as fussy as people about their drinking water; they are perfectly happy drinking used bath water.  Go figure.

In the summer, the ducks have a plastic kiddie pool for swimming but in the winter it isn't feasible to fill it up since the garden hose freezes so they have to make do with the water dish.  The ducks just fit into the dish, one at a time, and the bath water is cold so it can't be the most comfortable bath but that never seems to deter them.

Leah always gets the first bath while Kate waits patiently for her turn.  Sometimes Kate gets a bit too close to the tub for Leah's liking and he tells her in no uncertain terms that he is not finished and she needs to back up!

Leah telling Kate to back the heck up!

The chickens do not take their baths in the water dish.  Instead they prefer to take dust baths.  They reserve the spot under their shelter as their bathing place in the winter since it stays free from snow for the longest time.

No one is dust bathing yet this morning, the chickens are too busy scarfing down the scratch (aka chicken treats) that I threw out for them in the yard.