Happy new year! I hope all of you and your fluffy friends had a healthy and safe holiday.

With the wintry weather here, some of the animals on the farm need to be bundled up to keep warm. Did you know that different livestock can wear coats? Tubes are typically worn by sheep or goats prior to livestock exhibitions and are made from spandex-like material. Floyd, an Alpine goat, used to wear various coats and tubes when the weather was too cold for his body. He would shiver if the temperature dropped below 10 degrees, and he would get bundled up in a tube, coat, or both to stay snug. His coat had straps that would go around the back of each hind leg and then strap on in front of the hind legs; there was a buckle under the belly and a buckle in front of the chest to keep the coat from coming off.

Tubes and coats can be found online on many different sites and ordered to fit goats of all sizes. There are endless options to choose from when looking at coats for livestock such as insulated, waterproof and even denim types.

It’s not just the goats that get a wardrobe at Breezy Acres Farm. We have an Ayam Cemani chicken on the farm named Sheila; she wears an “apron” throughout the year because she is sometimes picked on by the other birds. Because she has some feather loss, it is harder for her to maintain body heat. The apron assists not only in keeping in her warmth but also in keeping her back dry. She doesn’t seem to mind it, and they all have different patterns on them—fashion and function!