Are farm animals cold outside?

We are in the middle of a snow storm here in Virginia and it's going to be about 4 degrees tonight.  Cold!

I always worry about my animals outside when it is especially cold.  Do you think the farm dogs, horses, pigs and birds are cold outside?  How do they stay warm?

If an animal lives outside all the time, it grows a coat that is suitable for cold weather.

Let's talk about dogs first.
Here is Gandolf, our Great Pyrenees puppy who is now 11 months old:

This guy doesn't even know it's cold out.  He is playing with a chunk of ice in one of the pictures.  Can you see how think his coat is?  That is his winter coat.  It is so thick and heavy!  You can see some snow sitting on his coat.  This is because there is so much insulation between his skin and snow that his body heat is not melting the snow.  When the weather starts to get warm, he'll lose some of his coat which is called shedding.  Gandolf does have a dog house outside in the field he lives in with his chickens.  The house has alot of hay inside and only a small door so he will be toasty warm tonight!

We see the same type of insulation with the horses outside.  See the snow sitting on their backs?  It's because their coat is keeping the heat close to their bodies to keep them warm even when it's really cold out.

Lastly, animals are really smart.  Horses will position themselves so that they are hidden from the wind or so the wind can only reach a small part of their bodies.  Other animals will curl up in a little ball or seek shelter.

We gave our pigs a new bale of straw in their houses but you can see Max and Sassy really don't want to come outside today!  They are smart enough to arrange the straw as bedding inside their house and stay inside where it's warm and dry!

Stay warm everybody!!