Quinoa Experiment in Conclusion

So as expected the quinoa did not get past its 'green stage' before a hard cold hit.  Unfortunately this killed my plants.  Since the quinoa came up later than planned this was expected but we figured we would give it a try.  Anyway, here is what's left (beautiful picture, right?)-

Quinoa CAN tolerate cooler weather, but not frosts before their green stage.  Quinoa is an early spring crop preferring cooler soil temps.  It can be stunted if many of its growing days are over 90 degrees F.  I attempted to start them in the late summer for a fall crop but they did not germinate immediately to get good growing in before the cold season.
Anyway, if you are interested in more here are my other posts on the quinoa experiment.  Seeds were from here.
Quinoa Growing Experiment and Fall Garden
Cover Cropping and Sneaky Quinoa

At the moment I am not planning on growing it next year.  I have moved onto wanting to grow naked oats instead.  We eat and use oats way more than we do quinoa.  We will see.

Something else in danger of frostbite is Penny.  Poor thing has went into molt having to get through cold nights with these naked spots.  She needs a scarf-

I have insulated the coop with straw but other than that they are on their own.  Last year they did just fine.  They are hardy chickens and the gradual cooling (with no heat in their coop) is good prep for the cold winter.  Only thing they get extra in the winter, besides extra straw in the coop, is cracked corn to build their body fat.  I have to break the ice out of their water daily but thats it.  I'm still getting eggs so the trip to the coop is needed anyway.
So dead plants and naked chicken necks..... thats all the excitement I can take for now.