are chickens less active in winter?

[chicken-rooquacks]

have read about laying less eggs in winter time, but nothing about the overall activity.

well, i thought by now it'd be an easy answer to find, for SOMEBODY fairly new to chickens (such as me) surely has had to wonder this...but...NOPE! nothing....so....

...here's my issue...They have plenty of food & water both places (outside & inside coop) the seasons are average, they are not extreme, YET.....The chickens suddenly stopped going out of the coop in late fall. They refused to leave, period, even when temperatures were 60-ish degrees. The coop is insulated, and though it is not heated, it normally is about 5 - 10 degrees warmer than the outside air in the colder months, from the sun hitting it & the body-heat in there. i'd read somewhere they adapt slowly to cold weather...this is their 1st winter, possibly wondering if they just are a bit warmth-greedy? Or are they just naturally less active and sort of half-hibernating?

Can someone reveal this mystery that should be easily-revealed that i can't seem to reveal?

 

[AllynTal]

How old are the chickens? Have you tried taking the food and water out of the coop to encourage them to go outside? What kind of 'outside' do they have? I'm wondering if they were threatened by a predator (even a neighborhood dog is a predator to chickens) that they're staying inside for safety. I have not experienced as 'normal' the behavior you are describing.

 

[Crooked Chicken]

This is my first winter with Chickens too. I have not noticed them slowing down in any way -- not yet anyway. While we have had a lot of cold and windy days, freezing nights, I can't say I have noticed any big changes in their behavior. They aren't getting to free range as much as before, mostly because of my fear of the predatory bird hanging around and I've been too busy to chaperone them for long periods -- thus their food intake has increased.

I tend to agree that perhaps something scared them outside. Could be a predator, something new added to their run?

Where part of the country are you located in? And what kind of chickens do you have?

If you would like to encourage them to go outside, you might scatter small handfuls of scratch, small chunks of pumpkin or squash outside and see if they will venture out.

 

[chicken-rooquacks]

The chickens are about 5-8 months old.

we do have a hawk that had picked off a few that managed to hop the fence, i could not catch them before he got to them, however, the hawk was here just as much in spring & summertime, so the fear of predators should be nothing new. Normally, they'd hide under a bush or under their coop, i have many hiding places for them to utilize...our rooster has even tried to attack the hawk, so i'd be surprised if that alone had been the cause. however, the hawk has gotten way braver, lately...and now that you mention it, i bet it's due to that....he actually made it inside the coop one day, when i'd left the door open hoping they'd come out...had to chase him away....but by that time, one had sadly already gotten cornered by the hawk & had to (metaphorically) play Taps for him. :'-( i'm wondering if maybe they go to leave the coop, and he has been ambushing their coop door? i suppose he's figured out that might be an easier tactic than trying to air-dive down at them before they run under something.

 

[junebuggena]

It's the hawk. Cover your run so that you birds can leave their coop safely.

 

[TominWa]

Mine work from sunup to sundown. Hardest working little things I have ever seen.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My stick to the shed when predators are sniffing about. Mine were active outside right up until the snow got to be too much for them.

 

[chicken-rooquacks]

The fence is almost an entire acre...intentionally to mimic as good as possible, a free-range life. Unfortunately, this means we can't cover it easily. The only reason i have them in a fence at all is so they don't wander so far that they bother my neighbors, i have some who just flat out hate animals and another further away in the same neighborhood that has a truly free-range, rooster-equipped flock. with how far she lives from us, it'd be unlikely for the two flocks to ever wander into each other, but i'd rather be better safe than sorry.

i've thought about getting a protector-animal...i know lots of farmers out here in the community have something of some kind that protects their various flocks & herds. my first thought was a dog, for that's how my neighbor keeps her free-range flock safe, but most dogs i've come across don't protect, they just instinctively try to eat them. even some puppies have instincts that are hard to train out of them. thought about a goat...or a mini-donkey...but that probably would work better for stuff like foxes, raccoons & coyotes. Perhaps if i let them out, i'll just have to be there to chase the hawk away until they can get past the door where i think he has been ambushing the most. They have been good at evading him elsewhere in the yard, just...not when they stay in the coop...it's cornering them like a cheetah attacking an up-side down tortoise stuck in a dry ditch.

 

[junebuggena]

Time to install a covered run. LGDs need to be trained to guard poultry, and it's difficult to do if you don't have any experience with those sorts of breeds. The only reliable protection there is against aerial predators are covered runs though. Or a healthy crow population near your property. The hawk has learned where the buffet is, and will not move on till your flock has been consumed.

 

[AllynTal]

Even if you don't cover the entire area, at least make a secure, covered run right outside the coop door. Make it big enough to allow for 10 sq ft per chicken and keep them in the run. The hawk will hang around until he eats every chicken that he can get a hold of. If you secure the birds, once he realizes that his buffet is closed, he'll move on and you can start letting them free-range again.

Dogs take a lot of time and patience to train to protect the flock and not eat them, even LGD breeds need to be trained. You won't buy one "off-the-shelf" so to speak and have the dog automatically be ready to protect your flock. An LGD is a solution for the future, not an immediate solution to your problem at present.