Chickens and the PNW- Question Seattle Portland area

[barg]

Who else knows our region and our weather so...?

I'm just wondering how chickens deal with our winters.
What do they do when it snows, when it gets cold, Rains.

Is there a threshold at which they will go inside rather then be outside, or do they pretty much keep a normal routine most of the year around here?

All of my chickens are cold hearty...
Locked in at night, free access to chicken run or chicken house in the day.

Thanks

 

[DuckLady]

Hi there! I am in Oregon City.

Mine do fine. We do put out a heat lamp when the temps will be under 25. They have the choice to go out in the rain and snow or go in the attached covered area and scratch up the straw and do whatever chickens do when it is too nasty to go out.
In the summer we use a small exhaust fan to pull out the hot air from the coop.

 

[earthy_chicks]

I am curious about this as well.
so terrielacy, you put out straw for them to play in during winter? I was wondering what I was going to put out to entertain them when the grass stops growing.

 

[sdeneen2001]

Hi, I'm next door in Redmond. I have a covered coop to cut down on the mud, but I still put out some straw for them to play with. I make sure that there is plenty of shavings on the coop floor (it is concrete) for warmth and I have plexiglass window covers that I put on when it is getting cold at night. If it is below freezing, I turn on their heat lamp. During the summer, if we have a hot night, I turn on their fan (hey, these are "pets" not "poultry"

). They go out and play in the rain, but they did NOT care to go out in the snow. They seem to have more trouble with heat than cold and I do run the springler over their coop/pen when it gets hot. I've got mostly heavies with a few others (hamburg, andalusian) and have never had weather related problems. Enjoy!

 

[silkiechicken]

The chickens do fine rain or shine. They love the sun. Just make sure their run is dry and all is good.