chickens' first snow

[townhen]

The chickens awoke to their first snow this morning. They don't want to come out of their coop to eat and drink in their run, however. Only a little snow made it into the run (it is mostly wrapped in plastic). Are they likely to get over their fear and come out to eat and drink soon?

 

[domino2339]

Mine are doing the same thing. I have a partially covered run. My food and water is in the covered part. They hit the food and water once today. My chickens are chicken lol

 

[tdepointe]

They will get over their fear and come out. I do not know what you call a little snow. If they is more than an inch or so I would scrape it to the ground.

 

[shortgrass]

A little straw spread on the ground outside the door may help; its cold walking on snow for the first time

Then next time it snows, just use a fork and flip the straw over and it'll expose the dry side again so they don't have to wade through the snow.

As they get used to it, they'll become quite comfy digging through a foot of it to find goodies below.

 

[eleaserek]

Lol, mine experienced snow for the first time this week too I was up and heard them making a huge fuss. Looked out the window to see them sticking their heads out the door and screeching! After about 10 minutes, someone got brave and ventured out. They realized it wasn't going to eat them, but they weren't big fans, and chose to stay in the coop most of the day

 

[azygous]

Generally, my chickens dislike snow. It's not really that it's cold. They don't experience the coldness with their feet like we would. They really don't enjoy digging in it because they know it's not dirt. So if it's not really uncomfortable to walk on and even though they can't dirt bathe in it, do they really dislike it?

I've given it a lot of thought over the years, and I believe the main reason why chickens aren't big fans of snow is because it's white and they somehow sense that they're vulnerable as targets to any predator up above when they're standing on white snow.

But none of this explains why my six-month old Cream Legbar cockerel Strawberry strolls on snow and stands around on snow without any apparent discomfort. If he's worried a hawk might spot him more readily as he's hanging around on snow, he certainly doesn't act like it.

But he's the only one of my chickens who's so cavalier about the white stuff. The rest would rather just remain in their covered run and not deal with it.