Chickens who HATE snow?

[theacw]

I have had 5 hens throughout my chicken raising, all who hate snow. REFUSE to even look at it, touch it, go outside the coop. If I carry them outside and put them on flattened or light snow, FREAK and run back inside... even with treats outside.

I live in Minnesota where there is snow often 8 out of the 12 months a year and often below 0 degrees for 3 months.

I always see people posing pictures of their chickens roaming around, free ranging in snow and curious why mine won't. I feel bad that they only enjoy their lives outside their coop for 4 months out of the year. Just curious on other peoples experiences with this.

 

[1876 Farm]

When the snow is deep my chickens also won't go outside, they might venture out onto the ramp but then right back in. I have to lay down straw, then they might come out, all depends on how cold it is.

What type of bird do you have in your avatar?

 

[eggspectation]

When will it stop?? My girls also hate the snow & cold.

 

[theacw]

That little gal is a cochin/silkie bantam mix. Sweetest little thing…. a little more brave with snow than my silver laced wyandotte hen. They are my only 2 chickens at the moment

 

[theacw]

When will it stop??

My girls also hate the snow & cold.

Tomorrow is a low of -32 here, not the windchill either. Actual -32 and no sign of warming up in the 10 day forecast. AGHHHH. For both my chickens and MYSELF!

 

[Happy Chooks]

My chickens also hate snow. Good thing for them that they live in CA and not MN.

 

[earlybird10842]

My gals do too. So I just made them some boardwalks in their pen, leading to their scrap dish so they have an incentive to use them.
Here's the link to the article about it: chickenplayground

 

[eggspectation]

That's a great idea.

 

[azygous]

Has it occurred to anyone that perhaps chickens are instinctively adverse to snow because they feel exposed against the background of white? I lost a hen to a red-tailed hawk two years ago after I let them out and the snow was everywhere.

My chickens have all hated snow on principle though, and they're also spoiled with a spacious covered, enclosed run. They would just rather stay in where it's comfortable, and there really isn't anything attractive about snow to them, except eating what I track in on my boots.

I had a young Cochin cockerel who had never experienced snow before. He found himself faced with a stretch of snow that he was loathe to walk on so he tried to fly over it. It was the most hysterical sight to see him plant himself head first in a snow drift, with little feathered feet wiggling frantically. Good thing for him I was there to fish him out.

 

[Owingsia]

We live in Saluda VA, our chickens hate the snow! All 50 of them! The last snow storm none of them would come out and touch the snow. I thought maybe if I took a rooster our and put him in the snow and he was ok with it they would come out.

I picked up a roo and placed him in the snow about 10 feet from the coop. Once I let him go he started screaming like a hen and ran right into the coop. The only birds that would come out into the snow were the meat birds who would promptly go under the coop and hang out there all day. Several nights I had to reach under and pull them out to get them back into the coop for the night.