Chickens who HATE snow?

[GD91]

Snowed a tiny bit today - Chickens went "LEG IT!"

Raced straight into their shed without a backwards glance, then sat staring at me puzzling over why I was still outside

I froze erecting a quail pen in snow.

Perfect revenge coming up.... I'm going to shut the shed door next time until they beg me to open it

That'll teach them to keep their feathered butts out of MY home.

Anyone else got chickens that make a beeline for their kitchen door when its open & race in?

I have to chase them out.

 

[gscarlett]

My girls hate the snow also. They will stand on their "balcony" and look down, but not go. Will try the straw with our snow tomorrow and see how that works, especially since the food and water is outside of the coop.

 

[memere maynard]

My girls don't like the snow at all either, but my granddaughter was able to get them out to sit on the swing in the sun....they loves that!

 

[Katt66]

Mine don't like deep snow either. Poor EE pullet a couple of weeks ago took a flying leap off the doorjamb of the enclosed run. I don't know where she thought she was going but when she made it about ten feet and landed smack in the middle of about 2ft of fluffy white stuff she wasn't happy. She screamed like crazy flew straight up out of the snow, landed on the edge of the retaining wall and sat there crying until I made it over to her. When I put my arm out to put it around her she couldn't get under it fast enough. And sat there in my arms cooing and puck pucking at me all happy till I carried her back over to the coop.

Pretty much, if the snow is deep everybody just sits in the doorway of the enclosed run and looks around at at the lovely white yard but doesn't venture out. Once I have a path shoveled and packed down out to and around the run and coop my Black and Buff Orpington, White Leghorn and EE rooster will come out and pick around a bit. Occasionally the Sebrights will join them. But once they find there's nothing out there but white and nothing underneath it but more white and frozen solid ground, they just wander back into the coop and resume working on whatever pit they're currently digging.

From my guys' behavior, I'd think that if you are truly hellbent on getting them out of the coop and don't have an enclosed run, maybe shovel and pack it down really well and throw out some scratch for them. Sort of give them an incentive to leave the nice cozy coop area. Chickens ARE indeed incredibly smart. But if there's nothing in it for them, they'll have no parts of it no matter how much coaxing or brute force we use. ^_^

 

[grampsjim]

My girls apparently don't like cold or snow. They are huddled inside their coop. I put a lot of straw down inside and old wood
mulch outside. Okla has had more snow and ice this year than I can remember having in many years. Mostly ice. The chickens
come out when we are in the pen with food and treats but quickly go inside when we leave. Thankfully, the cold stuff is melted and
we are headed into a warming phase. Spring for us is "just around the corner"!!

 

[deacons]

I have one Golden Laced Wyandotte who will only fly over it to get from her run to the "comfort" of my garage on days when there is a lot piled up. Hanging out in the garage:



The rest don't seem to mind much though, they'll go out and track through it to get to their favorite scratching spots. When we get more than a few inches at once, I shovel them paths and clear off a big patch of my yard so they have some access to grass to move around in for about an hour of free ranging.

Their run is covered only in hardware cloth, which is a huge pain to keep shoveled out, but I shovel the snow and replace a thick bed of straw for them to keep them off the frozen ground, which they seem to appreciate. My lovely husband has agreed to put a real roof on the run this year!

Realizing no one is going to let her inside:


The head girl always on the lookout for treats:

 

[GingerCW]

I live in Oregon and I am on my first journey through winter with chickens. We have had a lot of snow the last couple of weeks (over a foot on Friday/Saturday). On Sunday when I went in to check on my chickens, they excitedly pecked at all the snow from my boots, water bucket and the snow I tracked in. They are so funny! They totally loved eating the snow. They hovered at the door and pecked at the snow out the door but absolutely refused to actually venture outside onto the snow. Go figure. I did read a great idea from BYC about keeping the chickens from being bored by hanging cabbage (or other food) for the chickens to peck and eat. My 19 chickens seem to love it. They can devour a whole head of cabbage in a day. I guess if your chickens are bored enough they will go outside if they want to play in the snow like the chickens we see posted by other people.

 

[Antonia]

My three girls don't like the snow either. The small hoop house is just 5 feet from their coop and I put hay and straw down, and there is even some grass roots for them to dig up, but if there is snow, they won't go over even if I put mealworm treats in the HH for them. I have to put a branch down from door to door and one will go, but for the other two I have to brush all the snow off the branch too, and they MAY deign to go over.
Silly hens.

 

[pallinore]

Mine had to get used to it after several months. they'd walk on packed/shoveled trails if it was deep. At first they wanted nothing to do with it. As it was melting they'd learned there was grass underneath and started scratching at it. It's funny how just a few degrees and raining and they don't care a bit - got soaking wet. It's so funny how clean, dry snow is a problem but nearly freezing sloppy mud is not.

Mine don't come in the kitchen, but they are very interested in what I am doing in there.

I think the scarves are hilarious!

 

[happyowner]

My chickens are cold hardy but don't like to touch the snow either. If I shovel the snow so they can see the grass they will come out.