Do chickens like snow?

[Pigpye]

My chickens just relocated to a snowy area. They do not go outside anymore but just look out the coop door.

 

[Pigpye]

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Mine have a half-covered run. They prefer the covered part now!

We had minimal snow in the big recent storm, but it was mixed with much freezing rain. So there’s a white crust on everything, which they don’t like as they step on it and it gives way.

Their coop door opens onto an ice-covered deck. They gather on it, exchanging worried glances. They don’t want to jump off because of the scary crust landing. I try to coax them onto the hill, about 8 feet away. One brave soul decides to “fly,” and that inspires the others. Two take off together, colliding upon landing. The last one shrieks and takes off, coming in for a hard landing. They proceed to go up the hill to dust bathe and scratch.

Gotta love Chicken TV!

 

[gtaus]

Mine have a half-covered run. They prefer the covered part now!

Right, I'm thinking if I do a half-covered run, the covered part of the run will be directly overhead from the pop door. If the weather is nice, maybe they will go out further into the uncover portion of the run. If not, at least they have some cover as soon as they go outside.

 

[gtaus]

They do not go outside anymore but just look out the coop door.

I only had 1 hen out of 10 that made it outside today, and she did not stay outside very long. I did see a few others walk up to the pop door and poke their heads out, but then turn around and go back into the coop. Not a big concern for me because, like I said, I have their food and water in the coop itself.

 

[2 many chickens]

My chickens hate it and act like it's the most disgusting stuff they have ever seen. Last year when we had a snowstorm they refused to come out until most of it had melted away.

 

[ChocolateWingTheRooster]

Mine hate snow! Even my cockerel...

 

[gtaus]

My chickens hate it and act like it's the most disgusting stuff they have ever seen. Last year when we had a snowstorm they refused to come out until most of it had melted away.

I was expecting this type of behavior, so I made my chicken coop twice the recommended size for my 10 hens. I hope they will not suffer cabin fever as much with the larger coop. I read behaviors can get pretty nasty if the coop is too small and the winter is too long.

 

[nuthatched]

The first snow of the year usually gets my hens standing in the door way staring for awhile, then someone jumps out (or more likely gets pushed) then after awhile, they all come out. They usually run underneath the deck or under the shed or even under the neighbors house if they get that far.
I've only had to rescue the boss hen, when she was floundering in 3 ' snow, she learned her lesson and stayed under the shelter until the level dropped.

 

[CindyinSD]

I'm thinking about different ways to provide a covered run, or at least a partially covered run for the girls for next winter. Probably don't want to make it too big as last winter we had 3 to 4 foot snow banks. That would be pretty heavy on the roofing unless well made. Unfortunately, well made usually means $$$$.

Well-made could simply mean steep. We built a “barn” (three-sided-shed) for my cattle.

This is bigger and more complicated than you need, but you see the steepness of the roof. I don’t know the pitch. We really just threw this together as we went along. Metal ag roofing is easy to install and any significant snow slides right off if it’s steep enough. we sank the posts in the ground about 2.5 feet even though our frost line is 6 ft. I did this with another pole building around 12 years ago. It still looks great.

Your project would probably be smaller and shorter, so less expensive and less scary. (I sure felt like I could touch the sky, way up there putting in roofing screws!) My chicken yard doesn’t have any covering but this winter they’ll be in a big plastic tent (greenhouse) so I’m not too worried. Once they’ve been in there a week or two I’ll let them out on nice days though they’d be fine in there 24-7. Their numbers have grown kind of a lot, so they can’t be confined in the 10x12 coop much longer than just overnight.

Anyway, if I were going to roof a chicken yard I think I’d start at the back (north side) with a knee-high wall so it wouldn’t get out of hand with regard to height. I’m gonna put the Tom turkeys and geese in there when I move the chickens and jennies and poults out though, so I don’t care about sheltering it. Turkeys and geese are seriously tough. I’ll be pleased if I can even convince them to sleep in the building. They have minds of their own.