Free Ranging in Snow??

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

now I'm anxious to see what mine will do in the snow!! Mine aren't freerange yet. I am so afraid of them takin off and becoming lunch for a feral dog/cat/coyete/HAWK...

Also, do any of you keep wings clipped?? I worry about them getting up in the trees (well we only have like 4)

It's like having a new baby all over again... those first seasons are the hardest.. what to do, what to put on them, run outside in the winter with shorts on to see just how cold it is.... LOL

Guess I am "mother hen" right now LOL
love

Your just like me last year. Funny how some worry so much about their chickens while the others are laughing at us

BUT they will do just fine. Mine have been free range for a year not and we have not had a problem with anything except the neighbors dog which they keep tied now so no worries for months now. No, I don't clip wings at all. They can't fly that high or for a long distance and I don't think they will have any interest in anything at night but heading back to what they know as "home" (their coop) And I HAVE ran out in shorts in mid winter (-35 at time) and it was COLD LOL We must be crazy?​

 

[scooter147]

I thought snow ate chickens? At least mine thinks it does, they do not venture out in it unless they can see the ground. I made the mistake of tossing a few out in it one year, PANIC, PANIC, PANIC. The squawked and flapped and carried on something terrrible.

 

[CherokeeFlats]

Quote:
I think we all are at some point on our critter journeys. I also worry bacause I live by a main road (Speed Limit is 55 but they go like 80 I kid you not!) and I live across from a vet (dogs do get loose sometimes) and I dont want them wondering in their yard but I dont have a fense around the property....

Maybe get some fensing (chicken wire and T-Posts) and do a BIG area for them???

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
If they are on snow, or on something like shavings or mulch or straw, they will not get frostbite (assuming they are able to go indoors and sit on their feet in the bedding or on the roost when they get cold). Your only problem would be if they did NOT have somewhere 'good' to go to, or were standing on wet/slushy or rock-hard-frozen-bare ground for a long period of time (which would probalby not happen if they *did* have somewhere to go to warm up, anyhow)

If you are worried, put down some straw or something in your run, if the ground gets hard and bare-or-icy for a long spell between snows. You will wanna rake that straw out real quickly in late winter when things start to thaw, though, as it will start to stench something fierce when that happens

Good luck, have fun,

Pat, whose chickens are basically wussies about snow, they go out (in the run) in nonwindy snow but not for especially long

 

[fldiver97]

Quote:
We have owls and hawks, less "camouflage" for the chickens in winter.....Is it too risky to let the GLW's out in snow where they would be very visible....?