Free ranging in snow?

[minpins99]

Car door was frozen shut with just a slight coating of frost; no hammer necessary, just good tugging! One of the BYP magazines had a feeder made of PVC pipes; is yours like that? I was at Home Depot today and saw some sheds. I looked at them and thought with some modifications, i.e., door to collect eggs, vents, I thought it was a great idea for a coop. But I wouldn't buy one. I took some pictures of the interior and exterior to see if I could hire someone to build one. My son is a firefighter and many of his crew are carpenters or at least know how to build one of these. Most of the coops online look small in comparison to the size of a good-size hen; this was PERFECT! At least I'm developing some ideas.
I have such a good-sized yard that I would hate to restrict them to just a small run. But I wouldn't feel safe going to work and leaving them alone. I'll plan that out, too. We have a lot of red-tailed hawks, eagles, kestrels, etc. Then there are the "night stalkers" - 'coons, possum, skunks.

 

[bruceha2000]

One of the BYP magazines had a feeder made of PVC pipes; is yours like that? I was at Home Depot today and saw some sheds. I looked at them and thought with some modifications, i.e., door to collect eggs, vents, I thought it was a great idea for a coop. But I wouldn't buy one. I took some pictures of the interior and exterior to see if I could hire someone to build one. My son is a firefighter and many of his crew are carpenters or at least know how to build one of these. Most of the coops online look small in comparison to the size of a good-size hen; this was PERFECT! At least I'm developing some ideas.
I have such a good-sized yard that I would hate to restrict them to just a small run. But I wouldn't feel safe going to work and leaving them alone. I'll plan that out, too. We have a lot of red-tailed hawks, eagles, kestrels, etc. Then there are the "night stalkers" - 'coons, possum, skunks.

I don't know what retail PVC feeders look like

. I happened to have a piece of 5" PVC pipe about 2.5' long so I used that and drilled 4 holes near the bottom with a hole saw and connected it with 4 metal L brackets to a round plastic planter bottom I got at the hardware store. I put a piece of wire through the top and hung it from the ceiling with a chain and hook. I raised it as the girls got bigger.

If you have all those aerial predators, I think covering the run with something would be a good idea. I have read of people using fishing line crisscrossed over the run to keep them out. Other options are bird netting but I don't know how expensive that gets.

If you have people with the skills, I would go for the home built coop as well. The chickens don't care if it is a show piece (just ask my chickens, they would know!) but the store bought ones have to be quite nice looking, especially for the price they charge. So you can build one that specifically suits your site and probably larger and cheaper especially if you have some building material recycling place around. And if you haven't look through the coop pages here on BYC, there are a goodly number of great ideas for design that makes cleaning it easier, etc.

And make sure you bury hardware cloth outside the edge of the run - down a few inches and then out about 18" so the digging varmints can't get under the wall.

Bruce

 

[Barry Michelle]

Minpins99, Good luck on your coop! The extra time thinking about it will pay in the end.Have fun and enjoy!
Here are a few pics of my mini barn coop

 

[uphilljill]

All our 4 chickens (RIR, NH, & Orpingtons) and 8 guineas spend more time in the barn now that there's some lite snow (and about 25-30F), but they all will still venture out at some point during the day. They especially like to hike up to the house to beg for treats or dust bath under the deck. We're supposed to get our first really deep snow tonight (18"), so we'll see what they think of it then.

 

[Boichik86]

Quote: I was not aware that American games wore so cold hardy! Maybe its the small combs/wattles I have never had the privilege of owning one. I have however, owned heavy Americans, Heavy Asiatic, bantams, and turkeys, and all I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that they all fared far better in the cold than any of my hard feathered, big combed, large wattled, skinny, flighty Mediterraneans. Just my personal experience.

 

[PAchickengirl]

We got 8" of snow, maybe more, today. Had the run semi-covered and some of them were in it under the covered part. The wind blew a little snow in the run and the coop, but they seemed okay. Will have my son shovel them an area near the coop to see if they want out tomorrow. They did just fine in the 2" we had Christmas Eve day.They wandered over near the house where it wasn't deep. A few of them found that there wasn't any snow under the deck, and it took me a few minutes to figure out where they were!

 

[CountryGeorge]

We got snow enough to be belly deep on a chicken and the kids are not amused. I shoveled them a path from their coop to an area I cleared in between my woodpiles and tossed a big scoop of scratch and BOSS but instead they waded through the snow to sit on my little porch looking into the sliding door. I am sure they would love to come inside for a visit but that got old when they were chicks.

 

[chattykathy306]

I think you got some snow now. My daughter lives in Ann Arbor and told me it was snowing yesterday. I am from SW MI, so know that it snows a lot! My sis and aunties are still down there where they get snowed in. I miss it. I now live in the Frozen Tundra with the rest of the Cheeseheads. (Green Bay Packer country) My hens have gotten used to the snow now and are coming out regularly. I am starting to regret it though. They like to come up on the driveway where the snow has been cleared, so we have poop all over the driveway. I think they are hoping to find an open door, so they can get in the garage and eat the cat food. Still only getting eggs from 2 of the 6, the Barred Rock and the EE. Wondering if the others will get going soon. The light goes on at 2:30 AM. Wow! I think I would lay an egg if my light when on every morning at 2:30!

 

[chattykathy306]

I got a laugh out of envisioning this as well. Chickens are indeed funny to watch! I will always think of their exiting the coop in the morning now, as a tsunami.

 

[chattykathy306]

So funny picturing them standing there looking in at you! I'm sure mine would do that if we had such a house. They would be battling the 4 cats for front row seats!