Keeping Chickens Free Range

[hellbender]

I hope you folks don't mind if I join this thread. We free-range all the time and the birds are allowed to go out, regardless of weather conditions but of course, there are times when none of them set one foot out the door!

 

[duluthralphie]

I find it interesting your chickens reactions to snow.

It means my chickens are normal. When we first got snow they refused to leave the coop. After a few days some of them would leave the coop but not go more than 5 feet from the coop.

Now they are running around ignoring the snow. I can tell by the amount of feed they use they are accepting the world as it is now.

I was worried I was going to have to buy grit for them. (seems way to suburban to me). Now they are out digging and pecking at everything.

I do plow a large area for them to roam in and they scratch up and down the driveway.

I throw them "scratch and corn" to find and it seems to keep them happy.

I got my first really weird egg yesterday, a semi-soft one. It had a real thin layer of "shell" on it. It would squish wherever I touched it, sort of like those air bubble packing sheets.



My barred rock hen went into the coop last night I think...

Rick was in the coop but on the ground and not on a roost. Rick's illicit lover was outside in their rendezvous spot. I had to carry her back into the coop. If Brutus is punishing Rick, would he not allow Rick a spot on the roost?

 

[Aphrael]

I hope you folks don't mind if I join this thread. We free-range all the time and the birds are allowed to go out, regardless of weather conditions but of course, there are times when none of them set one foot out the door!

You're welcome to join in! Mine only choose to stay inside if the weather is pretty nasty out. They would MUCH rather be out foraging than hanging out in the barn.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

I hope you folks don't mind if I join this thread. We free-range all the time and the birds are allowed to go out, regardless of weather conditions but of course, there are times when none of them set one foot out the door!

Welcome hellbender. We get pretty frigid up in my area and my chickens don't do snow if below a certain temp. I don't pay that much attention to what temp they start wandering around. The weather now has been brutal, didn't reach 3 degrees today. They stayed on the porch, under various areas protected from wind. I had to tuck a couple under a shelter at Dusk.
Throw yourself in! I, personally, don't bite until Tuesdays….

 

[duluthralphie]

Is that 3 degrees above zero?

Why would you even mention a pleasant spring day like that?

 

[blkjak]

-26 here this morning. Feels like -41 with the wind chill. No one is going outside not even the ducks.

 

[chicksurreal]

-26 here this morning. Feels like -41 with the wind chill. No one is going outside not even the ducks.

OMG! I'll never complain about it being 34 degrees again! Poor chickies, how in the world do you keep them from freezing solid?

 

[vpatt]

-26 here this morning. Feels like -41 with the wind chill. No one is going outside not even the ducks.

You are giving me cold chills....stay warm!

 

[blkjak]

I have a 2 room coop. Small room has silkies and bantam cochins with 4 rabbits, the odd cat and their own heat lamp. The big room has 4 heat lamps and about 50 chickens, 25 ducks, 4 geese and a rabbit. The fight is to keep the geese and ducks from bathing in the water dishes. I also have 2 brooders inside the coop that we can put birds in if they need to have heat and medicine. We are changing our water dishes out today to heated water buckets with a board half covering it so they won't be able to bath. Deep litter on the floor. I add a new bale of straw to each room each week.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

I guess my slower than the average ISP won't let me multi quote….So I should be thankful for what temps we are getting? Well, Poo,
Being Humble is like swallowing a Horse pill sometimes…LOL.

My apologies for not acknowledging how MUCH COLDER other areas get.

Be4 sun was -4, after sun, NO WAY, we're staying in the ABOVE 0 teens.
Getting concerned for leghorn since she has so many near bald spots & am… Not being ME~, SOME Medicos sometimes not as smart as a fencepost.

BTW: any opinions on the photos I posted? Pecking or Molting or both? May tuck half feathered leghorn inside my jacket and bring her in for a few, poor thing. Hot water, grain, torn apart bread & hard boiled eggs seems to be keeping them fed……But still worried for the poor outcasted girl..