My chickens are wimps!

[AngieChick]

In my birds defense, we are in Western Oregon, where it rarely gets below freezing and if we are lucky it will snow a little bit once a year. So, I woke up this morning to 25 degree weather and a couple of inches of snow. I dutifully let my squawking birds out, put out their food, and brought in their water to unfreeze. I had a lightweight jacket and some gloves on and felt just fine. When I put their water back out, the silly birds are still squawking inside, refusing to go out. It's not even very windy. So, I put in a bit of food and water in their coop. But, as our weather is fairly mild, and they have a nice covered run, their coop is pretty small. It's not supposed to be their daytime hangout, and I was worried that if they stay there all day they will get bored & grumpy and peck each other. So, after about an hour, I decide maybe they are scared of the tiny bit of snow on the ground in their run. Snow shovel in hand, I scrape it to the side. Taking each bird, I toss them outside. They are now huddled together on a roost in the run. I even sprinkled out scratch for them.

My questions are, should I have let them stay in their small henhouse? And will they be okay in their run at 25 degrees? They are Golden Comets and EE's. I'll give them some warm oatmeal in a bit. I did tell them that I have seen pictures of happy chickens romping in the snow, hoping to inspire them, but it doesn't seem to have helped

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Well what did they have to say after you told them that?

 

[sunnydee]

My birds tolerate the cold weather just fine, but then again that is what they know living here in Maine. Mine do not like the snow either...so I do shovel out their run. However, they tend to stay in their coop a lot during real cold spells. I just put plenty of treats for them to play with, I have two suet cages I stuff with greens, I hang cabbage, throw BOSS around their shavings so they can scratch around. So far so good.

 

[Wildsky]

They will come out eventually. Mine take a bit to come out even though they have SEEN snow before.
Today they're not too keen to come out its bitterly cold (-10 now)

 

[AngieChick]

They are now wandering around a bit. But they did squawk at me grumpily when I went out, just to let me know they aren't happy about it. "Mom, my tootsies are cold! Fix it!"

I rigged up a light over their water, so hopefully that will keep it thawed.

I suppose I can't give them too hard a time about it, I'm currently cuddled up in an afghan on the couch sipping coffee.

The snow is pretty, but it's one of those annual reminders of why we moved to Corvallis, and not Missoula, MT (the other place we considered, my hubby lived there as a kid).

 

[phalenbeck]

Mine are now O.K. with snow, but as all other things new--snow/leaves/pumpkins/leaf blowers fear at first is the motto. I would guess it was the third snow that got them in there this is normal routine. --On windy/wet/snow days they go in and out of the coop, and there seems to be both breed and individual differences. The old english hen stays in the most, and silkeys stay out the most, followed by the EE. ----I to in a mild zone, and the thing here that keeps them in the coop is wind.--Mine have coop access at all times so there is no worry about the colder/wetter/wind stuff. I told mine the story of barn chickens in NorthernMN, and snow above there heads to inspire then to go out in 2" of snow and +20 above.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
Just wait - pretty soon they're going to BLAME and/or accuse you of putting the snow there. Then you get dirty looks.

 

[cluckychick]

I've not had any problems with mine coming out of the house.....until today

One will wander out and then back in. We had a dusting and the windchill is -13. Yesterday the wind blew like no tomorrow and that didn't stop them from coming out but today they thinks it's to cold for them.

 

[LynneP]

Mine told me I'm expected to suffer with them and I have, going out, clearing snow, babying them. Now they jump into it with glee, silly me, I should have known, evidently.

We did install snowboards for easons evident in one of these photos.

Details in this link-
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-seasonal-concerns

Made a HUGE difference in keeping the run warm and cutting down on snow drift. Probably not so much of a problem for you, but we're in a heavy snow zone.