NY chicken lover!!!!

[Gramma Chick]

I don't put plastic on our cop or run though, and we get subzero temps. Never seemed to bother the chickens, remember wild turkeys and grouse live outside in it. Just got to check for eggs more often, otherwise they freeze and crack. They are probably still good but we always fed those ones to the dogs.

What is your set up like ?
This it when it was first set up ..we didnt have the roosts up yet ..this was the temporary arrangement
My coop is my run ...they have roosting area on the right now & running area on the left .
these are wood slats nailed in a row on the back of the coop with a space between them . the whole setup has a real roof over it even the baby coop
With the back like this & the front wire fencing . the snow will blow right in both sides if I dont put plastic up .
My hubby & i designed it this way for air flow when it is hot out ..
I like this design because we can have more chickens if we want we just add more roosts .
They free range for part of the day anyway ...if they have to stay in they have room to move around .

 

[Beer can]

Hmm, now I'm thinking mine probably could benefit from a tarp over their outside run. It would give them a larger place to play when the snow gets deep. Will be my project when she sun comes up. I guess the deer hunting can wait till it warms up a bit,I don't like freezing anyways. I have a 8'x16' coop and fenced run is about same, now has a fenced top, so it should be easy to add a tarp,b(the Brown Leghorns and EEgr bantam was still flying over 6' fence with a clipped wing!) I plan on doubling the coop size and a much larger separate run when I get some Jersey Giants and Delawares in the spring. Plus they free range during the day.
In the coop I added many wheel barrow loads of dry saw dust from cutting up a triaxle load of logs for fire wood. I left it in piles, by the afternoon they had it all leveled out, good work crew!

 

[Glasshen]

Yes, I love how they work on their coops, mixing leveling, eating the goodies they find...just don't think about what those goodies are.

My flock has embraced the before bed snack we started to have. If I want them to go in the coop to locke up before sunset I would take out a couple of cups of feed and toss it in the coop, in the summer. it sounded like typing class when I was in high school. Now that we have the deep litter building up it is quieter, but still effective. They love the snack so much that if I haven't come out and it is getting toward dark they all gather and come as close to the house as they can looking for me. They even brave two inch snow that they haven't walked in all day.

 

[wny egger]

morning everyone ..found my first frozen waterer this morning ..it was just the one ..the other one that hangs by the coop door was fine ..i put my new heated water bowl in and filled it ..they all looked at it and then looked at me as to ask what the heck is this ..lol..i think they'll figure it out ..

i am thinking i need to cut some more vent holes for them ..when i open it up in the morn it doesnt feel moist but kind of toasty..at least till i open the run door ..but i no last yr with 4 birds and battling frost bite and now 22 birds its gunna get bad soon..i thought those round vents that folks use under their eaves of their house would work ...


glasshen my flocks the same way ..i like to give them more corn this time of yr ..i read that it gives them better warmth for them to have a high carb like cracked corn .and they tend to exspect it now ..i had been buying the mealworms mixed with the cracked corn ..there is also a seed mix scratch they have with cracked corn too..

Thank you for the warning - I did roust 1 hunter this morning. Needless to say he was none too pleased. However, a ****** off woman with a shotgun should not be argued with........I think he realized that too

yeah you never no who you may see out there ..i was hunting one yr out by panama school on the statelands and ran into an amish guy with a hunter orange coat that he had wrote on the back with a black marker that said "dont shoot , i am, a man" ..lol i about fell out of the stand i was in laughing so hard....

 

[Beer can]

yeah you never no who you may see out there ..i was hunting one yr out by panama school on the statelands and ran into an amish guy with a hunter orange coat that he had wrote on the back with a black marker that said "dont shoot , i am, a man" ..lol i about fell out of the stand i was in laughing so hard....

A few yrs ago I was driving through thousands of acres of state land on really out there back rodes with a couple buddies. We came across a guy walking up the road with a neckbrace on carrying a flintlock muzzle loader and a big bird cage like the one tweety was in on the loony tunes!
I was going to just go around him but one of my buddies who was trying to hold back the laughter said I had to stop.
The guy said he broke his neck recently in a car accident so he couldn't walk long hunting. So he has his wife drop him off, and when he wants to go back home he lets the raceing pigeons he raises loose, when they get home his wife comes to pick him up. He also metioned "hadta load 'ole Bess kinda light cause of the broken neck and all"
Turned out to be 'normal', my first thought was he escaped a mental health facility! Lol!

 

[rancher hicks]

Just checking in,

 

[demp4]

Got them all moved into their new coop. They are all confused but I am sure they will adjust.

We got 6" of snow Friday I am just not ready for winter.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Got them all moved into their new coop. They are all confused but I am sure they will adjust.

We got 6" of snow Friday I am just not ready for winter.

you can keep them in there a day or ...put lots of goodies in there so they want to go back

 

[sarahandbray]

Brrrrrrr!!!! I know I shouldn't be complaining in the valley near Albany, but I am NOT ready for the cold, gray, and snow!! I did get the entire 12X8 run enclosed with 5.5' tall old storm windows and the chickens have been liking that. Hubby and his dad are now working on a roof. Hoping they still go out in the winter--doesn't seem good for anyone to be cooped up inside for 3 or 4 months!!
Do you give your chickens cracked corn in the winter to keep them warmer? Right now, they have crumble 24/7 and water 24/7, but I give a few treats a day and I sprinkle a 16 oz cup of Scratch per day. But with 31 chickens, I feel like that's not enough. I know corn should just be a treat and not a staple in their diet, but how much should I feed them of corn per day? Thnx!

 

[boskelli1571]

A few yrs ago I was driving through thousands of acres of state land on really out there back rodes with a couple buddies. We came across a guy walking up the road with a neckbrace on carrying a flintlock muzzle loader and a big bird cage like the one tweety was in on the loony tunes!
I was going to just go around him but one of my buddies who was trying to hold back the laughter said I had to stop.
The guy said he broke his neck recently in a car accident so he couldn't walk long hunting. So he has his wife drop him off, and when he wants to go back home he lets the raceing pigeons he raises loose, when they get home his wife comes to pick him up. He also metioned "hadta load 'ole Bess kinda light cause of the broken neck and all"
Turned out to be 'normal', my first thought was he escaped a mental health facility! Lol!

Define 'normal'............................