The only really unpleasant part for me about chicken keeping is that you have to go outside in cold weather, early in the morning, to tend for them. Brrrr! You can make this easier on yourself by designing your coop and run with winter in mind. A roofed run (built to withstand your snowloads) will mean no shoveling snow (you can also put up tarps or panels on the bottom sides of the pen in winter to stop snow from drifting in. Think about how you'll get water out to your coop in winter, and keep it from freezing.
We had a really weird winter this year in the DFW area, where I live. Even though our coop is only about 30 or 40 feet from our back door, I'm eyeing an area just off our breezeway, thinking about building an aviary there where the chickens could winter over. I'd only be stepping out the back door to tend to them. It's very tempting to think about.
We had a really weird winter this year in the DFW area, where I live. Even though our coop is only about 30 or 40 feet from our back door, I'm eyeing an area just off our breezeway, thinking about building an aviary there where the chickens could winter over. I'd only be stepping out the back door to tend to them. It's very tempting to think about.