Rain, 36 deg. & they won't go in the coop!

[Beekissed]

greathorse
Today 4:44 pm I truly feel more chickens are sickened, traumatized, compromised and turned mean and angry from all manner of over management as opposed to good shelter, good feed. fresh water and left to be chickens in their own chicken way. Can't imagine chasing a bunch of chickens in out of the rain. If they aren't smart enough to get in out of the rain??????

Leave em alone!! lol

I agree! I've never had illness in my flocks. I can honestly say I've never had a mean bird, feather picking, bullying or any such things in my flocks. Any roos that I've had that got frisky got trained out of it in about 20 min. time with no repeat on the behaviour. My flock seem very happy as they go about being chickens and I don't see the need to interfere with that in too many ways.

I have a minimalist approach to all my animal husbandry. I provide the necessary environment for good growth, good health and safety and then I just let them be the animal that they are. My sheep are healthy and have never had parasite overloads or illness, despite my having never used commercial dewormers or meds of any kind. I've never used a dewormer on a chicken in all these years.

It saves me time, money and worry in so many ways if I just let my animals be what they should be and not try to turn them into objects of affection or treat them like human children.​

 

[prairiepearls]

Hey guys, chill!

I'm the OP -- not looking for controversy here, just a little reassurance, which I got. Thanks for the help.

 

[Beekissed]

This IS us being chilled!

No controversy going on right now....just light debating.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
Yep......

 

[LeghornLisa]

Ok, here is what I do...right, wrong or indifferent, it works for us. When I had my 1st flock I had 2 silkies. Fearing they would freeze to death, I installed a flat panel heater from Shopthecoop.com that kicks in at freezing and shuts off at 45 degrees. On really cold New England nights I shut the pop doors. During the day I open them and if it is really cold, the peeps will make up their own mind about coming out into the run or not. Some days they would hang out in the coop. Keep in mind I only had to use the heater a handful of days during the winter, but very glad I had it...I really think that my peeps do better in the winter than the dog days of summer. I have to say that I worry less about their welfare in the winter.

 

[prairiepearls]

Ok, then! ;-)

For the record, I think I'm going to add a little heat, just to keep the coop above freezing, as much to keep the eggs from freezing as the chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

Here's an interesting thread you might like:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=421291

As for eggs...I live in a cold state, deep in the mountains and we have plenty of below freezing and single digit weather all winter. I've never had a frozen egg.

Have you considered the deep litter method as a natural way to keep your coop warmer? It may save you money and any fear of catching your coop on fire from heaters. Ever since I switched to the DLM, my coop has been extra warm and toasty. The chickens love it when they have to be confined to the coop due to three foot snows...it gives them something to do and I swear, it feels like there is a heater in the coop when you walk into it from the cold outside.

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

Quote:
I came on to see about letting my gals out in the snow....we rarely get it and tonight it is falling like crazy....lots of interesting and varied opinions on weather here. I live in the Pacific Northwest and if I kept my chickens in when it rained they would be spending lots of time in the coop. They actually seem to enjoy the rain although when it beomes windy and rainy they very quickly retreat to under or in the coop. I think consideration needs to go to what typical weather is for individual areas and what our bird are aclimatized to. For mine the heat is more of a concern as we do not typically have temps above 30 degrees (C that is) and when temps rise we need to have lots of cooling strategies in place. For some perhaps the cold rains are not typical and that may be a greater concern. What I am saying is that the extremes are the concern.

DH is more concerned about the girls in the cold than I am ....to keep him (and probably our flock) happy we are going to use our brooder lamps to warm the coop. I think they would be fine without them but I also do not think it will hurt them to have them on at night to warm things up a bit. I won`t have to worry about the water freezing as much either.

 

[3chimama]

My girls love to be out in the rain, even in this colder weather....