snow in coop and roosting box ok?

[PdxChick]

Hello fellow Portlanders. We live in Mt Tabor, and I have sooo much snow in my run. My poor girls cannot even go into about 1/2 of the run, because the snow is so deep. I shoveled it out early this morning, but wouldn't you know, as soon as I was done (or as done as I could get), we got a few more inches and wind that blew almost as much snow into the run as I had just shoveled out of the run.

Thankfully, when we built the run, I was thinking about the rainy winters here and made 1/2 of the run covered. I have nailed tarps all the way around three sides of the covered run and over the coop, for added wind protection. My BRs seem unfazed. I think they kinda like the weather, because now they get 3 hots meals a day!!!

 

[skeeter]

yeah that blowing snow is a killer,learned that the hard way about 20 years ago in Colorado,just takes some small cracks and you could lose some hens

 

[PDXChickGirl]

Hey PDXChick -
I live on Mt. Tabor, too!! Do I know you?!

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

Do the best you can to keep those chickens DRY and keep the winds off them.
Only maybe 3 of our 26 will come out of the coop...and when they did it was like they where ice skating across the top of the frozen snow.
Our flock is pretty spoiled, they have a cadet heater in the coop the we put in when we built it, plus it's fully insulated, but I still find myself going out to check on them through out the night.

~Tiff~

 

[PdxChick]

I am a little worried about my chickens. We do have a heat lamp in their coop, but they seem to be hanging out in the covered part of the run. I guess if they got cold enough they would go into the coop, right? Should I close them up in the coop? I do have the tarps around the covered part, so it is not very windy in that section, but there is snow on the ground (only a light dusting that blew in). Thanks to some earlier postings, I have stuffed old towels in the eaves of their coop. There was no snow inside the coop this morning.
They are still each laying an egg a day, so I hope that means they are not feeling too stressed. And I now know that they love warm grits.