Snow Prep

[SnootyHen]

I tarp 3 of the 4 sides of my run and a little snow comes in the 4th but it's just enough for them to investigate without making a mess.

The dog is pretty upset that not one chicken came out to play this morning.

 

[RoyalChick]

View attachment 2510336
should I do a double layer?

Honestly I think they will be fine with what you have already done. Their little down jackets are pretty effective. The storm has just hit here - snowing gently but steadily and mine are still hanging out watching the snowflakes.

 

[black_cat]

Honestly I think they will be fine with what you have already done. Their little down jackets are pretty effective. The storm has just hit here - snowing gently but steadily and mine are still hanging out watching the snowflakes.

I did the other half of that side as well.

 

[Stephanie8806]

I think your chickens will do just fine! Granted, my coop and run is a bit bigger than yours, but I didn’t even need to wrap my run this year... even though we got two separate snow dumps that were each over a foot, with several other days of 4-6 inches. They’ll complain, yes, but they actually do just fine with a little snow on the ground after a few days to adjust.

My girls squak to high heaven when they see me each morning, and I tell them that I’ve noted their complaints and will submit them to the weather control board

But even without wrapping the run, and my fences being roughly 9 feet high, the areas that have roofing have no snow on the ground after a day or two. The chickens eat it, it melts a bit under the sun or under their feet, and they’re left with dirt. Plus, their feathers do an excellent job keeping them warm.

Trust them! They’ll be a bit grumpy but they’ll be fine!

 

[Stephanie8806]

OH! One thing you need to be prepared for is the snow load on that roof. I’d suggest trying to brush it off periodically as it accumulates and before it starts to melt and get heavy and compact.

Our coop roof is super sturdy... 2x6 rafters spaced at 16”, with thick OSB and metal roofing. We have two panels in the middle that are clear plastic(for skylights), and because of the lack of osb, we added 2x4 cross supports. We almost had a disaster about a week after a big dump...

Our roof is sloped, but clearly not enough. Throughout about a week of cold sunny weather, our foot and a half of accumulation slid about half way off but then got compacted and heavy and wouldn’t slide the rest of the way off. Even with the closely spaced rafters, the roof was just barely starting to sag under the weight, BETWEEN the rafters!

The plastic roof on your run doesn’t look very sloped, if at all, and that plastic(which looks like the same stuff we used on our sky lights) is not very strong under load, and especially brittle when cold!

 

[Sally PB]

@black_cat, how did you and your chickens fare with the storm? We have one coming this weekend.

 

[black_cat]

@black_cat, how did you and your chickens fare with the storm? We have one coming this weekend.

As anticipated, they took the entire situation very personally. The first day was very windy and blowy, so they stayed inside. THe second day, my barriers eliminated most chicken level wind, and they scratched around and melted all the snow in their run. They're now back to normal.