Tractor in the Snow

[The Sheriff]

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Wow, nice suggestion!

 

[possumqueen]

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This reminds me of a SERIOUS mistake I made when I got chickens for the first time years ago. (You don't need to know how long ago that was!)

It was January, and we had a run of bad weather, and I didn't have adequate shelter for my birds, so I brought them into the house. Right off the bat they got too warm, and stood around in their corner of the kitchen panting like it was 95 in the shade. So I moved them out to the laundry room, and they felt better. As soon as we had a nice sunny day I made space for them out in the barn, with shelter and everything. And they all got sick because they'd had five or six days in a warm house, and they couldn't make the shift from cold to warm back to cold. I lost half of them before I figured out what I had done wrong.

Learn from your elders! (that's me) Save yourself from my mistakes!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Now I know it isn't as cold down here as where you are at but I built my tractors to allow fresh air in and keep most of the wet out. I totally covered the whole roof with PVC roofing panels and part of the sides to keep the wind out. These have a roosting pole and so far the chickens have done really well in snow, cold rain and sleet. They still have a mostly dry, clear area to get around in but are not covered up too much. All I worry about is too much wind.

 

[Overeasyplz]

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um, both, but these are my first birds in Idaho, in oregon we had birds ever since I could remember. I moved away from Oregon to Idaho up to Ashton, ID. No more eggs from gramma! but I work at a co-op and got chicks here this spring. It's our first winter with birds, i guess i mean to say! Where are you? We moved from Ashton to St Anthony a month ago.

 

[Overeasyplz]

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I now get your siggy! HA! nice tractors!!

 

[Overeasyplz]

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Wait wait, you DO NOT want to enclose the whole run. You will end up with intractable humidity problems, especially severe since you're working with little difficult-to-ventilate tractors rather than a full sized coop.

You can beef up the support structure (which it WILL need, snow is *heavy* and you can't count on always being out there to remove it before too much accumulates) and put something solid on the top -- I'd suggest either plywood or strongly-supported plastic roofing panels -- and put plastic over one or one-and-a-half of the sides, but leave a lot of the downwind side open so it doesn't get humid in there.

Clear (or anyhow translucent) plastic, e.g. vapor barrier type, is preferable to a tarp because chickens are not really cave creatures

, they like light. Same reason it'd be real good to put a window (any type of clear panel) in your tractors. Much happier chickens that way.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

lol I know that! jeez. Anyway they have plywood over most of the top. I would love to move the tractor to the carport but the landlord is keeping his crap out there. The woodshed is housing my bunnies. I moved here just under a month ago so I had really no time to prepare for the snow. But I will be beefing up this particular tractor come spring. And I will be building a larger coop with semi-enclosed run for them for next winter. They are keeping nice and warm in their perch house, according to another BYC'r each chick puts out about 10 Amps equivalent of heat and they are snug and dry. There are vent holes near the top and on the sides down low and they all seem to be doing great. They just seem disgruntled because I let them out every day when I came home from work so they could graze..however there is no grass right now. It's sad but spring will come again!

 

[Burbs]

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um, both, but these are my first birds in Idaho, in oregon we had birds ever since I could remember. I moved away from Oregon to Idaho up to Ashton, ID. No more eggs from gramma! but I work at a co-op and got chicks here this spring. It's our first winter with birds, i guess i mean to say! Where are you? We moved from Ashton to St Anthony a month ago.

We're in Ririe. Lived in this area for most of my life. Have you lived through a winter in the Ashton/St. Anthony are yet?

 

[Overeasyplz]

yes, this is going on my third winter here. Our first one was that terrible one with 6 feet of snow outside all the time. Ashton gets more snow than St. Anthony though, I heard..I hope!! But it's the first winter with chickens. My rabbits came here with me from Oregon, they do great here!