uncovered run in the snow... what do you do?

[williamsl77]

Hi there,

So we just built an enormous coop that nearly killed us (though it was a lot of fun, haha). We made a very basic run that is uncovered at the moment. I don't think we will get to building the covered run until next summer for quite a few reasons. That being said, I'm curious what other folks do to keep the snow out. What's the most basic way to do this? Just shovel it out? That sounds like a drag.

Here's our coop:

Edited to add picture.

 

[kelidei]

Hi! What I do here is just make sure they can get out their door and push the snow away from the coop.... then I lay down clean straw they do not like cold feet.... also the straw gives them something to scratch through when the ground is frozen. They eventually scratch and trample the snow down and the drifts that remain make nice elevated perches for my roos to watch their kingdoms.

BTW...Nice coop!

 

[stilldeb]

We have very heavy tarps covering all of our runs, and remove the snow from the tarps if it collects there. We don't usually get a LOT of snow.

deb g

 

[williamsl77]

Oh, kelidei.... that sound managable! We're in NH, so lots of snow. As we learned last week, a tarp isn't going to do much.

Thanks for the compliment on the coop. It was quite a feat from scratch. Learned a lot and a friend helped us A LOT. Kinda want to build another one next spring just to use the new skills. Though maybe not. This one was a lot of work!

Thanks for the advice!

 

[karlamaria]

You can find a dog kennel on crags list , or add some sort of support to yours now and lay a tarp down. No way would I be shoveling a pen out. We get snow also and lots of it, I covered mine completely. Maybe I need to rethink it though, I need to at least uncover part of it so it's not dark lol.

 

[teach1rusl]

Yeah...after two years of shoveling clearings (and tossing down straw) in the big run, we finally roofed part of it this summer. The older you get, the less appealing thoughts of shoveling snow becomes...lol.

 

[carolinasculpture]

We have a small part covered right by the door and then the rest is open with a few small covered places. Basically I just have to shovel paths to where they need to go. They won't walk on the snow...at least mine won't!

 

[Yetti]

I have been thinking of using my 6' wood fence as kind of a center wall for a covered run? I have a couple huge old tarps that might do nicely for keeping some ground clear?
any thoughts?

 

[Gvnam]

Had an early snow a week or so ago. Hardly any snow got into the run. It all collected on the fencing and sort of made the run into a big igloo. The girls loved it! They were having a blast pecking the snow.

 

[darkmatter]

Nothing: