hello to all the new "eggs". This is the site for all your questions, everything I know about chickens I learned from the kind folks here. That said I want to report our first snowfall of the season here in rural Grays Harbor, I went out about an hour ago to shut the coop door and was suprised to see snow, I hadn't seen it forecast.
We have been more worried about the dark gloomy and wet days, the hens were off their feed so to speak, coming out of their first heavy moult, egg production was very low and they just didn't seem happy. We decided to use flexed PVC pipes to make an arch over the run, attached with the PVC pipes with zipties and pulled a tarp over, also attached with zipties. Didn't take very long and was an inexpensive fix. This covers about 3/4 of the run, all the way to the ground on one side. Stayed put during our recent back to back windstorms, with gusts up to the 70's/. Eventually the ground has dried out. I do want to add sand, but until then this is a happy compromise. We added flexible tube lights, zig zagged back and forth across the ceiling inside the coop, zip tied to 0-screws for extra light. I'm not positive they add warmth, but I put my arm in the coop before openng the door this am, and was suprised at how much warmer it was inside then the hard frost outside. I keep a heavy stick handy to break through the ice in their water dish so they have access to water.
We are back up to an average of three eggs a day out of eight hens, less then summer time but better then a month ago with no light and moulting. Poor things. I am almost a year into chicken keeping and find I really have enjoyed this hobby. In fact, I wouldn't mind adding a few varieties, do you think my DH would agree to another coop/run. I have one more dog run we can incorporate into our plan, not as big as the current one, so perhaps banties?
We have been more worried about the dark gloomy and wet days, the hens were off their feed so to speak, coming out of their first heavy moult, egg production was very low and they just didn't seem happy. We decided to use flexed PVC pipes to make an arch over the run, attached with the PVC pipes with zipties and pulled a tarp over, also attached with zipties. Didn't take very long and was an inexpensive fix. This covers about 3/4 of the run, all the way to the ground on one side. Stayed put during our recent back to back windstorms, with gusts up to the 70's/. Eventually the ground has dried out. I do want to add sand, but until then this is a happy compromise. We added flexible tube lights, zig zagged back and forth across the ceiling inside the coop, zip tied to 0-screws for extra light. I'm not positive they add warmth, but I put my arm in the coop before openng the door this am, and was suprised at how much warmer it was inside then the hard frost outside. I keep a heavy stick handy to break through the ice in their water dish so they have access to water.
We are back up to an average of three eggs a day out of eight hens, less then summer time but better then a month ago with no light and moulting. Poor things. I am almost a year into chicken keeping and find I really have enjoyed this hobby. In fact, I wouldn't mind adding a few varieties, do you think my DH would agree to another coop/run. I have one more dog run we can incorporate into our plan, not as big as the current one, so perhaps banties?
