Wet chicken s

[hayescamp]

This is the first real rainy day since I got my chickens (that is when it's been cold out). My chickens free range in my yard all day. They have three dry options to hang out and forage in. They are currently in the middle of my yard getting soaked. Do I need to lock them up.? Are they dry underneath? Do I need to catch them and dry them tonight? They look miserable but can't be persuaded to go under the dry shelter. Help

 

[Attila the Hen]

I have the same situation when it rains. I leave them to figure it out even though I don't agree with them. I must believe they are doing what is best for them. They haven't died of the wet and cold yet.

 

[Den in Penn]

You just have to trust their instincts. Mine get wet all the time and I haven't lost any. When it is wet out in the rain, things like insects and worms come easier. So of course they will want to get at them.

 

[tmarsh83]

Every animal I've ever had, horses, hogs, now chickens, the worse the weather the more happy they seem to be to be able to be out in it...

They aren't delicate little flowers, they are hardy, hard-wired-to-survive critters.

My wife and I just joked this week, when she comes home the girls are always in the coop, not out roaming, it's been beautiful, mid-60s to 70s, sun, just perfect weather.

Yesterday she came home, 30mph winds, spitting rain, just as blustery as it gets...and where were the girls?

Scratching away in the yard...

Chickens know how to chicken.

 

[trudyg]

Mine love being out in the rain. When it comes a gully-washer they'll stand tall like statues and let it run off. Other times they go under the slide of the swingset and hunker down.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Every animal I've ever had, horses, hogs, now chickens, the worse the weather the more happy they seem to be to be able to be out in it...

They aren't delicate little flowers, they are hardy, hard-wired-to-survive critters.

My wife and I just joked this week, when she comes home the girls are always in the coop, not out roaming, it's been beautiful, mid-60s to 70s, sun, just perfect weather.

Yesterday she came home, 30mph winds, spitting rain, just as blustery as it gets...and where were the girls?

Scratching away in the yard...

Chickens know how to chicken.

X 2 - I think the last bit is important thing to remember as it is all too easy to look at the situation from our perspective and forget that while we would be cold and miserable we are not covered in a nice, thick cover of fur or feathers. Provide appropriate shelter that is accessible to them and let them do what they do.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

X 2 - I think the last bit is important thing to remember as it is all too easy to look at the situation from our perspective and forget that while we would be cold and miserable we are not covered in a nice, thick cover of fur or feathers. Provide appropriate shelter that is accessible to them and let them do what they do.

I agree.

I live in rainy Oregon...my birds...are out in it all day long....actually all of us have learned to be out in the rain otherwise you'd never go anywhere here from October to July.

If you watch your birds you will see them from time to time dip their beaks at their tail end then pick through their feathers...they are spreading a thick pasty oil produced by an oil gland above the tail throughout their feathers that makes them extremely water repellent. So they have an oil slicker on the outside, and inside? That is covered with finer down-like body feathers, not the stuff of down comforters, as that is waterfowl only, but it does a very adequate job of keeping chickens warm.

Provide shelter and let them be chickens.

LofMc

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I live in rainy Oregon...my birds...are out in it all day long....actually all of us have learned to be out in the rain otherwise you'd never go anywhere here from October to July.

so true! Lived in the Yamhill valley for several years and longing to move back, that "liquid sunshine" is something you get used to.