What do YOU do when it's cold out???

[StaatsFarms]

I am new to the whole chicken thing and was wondering what everyone does when it's cold out... do you open the pop door and let them out in the run as they please or do you leave them inside the coop??? we got a few inches of snow this morning and the high is gonna be around 34... All of my chickens are winter hardy and the run is covered (there is no snow in the run after the few inches we got this morning)... here is a picture of my coop as you can see the run is well covered

 

[Beekissed]

My pop door is always open, whether it is -6 or 90 degrees. I freerange, so my birds come and go at will. If it's too cold for them, they choose to stay indoors but usually do not and are out foraging on something~I can never see exactly what they find to eat but they are pecking at the ground~no matter what the weather.

 

[Wildsky]

Yep - open up... My girls take some time to get used to the snow, I get dirty looks the first couple of times.

The bantams hate it when the snow is more than an inch!

 

[patandchickens]

That's a really stylin' coop, there

Great work!

By all means keep lettig them out -- if they do not get used to going outdoors when it is 34 F, they are unlikely to want to go out when it is 0 F, and you *do not* have enough room to keep them all locked up for most of the next five or six months

You can partially plastic-wrap the run as a windblock and partial greenhouse -- but make sure to leave a reasonable portion open, otherwise it gets super humid in there which will cause frostbite problems.

GOod luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[CityChook]

I open the pop door every day unless it's not going to get up to 0F. Like you, my run is covered, but snow will still blow in. If you want to keep it snow free, then you'll want to wrap it in plastic. Eventually, the ground will be frozen solid anyways.

Even with the free choice to leave, mine don't venture out much when it's cold - their choice. But definitely give them the option at this point - whether we want to believe it or not, 34 is going to seem like the freak'n Bahamas pretty soon.

 

[catnip]

Got that same couple inches of snow. Th first one out this morning kind of froze in place for a few seconds and then went about eating up the scratch I scattered.

They'll get used to it and will be fine.

 

[AkTomboy]

It depends on how cold it is if I open the door or not. I have straw in all the runs so they will go out till about -25 or so. I do have covers over the doors in strips so that no wind will sneak in the doors. After about -35 / -40 I dont open the door at all. They wont go out anywhos.

 

[technodoll]

I just covered the pop door today with a piece of thick transparent plastic and cut a slit in the middle so the flock and go in and out of the coop. Cuts down the drafts, or so I imagine...

Half the chickens figured it out and the other half were terrified of the "new thing", LOL!

 

[NellaBean]

....I sit on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and watch tv.....


Oh wait, is that not what your subject line was asking?


This is my first winter with chickens, so I have no experience. But I plan to simply cover the windows at night and open the pop door in the morning as normal.

 

[chickerdoodle]

If its below freezing you may want to coat any big combs with Vaseline or they could get frostbite. My plan was to do what technodoll did! Glad someone else is trying it--let me know if the rest get over their fear of it.