Turner_Family_Flock
Chirping
- May 16, 2020
- 39
- 87
- 67
Tis winter in the valleys of Oregon's mountains, and in has come the rain.
For the last day and a half, it's been raining hard. Pouring, if you will. The streets of my poor neighborhood are so flooded we cannot walk across the street to get our mail without knee-high rain boots.
The yard is comparatively dry, if slipping in mud with every step is your definition of dry.
The deep litter bedding in our coop has worked wonders- keeping the mud to a minimum and letting the rain flow away from the coop.
However! We have made a mistake.
No one shut the door to the run of the chicken coop last night.
While the birds have established their dominance and have scared off the neighborhood cats, and leaving the coop open on accident is no major threat in our safe and guarded yard...
They have not yet learned what battles can be picked with nature.
What I mean to say is that we left the run of the coop open and 4 of our birds went out in the run and got soaked.
In fact, all 4 of the novogen browns went out in the run.
Our australorp, Valentina, was the only one smart enough to not go out in the rain.
Literally, only her, she's the only dry one.
And so I have 4 wet chickens.
The run has been closed and they are being kept in their coop- which has a roof and is reasonably dry on the inside.
The chickens, fortunately, were not soaked to the bone. Two of them only had wet backs, suggesting that they'd only been pecking around in the rain for an hour or so.
But the other two had wet tummies and bottoms. While upon inspection it was only the outer layer of feathers that were wet, and the water didn't get to their skin, they were much more wet and had clearly been out the longest.
Needless to say- while my chickens might be able to stand up against intruding cats, they are little match for the rain.
So basically what I'm asking is...what do I do with wet chickens? Will they be able to dry off on their own, or am I gonna have to wrestle four chickens into the garage to dry them off with towels?
Because I really don't want to wrestle four chickens into the garage to dry them off with towels.
But I also know that it's not wise to bring them inside during bad weather because it can make it harder for them to return to a colder coop, so I don't think it's wise to let them come into the garage until they're dry. Their coop is dry and well ventilated, they don't need the garage.
So yeah, am I gonna have to dry my novogens off with a towel? Or will they floof up their feathers and dry up on their own?
I will make sure that their run remains closed until the worst of the rains pass, which is when we plan to lay down a fresh layer to the litter (no point in doing it during major rains, obviously, and it's worked very well so far.)
For the last day and a half, it's been raining hard. Pouring, if you will. The streets of my poor neighborhood are so flooded we cannot walk across the street to get our mail without knee-high rain boots.
The yard is comparatively dry, if slipping in mud with every step is your definition of dry.
The deep litter bedding in our coop has worked wonders- keeping the mud to a minimum and letting the rain flow away from the coop.
However! We have made a mistake.
No one shut the door to the run of the chicken coop last night.
While the birds have established their dominance and have scared off the neighborhood cats, and leaving the coop open on accident is no major threat in our safe and guarded yard...
They have not yet learned what battles can be picked with nature.
What I mean to say is that we left the run of the coop open and 4 of our birds went out in the run and got soaked.
In fact, all 4 of the novogen browns went out in the run.
Our australorp, Valentina, was the only one smart enough to not go out in the rain.
Literally, only her, she's the only dry one.
And so I have 4 wet chickens.
The run has been closed and they are being kept in their coop- which has a roof and is reasonably dry on the inside.
The chickens, fortunately, were not soaked to the bone. Two of them only had wet backs, suggesting that they'd only been pecking around in the rain for an hour or so.
But the other two had wet tummies and bottoms. While upon inspection it was only the outer layer of feathers that were wet, and the water didn't get to their skin, they were much more wet and had clearly been out the longest.
Needless to say- while my chickens might be able to stand up against intruding cats, they are little match for the rain.
So basically what I'm asking is...what do I do with wet chickens? Will they be able to dry off on their own, or am I gonna have to wrestle four chickens into the garage to dry them off with towels?
Because I really don't want to wrestle four chickens into the garage to dry them off with towels.
But I also know that it's not wise to bring them inside during bad weather because it can make it harder for them to return to a colder coop, so I don't think it's wise to let them come into the garage until they're dry. Their coop is dry and well ventilated, they don't need the garage.
So yeah, am I gonna have to dry my novogens off with a towel? Or will they floof up their feathers and dry up on their own?
I will make sure that their run remains closed until the worst of the rains pass, which is when we plan to lay down a fresh layer to the litter (no point in doing it during major rains, obviously, and it's worked very well so far.)
