Winter run query

[freakybeanie]

hi
newbie from UK.
I have a raised coop for my three bantams, wind wind protection underneath the coop and a rain cover on the top of the run. Food and water in the run with dust bath. What is the best thing to do in winter if it snows? Presumably the grass will stay snow free unless there is a strong wind, but is it worth adding shavings or something to the run floor. Im sure they wont want to stay in the coop all day in the colder months!

 

[IZZYBELLA]

I live in the northeast of the US and we get a LOT of snow. By the time it snows here the ground is frozen, so I just shovel out the run for them and throw some shavings down on their ramp to encourage them to go out. The biggest issue I have with the run is actually in the spring when the snow melts. It turns into a huge mud pie! Unfortunately, I haven't found a good solution for it... adding shavings just seems to make it worse.

 

[freakybeanie]

Thank you so much for that! We get an awful lot of rain, so the mud pie will not be anything new for them! They've already had gale force winds to contend with, and went to bed early!

 

[TalkALittle]

I too am in the Northeast US so have plenty of experience with winter snow and wind. In late autumn I winterize my coop by attaching clear tarps to all sides. I use bungee attachments which allow me to roll the tarps up on mild days and down in the event of a storm. Most times I leave 3 sides covered and raise the tarp on the sunny side. If it is windy I will fold down the top half of the tarp(s) so they block the wind down low where the birds are. A few winters ago we had 3 blizzards in a row and about 90" of snowfall over the course of the winter. My birds were out in their covered and tarped run every day.

Come springtime I leave one tarp up on the prevailing wind side where most of the spring rain blows from. It really helps keep the run from getting drenched.

 

[MamaChick74]

I am from the Northeast of the US too. We winterize our run with rolls of heavy duty plastic and zip ties to attach it to the fencing. It works well as my girls don't like walking on the snow.