Chickens are easy in the summer, spring, and fall, but when it comes to winter they can be a bit...unintelligent.
A few problems we've had:The chickens are terrified by the snow. Ours refuse to walk on it, which is a problem because they need to eat and drink. Also, in the winter the water freezes which is a problem for obvious reasons. And finally, the chickens need to stay warm at night. Finding frozen chickens would be quite the terrifying experience... Luckily, I have the solutions to each of these problems.
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| Rooster scared of snow. |
Firstly, when it snows, we go out and shovel an area by the waterer, and we hang the feeders underneath the coops.
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| Feeder hanging underneath the coop |
When temperatures are below freezing, we have to change the water daily in order to have liquid water for the chickens. Our larger waterer typically stays liquid longer.
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| Waterer frozen over. |
In order to keep our chickens laying and warm at night, we put a heat lamp in the coop.
Hope these tips help my fellow chicken lovers! Also, our chickens are free range, so they have fairly unrestrained access to our property. The snow on the ground problem is probably not a problem for people with an enclosed coop area.
