Snow Forts for Chickens
I’m new to chickens. I did live on a chicken farm for seven years–but I was not responsible for the chickens. And, in Two Rock, they don’t really have winter. Here we have winter, and it’s a tad early this year. If not early, I’d suggest that it is earnest. We have a solid 6 inches–and that’s after the first two or three melted immediately upon landfall. It’s not when snow first falls that makes for winter; it’s when it sticks.
Anyway, three of the four chickens are reluctant in snow. The fourth has been roosting all over the chicken pen. We’re not sure if she’s a fan of winter, or if the other chickens are giving her the cold shoulder. The chicken coop stands up on legs. Before the snow fell, the chickens liked to hang out under the coop–out of the sun or rain. Without that breezeway, the chicken territory gets pretty small if the chickens won’t do snow.
So far, we haven’t heated the coop. We’re contemplating a low wattage bulb for heat and light (so as to encourage egg laying.) But when we open the coop doors for feeding, it’s not really cold in there. Or so it seems.
Today was the first day that the chickens’ water was frozen solid. I’ve ordered a thermostatically controlled water dish–and now I’m even more anxiously awaiting its arrival. In the meantime, I’ll have to be more dilligent about making sure they have fresh water.
I’m not sure if this is a normal Northern chicken strategy, but today I built them a snow fort. The snow is the perfect consistency for snowmen, or fort building. So I built walls along the edge of the coop–essentially banking it in to create a snow wall. This will keep the area under the coop clear–and warmer. It’ll also help keep the coop itself warmer.
Thus far, it’s a complete success. I put the chicken scraps under there and two chickens followed those treats into the fort. They haven’t left yet. The other two chickens, upstairs, are making a racket, redistributing their fresh bedding. Chicken Nirvana. I don’t think this will keep the water from freezing, but it seems to be making for happy chickens. Has anyone else out there built snow forts for chickens?
tworockchronicles 
Ours will scratch about in the snow….but only to a point. Once it’s here to stay they prefer indoors. If you want them to lay in the winter – you’ll need a lightbulb. 16 hours light a day and they’ll continue to lay, less than that laying will be spotty or not at all. We try to keep our barn above 15C. – but we have a wood stove in there so it’s not that difficult. In your case – go ahead and pile the snow around the base to keep some of the cold out. Not sure how cold your temps get – but you can also stack hay bales on the side that gets the most wind 😊
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Hay bales. Hmmm. I always forget about hay and straw, since they’re not recommended for bees. They bring mice—bad for bees. Probably fine for chickens. Thanks.
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And we have just put in a lightbulb, but only twenty-five watts. It’s a small space and we’re afraid of inadvertently roasting them!
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25 Watts is fine….the rule of thumb is you should ‘just’ be able to read a newspaper with it. Too bright a light leads to high strung chickens in my experience.
And yes – shaking my head at the dozens of pictures inundating the local beekeeping FB page – of people surrounding their hives with bales of hay.
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When we picked these chickens, we picked this variety (Chantecler) because they were bred (in Canada) for winter-hardiness. My friends have them (the white ones) and I was always impressed that they marched around in the snow all winter. We got the same breed, only in buff color, because the white ones were hard to see in the snow. Alas, maybe the color has something to do with cold tolerance, because my little buff babies have no snow adventure in them! Maybe as the season progresses, they’ll get bored and come out to play again.
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Interesting! That’s one of the few breeds I haven’t had – I might see if I can pick some up. 🙂
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