Re: nest boxes and chicken facilities.

Yes, or if you plow a path for them from one building to another, they can
walk on the plowed path. A couple of inches is ok for walking, a couple
feet isn't. I shovel out areas for them over the winter, but we also have a
tractor and if we had a bigger area, we'd be plowing it :-) . You have the
added benefit of the high snow acting as "walls" or "fences" to keep the
birds where you want them - at least until it melts :-) !

- Andrea

"diddy" <diddy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns96C450FBDFE18danny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> in thread news:dcl1si$oc1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx: "Andrea Midtmoen Fease"
> <afease@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> whittled the following words:
>
>> I've found with my chickens that if the snow is taller than they
>> are,
>> they do not like it. My ducks love it, but they have natural
>> snowshoes with those webbed feet :-) . The chickens, however, tend to
>> do like us - sink through - and if the snow is taller than they are,
>> they can get "stuck". During the winter when we have heavy snow (we
>> are in New England), the ducks get out (maybe), the chickens do not.
>>
> This is what I needed to know, thanks! So i need to set up a brooder type
> area in one of the lounging barns for winter, and may possibly be
> transporting the hens from the hen house to the barns and back again.
>
>
>> We have plenty of walking-around room in our barns, but for heat
>> we
>> only have water heaters - we rely on the birds to keep themselves
>> warm, between them and their droppings. The barn is usually about 20
>> degrees warmer than outside. They will get a little frostbite on
>> their combs, but other than that they are pretty hardy.
>>
>> - Andrea
>>
>>
>>
>


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