Chook Me!

can chickens be kept in the snow?

i live in alberta canada and i am looking into getting chicks, who soon will hopefully become chickens, so anyway i seen many pictures of chickens being kept outside, even in the snow, is this true can chickens be kept outside even in the winter time{with a coop of course} i mean with no heat source, and i am talking about full grown chickens, because in the pictures the chickens were not in a coop, but were just sitting, and walking around in the snow

Public Comments

1. if the coop is heated by some source, or you might come to the coop and find dead chickens :(
2. well when i got mine they were chicks and i kept them in a old shed with holes and quite run down while it snowed it might not be as cold as canada here but it was frezzing and as long as they hae plenty of straw they are fine mine are still going strong now
3. You can keep chickens in cold climates as long as you provide a dry place with supplemental heat for them to retire to when they want to get out of the cold. Chickens can get frost bite on thier combs and waddles, this is a very painful condition, so you do have to provide them with shelter and heat.
4. Did it for most of the years of my life. (I'm 71) Just be sure they have plenty of water. It freezes easily and needs to be watched closely. Our winters often got down to 20 below. We never had any supplemental heat either.
5. My hens are locked in a heatless coop at night. If it is super cold some will have frozen combs, but they can survive if the have proper food and unfrozen water.
6. I never lived in Alberta and I know it can get really cold there, but I did live in Northern Ontario and the winters got pretty damn cold. Both my aunt and my grandfather raised chickens. My aunt had more of a 'hobby' farm and my grandfather raised them for eggs. Both my aunt and my grandfather would let the chickens out in the winter through a hole they had in the side of the barn/chicken coop. These holes in the side of the barn had a sliding door that could be slid up and down and had a locking mechanism so that it would stay open during the afternoon. In the morning the late morning they would open it up (around 9am) just after the sun had come up and close it. In the evening before it got dark, they would round up all the chickens and bring them back into their pen and shut the door. You have to keep the pen properly heated or else the chickens will freeze to death. My aunt raised goats so she would let the chickens into the barn at night where they could stay warm with just the body heat of the other animals that were in the barn. My grandfather had only birds (ducks and chickens). He kept them in a decent sized shed that was designed strictly for the birds. He had a wood burning fireplace in the entrance area that kept the entire shed warm throughout the night and day. As I said, they will freeze to death if they are cold, so you can't keep them outside in the winter. You have to have a heated building for them to go in and out of during the day and a warm place for them to roost at night.
7. yes chickens can survie in the winter but you have to watch the temperature because if its to cold you might end up with a dead chicken