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salabbey

chickens in the rain

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Hi everyone,

 

wonder if you could help out a new chicken keeper......... I know this is probably a silly question but are chickens ok to be out in the rain for a while?????? Took delivery of our two chucks on friday and today is the first day of proper rain and the girls just dont want to go in out of the rain!!! We have put a tarpaulin over the top of the run to try and keep them dry but they are quite wet at the moment. What do I do?? Any help greatfully received.

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I didn't know this. I thought I'd read that it was important to try and keep chickens dry. Was I wrong? They certainly don't mind running round in the rain, but I thought that was because their brains are so microscopically small they don't realise it's bad for them. Guess they know better than me!

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I remember when I first got my ex-batt hens last year I got them on a very hot week in September. However come October it rained solidly for a month. At that time they were free ranging on the patio and it was so wet even that sunk under water. They hated getting their feet wet and I had to devise stepping stones out of bricks which led from their cube to the greenhouse where I had put their food and water. I also rigged up a perch that all three could fit on easily to keep them off the now very wet floor in the greenhouse, (it had crept underneath it!) Only one hen didn't mind getting wet the other two absolutely hated it and ran in the greenhouse as soon as they felt the slightest drop! Then we had the snow! Well funnily enough they liked that although they wouldn't stay out in it when it was falling. However when it stopped they loved it. They would peck at it and eat it! My poor ex-batts got every kind of weather from roasting hot to torrential rain to snow, and living in Blackpool extreme gale force winds! They took it all in their stride although once or twice they were bowled over by the wind. It was the expression on their faces when these extremes of weather were first encountered that made me laugh. However they very soon adapted. I must say the weather they hated the most was the wind. Now thought I have created a walk in run at the bottom of the garden with a covered area so they can keep out of the rain and it is also sheltered from the wind.

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Oddly enough, this is ones of the questions that I was worried about. Luckily in the 5 weeks of owning my hens, we haven't had a lot of rain. I was worried because I have partially feathered ex-bats and was worried they would catch a cold. I have tarped the top of the run, and the shed is warm and dry. But soon, especially living in manchester, the weather is going to turn. So the general consensus is they don't mind getting a bit wet..... :shock:

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