Our area (as was a lot of North America) was it with an early Polar Vortex due to a big storm out in the Pacific Ocean. Not much snow, but a lot of wind, ice and freezing rain for us. The first day of the storm never got above freezing and we were caught somewhat unprepared since now we have two coops running at the same time. The older girls' coop did not have any "technical" issues since we had gone through much of this last year with that coop style. Their A-frame pen area is protected from the North-East winds and the canvas tarp helps protect the coop level from the freezing rains/snows.The hens tend to stay in the protected area of the pen and are outside most of the day, even in freezing temps. They are fine with the temps. They hate the wind, though.
As you can see from the larger view around the older coop, we still have patches of frozen ice pellets that have yet to melt, despite the temps warming into the 40s [F] today. The killer is our east wind that drops the air temps down below freezing. You can't see it in the photos, but the plastic panel on this (east) side of their pen is actually still layered with ice.
The newer hens are still acclimating to the sudden cold temps. They have been voicing their complaints with chortles and short yelps. We purchased some clear vinyl table clothes to cover their run. We have a long runner on there now that covers most of the pen. We doubled up the shade fabric and have it along the north side (other side) to protect them from the wind along with a large white plastic panel over the gate to their pen which is facing the east right now. What we did NOT anticipate was their access door to their coop being frozen open with about one-half inch of ice. After that happened, we have added a plastic tarp over that portion where the pen connects to the coop to keep it from happening again. The younger hens spent less time outside during the storm. I think that, with time, as they adapt to the east wind, they will spend more time out in their pen. They definitely spent a lot of time outside today since they get more "overhead" light in their pen with the very clear vinyl tarp. We have attached clips on the outside of the pen for the hooks on the bungee cords. So far, the tarp has not blown off, so that's a Good!
