Not closing the coop door at night?

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Garden_Witch
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Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by Garden_Witch »

Does anyone have a secure walk in run and not close their hens into a coop or henhouse at night? I always understood this to be a total no no but have read several posts on another forum where people are doing this successfully. Apparently the girls put themselves to bed.

I'm asking because I have an omlet walk in run that used to be used for rabbits with a 6ft hutch attached. The remaining rabbit now lives in my kitchen as I felt she'd be lonely by herself and I'm considering getting chickens at some point, though not yet. My run is fully meshed underneath to stop the buns digging out and also has a pegged down skirt - they lived there, with 24 hour run access, for a couple of years with no issues.

Could that work for chickens? I work shifts and live alone, my main block to becoming a chicken keeper has always been that I'm not always there (3 or 4 evenings per week) at dusk to shut them away. I've heard of auto closing doors but what if one or more of the chickens hasn't gone in and gets locked out in the run with no access to shelter? Any advice appreciated.

Trev62
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by Trev62 »

I cannot help on the main question as our birds are totally free range only being secured in their coop at night but people on here have a wealth of knowledge to share so help will be along soon :-D

We have a house rabbit also and he is a source of great fun and and amusement, he also has a free run and only gets locked away in his cage at night, bit of a mad house here :-D
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by Grannyof4 »

Personally I would never not shut the door at night no matter how secure I thought my run was.
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kitla
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by kitla »

I always shut mine in myself, but if you're confident the run is safe from any predators in your area (be they foxes, badgers, mink, stoats) I cant see it would matter if you left the chickens to put themselves to bed, you could still shut the door when you got home at night, that would also keep them warmer. I dont like to leave the food out all night as it encourages invasions of mice! did you do that with the rabbits?
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lancashire lass
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by lancashire lass »

Garden_Witch wrote:I'm not always there (3 or 4 evenings per week) at dusk to shut them away


in winter, the girls have already put themselves to bed by 4.00 pm (when light levels drop, they start to make their way to the coop) but I don't get home until 6.00 pm sometimes. I just lock up as soon as I can, mainly to keep the coop warm in winter. In summer, I have to confess the coop is not locked up because it has been too warm - it started off as a one-off but gradually became the norm. I think the run is secure enough but of course, it only takes one fox to test it .....
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HenPen
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by HenPen »

Just a couple of thoughts: firstly, you may find that you have to teach them to go in at dusk - it doesn't take long for them to get the hang of it, but it's not necessarily automatic for them.

Secondly, you don't have to shut the door immediately they have put themselves to bed (they don't tend to come back out once it's dark), so as Kitla says you could always just make closing the coop door your first job when you arrive home. I think I would do that, as it does provide a bit of extra safety when they are at their most vulnerable.

And just one more thing occurs to me: you say the run is fully meshed underneath - chickens spend pretty much all of their day scratching so mesh on the floor might be a problem (torn nails and, if it gets damaged, bumblefoot etc) unless you have a very good covering of something over the top (which you may well already have, of course).

I'm sure you will enjoy chicken keeping. They are great little characters :-D
bikesandbirdsbob
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by bikesandbirdsbob »

HI I have two views .
I have a run and there coop areas all secured and 2 foot deep brick wire and slabs laid out on the ground.
The flock has split into four groups . and groups within them.
I have 11 chocks Desmond included sleeping on branches and internal wood walling in the run . The rest sleep in the coops with the trap doors wide open .
Now they are safe as possible as all locked up all day .
When free ranging I was always worried about day time fox attack as did not get home till dark.
Never happen but COULD.

Now my Beloved Penelope , died in my Med ward run / coop , NOt by biting but being scared to death (shock ) of a fox digging into the run and scaring her . The run /coop had wire under it so no way could it get in . I now do not leave them outside on there own keep in doors dog cage.
Chicken do die from shock and is horrible to see.

So if a large area where the flock can get away and or high up away from the source of the problem . I am sure that foxes must come around and yet the girls still sleep outside even though the temperatures have dropped very low.
So the bottom line in a small enclosure lock up larger ones should be ok . Peace of mind err to safety .
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by scbk »

I never shut the coop! The run is secure and the chickens get up and go to bed at whatever time they please, all year round. So in the middle of December they're going to bed at the back of 3pm, and in the summer they'll be getting up at the back of 3am!
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by Garden_Witch »

Interesting that some of you don't shut the coop at all, whilst others might shut it sometime after dark - sounds like it certainly would be possible for me to do the same. I live on the edge of a village with farms, fields and woodland around me - not that that makes a difference really as foxes everywhere. I do have my garden cat proof fenced as we are not far from a 60mph country road where other cats have been killed - Protectapet, who did my fencing say they don't guarantee the fencing to be fox proof BUT they've never heard of foxes getting into one of their cat proof gardens. My 6 cats come and go via a cat flap and will be on the prowl late into the evening as well. I certainly think there would be easier pickings for foxes elsewhere but I won't get complacent. I might be able to ask my retired neighbour to shut them away in return for eggs but I'd prefer to have everything covered myself if possible.

Trev62 wrote:
We have a house rabbit also and he is a source of great fun and and amusement, he also has a free run and only gets locked away in his cage at night, bit of a mad house here :-D


Yep, Bella is really funny too. I have to feed her at the same time as my cats or she stamps her back legs at me! I'm hoping she'll learn to use the cat flap when the warmer weather gets here.

kitla wrote: I dont like to leave the food out all night as it encourages invasions of mice! did you do that with the rabbits?


Well they eat mostly hay and greens with just an egg cupful of pellets which they always seem to eat up immediately. I used to fed them in the hutch and didn't seem to have any rodent problems. I do have 6 cats! The only evidence of mice I've ever had is in my shed when I stupidly kept my wild bird food (which I use in the front garden where the cats can't access it) in there. Lesson learned and all animal food is kept in the house now.
HenPen wrote:
And just one more thing occurs to me: you say the run is fully meshed underneath - chickens spend pretty much all of their day scratching so mesh on the floor might be a problem (torn nails and, if it gets damaged, bumblefoot etc) unless you have a very good covering of something over the top (which you may well already have, of course).


Yeah, at the moment the mesh is covered with a thick later of hardwood chips with hay on the top - easy to keep clean for litter trained rabbits, perhaps not so easy for chickens. Will have to think about that.

Thanks for all the advice )t'
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ChickenCarol
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by ChickenCarol »

Even though my run is as secure as I can possibly make it, I still prefer the pop hole to be closed at night and I think it keeps it warmer this time of year.

I have had chickens for just over five years now and have always had an automatic door. I would swear by it. In five years I have never had a girl shut out as they go in when the light fades and are always in between half an hour and an hour before the door closes. If I am out for the evening I just check it when I get in but am confidant enough to have a very occasional night away.

They come out at 3.00am in the height of summer and go in at 4.00pm at the height of winter. Without an automatic door they would never have the freedom to come out so early in the summer.

One thing I would say though is that we are on our second automatic opener. The first we had for five years without ever changing the battery, amazing in itself! In November it became erratic and on inspection the battery had corroded and leaked causing it to become unreliable. With hind sight we should never have left the same batteries in for so long but it hadn't occurred to us. Now we have a new one we will change the batteries every year or two even if still working. I wouldn't be without out it though and would highly recommend it.
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KarenE
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by KarenE »

Hi

I've got an automatic door opener, it's really handy but that said, it can be a bit erratic at times. Not so much with the timings, although I have had a couple of girls locked out because they've been dirty stop outs and missed the door but because sometimes the electronics can go faulty. We had a quite a bit of trouble with it until we soldered the connections inside.

I think I've only had the door stay shut once or twice in all the years I've had it (which is the bigger worry if they can't get out) but it quite regularly used to miss the trip lever and stay up, then burned its batteries out. It got to the stage where I just left the pop hole door open as I have a secure run (touch wood) and they could come & go as they wanted. I'm intending to get it fixed now the cold weather's here but really they don't seem to mind the cold.

I would either keep the pop hole open or go for an automatic door opener. I couldn't be doing with having to open & close it every day manually.

For the flooring, the wood chips will be fine - just double check its deep enough as they do love a good dig, and they do tend to go quite deep. Hay is not so good, it can harbour spores which can give them respiratory problems so that's generally not advised for chickens, they have particularly delicate respiratory systems with the air sac and everything. Straw is better, or something like aubiose. And don't forget an area where they can dustbathe - they won't be able to do this so well with woodchips, so give them a container with sand, compost or something similar to thrash about it.

Good luck! You'll love them when you get them )t'
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sandy
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by sandy »

I have to admit I never lock my hens up..they are in a big run which I do check regularly is secure..i have plenty of foxes patrolling about so need to keep an eye on the run of course. Most of my girls used to sleep outside on the perches anyway.
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Re: Not closing the coop door at night?

Post by Garden_Witch »

An automatic door opener/closer is a great idea and sounds like it would be great for my situation - the only problem is that I'd like an Omlet Eglu (second hand off eBay to stick with my plan of not buying anything new this year) to go with the Omlet Walk-in-Run I already have. Don't think Omlet make an auto door and I don't know if it would be possible to rig one up with an eglu?

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