I have a run extension that only gets used during the daytime. It has a latch like this. I only put a lock on it if no one will be home for a bit so I can otherwise go in and out easily. I know it is not the most secure without a lock, but it is honestly fiddly enough for even me that I have not worried much about it during the day when I'm home, until now anyway. I am trying to figure out if I'm losing my mind thinking the chickens are opening it. I'm posting in predators & pests because I feel like there surely must be some other explanation. The latch is 3ft off the ground and I've had it for a year with no issues.
THREE TIMES in a week I checked that the door was set tight by jiggling it like I always do, went back inside the house, and returned an hour or so later to find the door ajar by a very small amount - no more than an inch. I have a great pyrenes who stays in the house but sits by the window watching the chickens and never once barked. She knows not to bark at chickens but will bark at literally anything else, even an unexpected squirrel. She has never barked when these events must have happened. Also, despite the door being technically open, no chickens have ever been out and none have gone missing; they're all accounted for as if they didn't recognize that the door was open - which is odd, because if I don't get the door latched they immediately shove through and come charging out behind me. So I know if I don't get it latched by accident lol.
Now here's the most frustrating part: my husband set up a camera from our balcony pointed at the door to see who/what is doing this. I also put on a small carabiner through those holes on the bottom in case it was a predator. We figured if it was a predator, they'd surely come by again and the camera would catch it even if it couldn't open anything. I'm the only thing it recorded! But...the camera doesn't react to movement from INSIDE the run, only things on the outside. After days of just recording videos of me feeding the chickens, we gave up and took the camera down since we mainly use it to watch another spot in the woods for coyotes.
Of course, now the camera's gone, I forgot the carabiner exactly once today for about 30min and came out to...you guessed it, the door being open about 1". Once again, no chickens missing or escaped and nothing amiss. I think it has to be a resident of the enclosure doing this. There is no way an animal came through and did that with my dog staring out the window right at the door the whole time. She is also an excellent tracker and can't find anything amiss scent-wise around the coop.
Has anyone had a chicken learn to open these kinds of latches?? Obviously I will keep using the carabiner to try to stop this from happening even if it is a chicken doing it, but it is still so weird.
THREE TIMES in a week I checked that the door was set tight by jiggling it like I always do, went back inside the house, and returned an hour or so later to find the door ajar by a very small amount - no more than an inch. I have a great pyrenes who stays in the house but sits by the window watching the chickens and never once barked. She knows not to bark at chickens but will bark at literally anything else, even an unexpected squirrel. She has never barked when these events must have happened. Also, despite the door being technically open, no chickens have ever been out and none have gone missing; they're all accounted for as if they didn't recognize that the door was open - which is odd, because if I don't get the door latched they immediately shove through and come charging out behind me. So I know if I don't get it latched by accident lol.
Now here's the most frustrating part: my husband set up a camera from our balcony pointed at the door to see who/what is doing this. I also put on a small carabiner through those holes on the bottom in case it was a predator. We figured if it was a predator, they'd surely come by again and the camera would catch it even if it couldn't open anything. I'm the only thing it recorded! But...the camera doesn't react to movement from INSIDE the run, only things on the outside. After days of just recording videos of me feeding the chickens, we gave up and took the camera down since we mainly use it to watch another spot in the woods for coyotes.
Of course, now the camera's gone, I forgot the carabiner exactly once today for about 30min and came out to...you guessed it, the door being open about 1". Once again, no chickens missing or escaped and nothing amiss. I think it has to be a resident of the enclosure doing this. There is no way an animal came through and did that with my dog staring out the window right at the door the whole time. She is also an excellent tracker and can't find anything amiss scent-wise around the coop.
Has anyone had a chicken learn to open these kinds of latches?? Obviously I will keep using the carabiner to try to stop this from happening even if it is a chicken doing it, but it is still so weird.
a rumbling ball of feathers trying to beat down the walls to get to me. If I'm right about the suspect I just mentioned in my previous post though, he doesn't partake in that and so I'd never see him try it then - my gigantic pickpocket cockerel is so timid that he'll often just go stand in a corner and wait out the chaos. If it's him I'll just have to spy a lot and hope I catch him in the act.
