Can I leave the coop door open all night?

Juise

Songster
8 Years
Mar 4, 2011
958
12
123
Hi guys,

I put a coat of paint on one of the inside walls of my coop earlier today, then left it open all evening. I shut them in at nightfall, but when I came back in an hour or so later (because I decided to add a golf ball to temp them to their new nesting box I added today also,) if smelled quite strongly of paint fumes, so instead I then left the coop door wide open.

Now, the coop door leads into their run, and I have the run all locked up tight. It is fully covered in hardware cloth, and there is a 3' hardware cloth apron that goes all the way around both the run and the coop. We have a low of 59° F tonight.

Is there any reason I shouldn't leave the door wide open all night? Otherwise I will go out and shut it before I head to bed here.
 
My coop has a larger door in back for people access and the small chicken door opens into their secured run. I don't have any kind of closure over their access door and never have. That way they can get up as early as they want to and scratch and peck to their little hearts desire.
 
It gets too cold and windy to do that here all Winter, but that was the plan for the warmer months and why we built it that way. Just haven't done it yet, so I am nervous, and I don't know how cold is too cold for drafts. :eek:
 
I don't have a little door on my coop (there's a picture on here somewhere) but my girls are okay at night. Their run is also locked up tightly. It's been getting down to the high 20s, lower 30s at night lately. My pullets are only 7 weeks old. The ones I'm throwing out into the coop this weekend are 4 weeks on Tuesday. They feathered in quickly!
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It sounds like you should be okay. After we figured out predators weren't really a threat in our area, we stopped bothering to close the door, only going near the coop to collect eggs. The group of them have now spent almost three years doing what they please in wind and rain, and they're still going healthy.
 
Neat! Predators are definitely a problem here, but the run is just as secure as the coop, so mostly I was worried about the draft.

I would still like to have an idea of what kind of temps should require the door closed, and what is warm enough to just leave it open?

I like that with the door open they can get up and at least out of the coop before I manage to amble out there and open it up for them to free range.
 
I don't know how big you coop is so I'll give you my experience. My grandfathers chicken house had large openings (9x5) on the south side. When it was new he had drop shutters for when it got stormy. Over the years the hens roosted on them and destroyed them. By the time I came along and could remember there were no shutters to drop down. So the openings stayed open even in the snow storms. The pens were large and there were up to 150 birds in a pen. The birds kept chugging along. So I don't think yours will have any problems in good weather.
 
a low of 59..... i dream of weather like that........... mine have had the door open (there is no door) since they went out to the coop........ 5 weeks old and temps into the low 20's......... goodness sakes.... low of 59, i haven't seen a hi of 59 since last summer!!!!!
 
Haha this is kind of a freak turn of weather, and I am sure it won't be back until Summer sets in. It has been freezing and still periodically dumping snow on us, it just snowed last a handful of days ago, then all of a sudden yesterday it was 75 and sunny!!
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It was crazy, trying to enjoy it while it last because I am certain it will turn cold again soon, and I will be surprised if we don't get more snow.
 

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