Do you ALWAYS lock your coop at dusk?

[Iowa Roo Mom]

The reason I ask is because I'm tweaking my schedule a little and there will be at least one, maybe two nights each week that I will not be home before dusk. I've most always locked up the coop at dark, but I was wondering if everyone does.

 

[chicmom]

Hello, I don't always lock my coop door, but I have an enclosed run. (I know I should to make sure they're 100% safe, but I don't.) My run is enclosed even on the top.......

 

[OutInTheStiks]

We lock up the coop when we are home. There are occasions when we get home well after dark and we lock up when we get home on those occasions. When we are on vacation we leave the pop door open.

That being said, our run has a welded wire fence with three strands of electric fence outside of that. I know that we take a risk when we leave the pop door open, but we have taken precautions for when we do.

 

[jeaucamom]

Always, always, always lock your coop at night. If you can't do it right at dusk, either invest in an automatic door closer, (there are lots of links on here on how do it cheaply), or pay a neighbor kid 5 bucks to come and do it for you. Please don't take the chance on raccoon, skunks, dogs, cats, possum etc to get to your chickens while they are sleeping and won't move.

 

[henney penny]

I allways lock them in as soon as they are all in.Mine have an enclosed run but to be safe they get locked in every night.

 

[jjrabbit2]

I didnt use to all the time but, one morning after a year with nothing going wrong, I lost 20 chickens in one night! So sad! The next night, with only 9 chickens left, the FOX came again! I had the coop shut up. I looked at my back slider cuz the dogs were sounding off Big time. The fox was scratching on my coop door. I screamed and yelled at it as it ran away! Was too slow with the SHOTGUN! I ALWAYS LOCK UP NOW!

 

[Uzuri]

You'd better believe it. Then as soon as I get to the house I turn around and check to see that I locked it again (then half the time I find out that I locked myself out of MY house, but that's neither here nor there).

You may luck out once or twice, but eventually something's going to get in there unless you have one heck of a tight run. I leave mine on lockdown if I know I'm not going to be home, but if that's "once or twice" a week that you're going to be late, that's probably not an option.

 

[TipsyDog]

If the coop wasn't locked up, the chickens would be dead! However, we do have a very secure run too. I was away for the past 2 weeks and my DH didn't get home till almost midnight. We didn't loose 1 chicken

He let them out of the run every day and I was lucky they all went into the coop at dusk. We have an automatic door which opens and closes at dawn and dusk. I can't speak highly enough about these doors - without it I don't think I could even keep chickens! I don't get up till 8:30, so the door lets the girls out at dawn too.

I'm back again from my trip and I ALWAYS close the run door (they free range) at dusk. The automatic door takes care of the rest! We have this one and it works perfectly for months now. http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/2100-2107.html

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I always lock them up, I have learned that it's always the one time you don't that something will come alongand decide to eat all your chickens.

This is silly, but I thought I would share: my henhouse & run is so tight that once the chain broke for the auto latch I was trapped in the chicken house for over an hour until I could flag someone down to let me out. lol

 

[cluckcluck42]

We've forgot to shut the coop door two times since owning chickens in December and each morning when I walked out and saw it open I was filled with DREAD!! I definitely do not make a habit of it, we try our hardest to go out at dusk and shut them in, however sometimes there is an OOPS!