Do you keep your chickens in their coop at night?

[HeatherTheMommy]

We are finishung up our coop today and i plan to put all the chickens back in their coop at night and close the doors while they sleep to protect them. We have a lot of predators. We are putting 2 foot pavers all around the run to prevent anything from digging under but i still like the idea of keeping them all safe in our coop at night

 

[JackE]

Sounds like a good plan. But the chickens will/should put themselves in at night, and all you have to do is close the door.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Yes, we keep our chickens locked in the coop at night. We have an auto pop door that (this time of year) closes at 10:30p and opens at 7:00a. Our run is very secure, but I feel better knowing they're safely inside.

This morning I saw some scat in 2 areas around the run.

 

[P-Dog]

If you have an attached run made of strong hardware clothe, is it necessary to close the door if you don't have raccoon, opossum, foxes, or other typical predators in your area?

The only things we have here in Hawaii are cats, rats, and mice. There is the mongoose, which is awful, but not up here where I am. Any thoughts?

I don't have my chickens yet, I'm just trying to determine if I'd need to secure my chickens at night. If I'm hijacking this thread, I apologize.

 

[curious chickee]

If your run is secure than they don't need to be locked up, my DH just sleeps better knowing they have double security (run and coop).

 

[rides2far]

I lock mine up at night, just in case. Better safe than sorry.

 

[JanetS]

We always lock up the coop at night. If we didn't we wouldn't have any chickens. We have serious bobcat issues.

 

[feather13]

Ours are in a predator-proof coop and run all the time. I used to let them roost in the trees and every once in a while one would get killed by an opossum or a raccoon, so they spend all their time now in a large coop and run.