Is it okay to open up wide our coop During the day, our chickens are free range

[Farmer Marcia]

Is it okay to open up wide our coop During the day, our chickens are free range

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I do. I don't even shut the coop at night, just the connected run so they still have thebrun at night if there are squabbles. Not the safest, sure, but I have temperamental hens that like to bully everyone so I think it's safer in its own way

 

[Callender Girl]

I always open the coops during the day. Although the girls love to free range, they like to lay eggs in real nest boxes. Not their own, of course. They like to go to one of the other coops where the other hens live and deposit eggs in there.

 

[Farmer Marcia]

I do. I don't even shut the coop at night, just the connected run so they still have thebrun at night if there are squabbles. Not the safest, sure, but I have temperamental hens that like to bully everyone so I think it's safer in its own way

Okay, thanks. We don’t dare not close the door on the run, we have too many predators at night. Chayotes, Fox, etc.

 

[aart]

Is it okay to open up wide our coop During the day, our chickens are free range

How could they free range if you didn't open the door?

 

[Farmer Marcia]

How could they free range if you didn't open the door?

I meant the big doors that we use to clean and so on, they go in and out in the run at night and morning.

 

[aart]

I meant the big doors that we use to clean and so on, they go in and out in the run at night and morning.

Probably better to leave them closed, reduce the change a pred will enter.

 

[RojoMarz]

I meant the big doors that we use to clean and so on, they go in and out in the run at night and morning.

Is there a pop door or do they have a way to get into the coop?

 

[David61]

Hawks are bad at my place. They hunt the squirrels that are everywhere but make a pass at my girls even with me in the back yard with them. Coons and possums try to get in. Night time my girls are in the armored coop/run. In the day they can come and go in the netted large run. The last few months they have not free ranged much because I have a new puppy. She is now seven months old and 51lbs of American bulldog. It will be another three or four months before the training can over come the puppy. She is getting better by the day but wants to play and chase everything that moves, me included.