keep pop door open......

[patandchickens]

BTW, there is sometimes another downside to leaving the popdoor open at night...

Rats.

They do not usually hurt the chickens unless they are raveningly hungry (although I would not place bets on rats vs chicks...) but they can run your feed bill up through the ROOF. Furthermore, the more you are allowing rats to go into the coop and dine, the more rats you have, and the more and more and *more*, and soon you will not only be supplying the whole neighborhood, you may get them trying to set up shop in your house/basement/walls/garage, which is sooooo not cool.

This is my main issue here, btw -- I seriously do not think anything could get into most of my runs (tho I would not care to test that theory!) BUT I actually *do* have rat problems if I forget a popdoor occasionally or if I don't notice the little b*st*rds having chewed a hole in the edge of a popdoor.

Rats are another one of these things that you tend to figure you don't have cuz you never see them - til you put a chicken coop and chickenfeed out there and realize the actual situation...

Pat

 

[caspernc]

We have a horse barn also so we already have the black cat inclosed poison control in place. There will always be rodents but so far we have kept down the population. Mice might get through the 1/2"x1/2" welded wire but I consider them extra protein for the ladys.

 

[lfreem2]

I don't have power at the coop, but I purchased a auto door opener with a timer that runs on batteries (stupidly expensive!) from Wells Poultry in England and they delivered to me in the US without dilemma. They are shut in at night and the door opens at 8am.

 

[crossgirl]

I would be scared to leave mine open and absolutely heartbroken and guiltridden if I had and anything terrible happen that could be avoided. I do wish I had an auto door though. On rainy days especially!

 

[stormylady]

Quote:
yep and that was me too, nothing ever happened for a long time then........raccoon and 8 chicken later my coop is locked up tight now!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
I have two of the same auto doors. One on my original Main Coop and one on the coop under construction. I use the light sensor to open and close the door instead of the timer. It saves me worrying about the chickens when I have to go to work in the winter, in the dark, and get home after dark. Oh, and on any weekend when I want to sleep in late.

 

[CopperCT]

Quote:
I have two of the same auto doors. One on my original Main Coop and one on the coop under construction. I use the light sensor to open and close the door instead of the timer. It saves me worrying about the chickens when I have to go to work in the winter, in the dark, and get home after dark. Oh, and on any weekend when I want to sleep in late.

X3 I got mine from Foys. The opener was not cheap but was easy to set up and works perfectly every day...love love love it. The light sensor works very well. My run is very secure with hardware cloth and welded wire all around but I still feel better with them locked up at night.

 

[PropsToMyPeeps]

I had the same question. Looks like I know someone who is going to get an auto-door opener. Who even knew there was such a thing!?!?

 

[lfreem2]

Foys here in the US has it (it's imported from Europe), but it's actually substantially cheaper to buy it from Wells Poultry in England and have it shipped here. I think it ended up being $50-$75 cheaper to order it from Wells. Either way, it has to be brought into the country, so you are paying for the shipping no matter what. It took less than 2 weeks to arrive and passed through customs with no problem.

 

[BellydancerNC]

I have not been locking them up for the past cpl weeks ... but I do need to get back into that habit . Our run isn't as secure as it should be , my hubz refuses to listen to me when I tell him we need the welded wire on it too . Because we live in a neighborhood he thinks we don't have much to worry about