keeping the coop door open all the time?

[fowler_chick]

as many of you know i had a fire in my coop on sunday, all my chicks are ok....sunday night i left the coop door open to the run in oder to let the coop air out.....the stench of the fire is still not gone!!!.. in the day the whole coop is opened up to air out, for some reason my chickens prefer to have the coop door opened all the time, just wondering how many of you do that?, my tom turkey has now started sleeping out side the coop in a barrel with hay and shavings in it (we think he was the culprit of the fire trying to mait with out turkey hen) . our run is made with high grade chaine link fence reenforced with 12 inches of contrete to detur any thing from digging...we also have a black lab the stays out side and roams around the farm, so every one seems happy with the new change..but should i be doing thing?

 

[CMV]

I always lock the girls in at night because of predators. I think you are courting disaster by letting your birds sleep out at night. They establish a pattern and then it's hard to break it. What happens if your dog gets injured and has to spend the nights inside to recover? The dog is a great deterrent to nighttime predators, but only if its always there.

 

[joedie]

I agree with CMV. I always have the door open during the day, but close it at night. If a predator does get thru the run wire even if you think it's secure, they'll have an open banquet if the door is left open.

 

[Opa]

My son has good fencing and several free ranging dogs, yet leaving the coop open turned it into a slaughterhouse. 33 lost one night, very few eaten.

 

[lorihadams]

I agree, I'll never NOT lock my chickens up at night again. I lost all but 1 of my new light brahmas (8 weeks old) and most were not eaten, just bitten on the neck and left for dead.

 

[EweSheep]

If you MUST have some opening for your coop door, make a hardware wired door and slap some hinges on it and a good door lock on it. that way they can have all the ventilation they can get but predators can not access to it.

Here is the door I made for my shed.

It worked for me very well and it is in its sixth year I had it. No dogs or coons had access into it or tried to get into it. They rather find the easiest way to access inside the coop instead of trying to tear into that hardware wire.

 

[KinderKorner]

I have breeding coops connected to runs. All mine have just a chicken door cut on the side, no closing door. Not had any problems. I have 6' 2"x4" welded wire runs, seperated with chicken wire, and poultry netting on top.

But there is always a chance. I did have someting slip under a 1 1/2 " gap under the closed door of my free ranging flocks coop though. And killed 2 of my birds.

It's always a gamble.

 

[007Dawn]

Idealy we should always lock them up. But we are doing some "remolding" that was put on "hold" because my husband got the swine flu. So they have to tall "structures" they have been roosting on but no coupe.

They are all fine. And only once have we seen a predator but we also have a dog that is part dingo and he chased that creature off of the property and we have yet to see it again, now 5 months have passed.

Chickens use to live in the wild, breed in the wild and managed quite well with little loss outside of human hunters so I would say for a few nights they should be find but if you are worried about it buy some wire "netting" and pin it to the front and then they will have air cirrucaltion but some form of protection.

Good luck and sorry to hear about your fire.