leaving coop door open at night

[cj7795]

has anybody left the coop door open at night if the coop is attached to an enclosed run? just wondered what people did when they are out of town & didn't have anybody to come & open and close the coop door (& didn't have an automatic door opener) ...

 

[Chick Charm]

I have left my coop door open for a couple weeks when on a summer vacation. And my run that is attached is secure. So you can. No problems. It is a good habit to close a coop door for obvious predator reasons. If your run is secure you could effectively leave it open all the time.

 

[cj7795]

This is a picture of our coop/run ... it is totally enclosed. We are going to be gone for 2-3 days without anybody to open or close the door for us & it worries me. We haven't been able to put an automatic door on yet but plan too. The food & water are both self-filling (we don't have to refill them more than once a month) so I know their food/water will be fine.

 

[mattsinger]

I've never had a door on our coop. Its inside of their enclosed run.. and never had an issue

 

[cj7795]

thanks for the info/advice ... it is greatly appreciated !!!!

 

[Chick Charm]

I think you can rest assured that those chickens will be just fine. WOW! Only have to feed and water once a month. Congrats on that. Nice coop too.

 

[Pecked2Death]

Don't follow my practices, however, I leave my coop open. My hens freerange but I have a coop and run that I can move around. But unless we have a loss, we leave everything open. We have had 2 early morning killings lately, so we are shutting the run door, at dusk or just before and opening it up about 8am so the danager has passed. No more dead hens. We have also put out the Humane trap and the leg traps and baited them and whatever it was that was getting the hens - managed to avoid 2 hidden leg traps getting in and out of the run, with the dead chicken we retrieved - hopefully the rat posion will get it.

 

[Pecked2Death]

how do you do the watering and feeding?? I am happy to water and feed, but would love to be albe to go away for a couple of days.

 

[cj7795]

We built automatic feeders out of PVC for both food & water ... LOVE them! If you would like to see some pictures let me know & I will post some

 

[bluesplash]

Could I see pics of your automatic feeder and waterer.