Locking chickens in at night.

[wsdareme]

Have you considered putting an automatic opener/closer on your pop door? I have mine set on a timer (rather than a photoelectric eye) so I can let them out in the morning as soon as it's daylight. I have it set to close just prior to dark, and will adjust the times as our daylight hours fluctuate.

I think you'll sleep better if you know your chickens are safely locked up at night!

 

[chicksbestfriend]

Quote:
That pig in my avatar, is my tamed baby girl, Gorgeous is her name! I personally do not have any experiences with wild pigs attacking chickens and have not heard of any negative encounters with such scenario. My pig is super tame and mingles with the chickens, eats with the chickens, they even walk across her when she is sleeping and she doesnt fuss. I do know quite a few people who have wild pigs and deer coming into their properties and have not heard of a chicken attack by a pig yet, and most often, the pigs and/or deers take off running when they sense "the humans". My son does alot of hunting with his tracking dogs and I am amazed how his little dogs can subdue or get a 180 lb boar to submit, walking away with miminal if any injury. From what I have gathered from many hunters, they are omnivores and and will eat just about anything, depending on what their environment has to offer, plants, animals. Though they are normally not aggressive, they can be dangerous because of their strength, speed, and ferocity. My personal experience with a pig, they have terrible vision, they forage food by their keen sense of smell and hearing, so I would think wild chickens, not having an interest or being a threat to the pig, the chance of something happening to them by the wild pigs is highly unlikely, unless they were already dead.

 

[GwenDellAnno]

So... here's my story. I live in "heavy" predator country, but I'd had chickens for over a year (including through a winter ~ less food, predators get hungrier and slyer). Since I'd never seen any sign of any predators in our yard (we have two dogs ~ I figured they were keeping things away) and my pond had survived through 2+ years without anything bothering any of the fish (easy to get at), I got lazy and started leaving the pop door open at night. (That way I didn't have to get up so early in the morning to let the chickens out.)

Well... one night in early July, I heard a skeloch from the coop and I ran out to find my roo stumbling around in the dark with blood all over his head, etc. The next night the coon was back, but I chased it away. It hasn't been back since. I set a couple of traps but have not caught anything.

The roo survived. (It took some doctoring and fussing but I figure it was well worth it). He lost one eye and a chunk out of his comb (that's why all the blood), but he is almost mended and back on the job. None of the hens was harmed (I have 13) and it didn't even seem to affect their egg production.

Moral of the story. CLOSE THE COOP UP TIGHT AT NIGHT!!!

 

[7L Farm]

Definately lock em up. After all thats one of the reason you got it for.