Locking chickens in coop for the night, a neccessity if they have a run?

[MarineCorpFarmr]

PS Good luck sticking with only 2 or 3 bantams!

Addictive little useless things aint they! My banty roos crack me up whenever i am outside

 

[SmittenChickens]

Thanks for all of the input guys! Keep it coming!

 

[MrsRodgers]

OK I have to ask this, with all of you locking your birds down like a prison camp, How many of you actually have a shotgun or rifle to take care of the predators you are trying to keep out? I get the precautions I really do ( I have my run covered and have triple wire up in all sides of the run and hot wires at ground level) but where is yalls solution to handle a problem animal that gets too close/in/or attacks your flocks?

Absolutely. However, it is not ok to kill a bear who is attacking your flock...that would be a hefty fine. We have rubber bullets to deal with bears. Other predators, like coons, weasels, coyotes, and the like may be shot dead, but most likely won't be approved of by local law enforcement. I'd use rubber bullets for coyotes, too. Here's how I look at it: I live in their world. I move in with my food, and my smells, and bait them with chickens, and dare them to get in. If they get in..I knew it could happen. I just take precautions to keep them out.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

We dont have bears, but any other predator is shot. I have other animals to protect other then our flock. horses, goats, & sheep.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Are the chickens OK to go all night with no water?

Chickens have very poor eyesight in the dark and will not drink at night. I keep the water outside the coop because it gets wet and messy around the water and it just makes things too gross for me in the coop. Also I had no idea that we had weasels on long island in New York until after they came and got my birds. I still have never seen one here they are night time predators that you do not see.

 

[nuthatch]

We lock our hens down like a prison camp so that we DON'T harm the wildlife. We live in a national forest, which is THEIR home first, so if the worst happens, it happens. JMHO

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

I prefer to let my birds free range. The hawks havent been an issue with the grown birds, only the youngins.

 

[MrsRodgers]

I prefer to let my birds free range. The hawks havent been an issue with the grown birds, only the youngins.

I didn't think hawks would bother my adult birds, either..until one swooped down, right into the run, right before my very eyes. No one was injured...except for me, who tripped flying down the back deck stairs to try to stop the mayhem. I now have deer netting over top of the entire enclosure. The hawks simply sit up in a nearby tree, and look from above.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

I got some shotgun rounds that are made to scare off birds from a friend. They are kind of like a aimable firework. Any hawks i see roosting around here get a very rude wakeup call

 

[Tigertrea]

I have been tossing around the question of leaving my pop door open for awhile now. I have come to the "better safe than sorry" conclusion myself. My coop is "little" small for my birds (I have 10 birds in a 8X4 coop, 8 tall) and was thinking that allowing them access to the outside all the time might be a good idea. Like I said though, I have come to the conclusion that I'd rather be safe than sorry. We open the pop door around the time the sun comes up (luckily my DH is a cement truck driver and has to be at work, in the summer, shortly after the sun shines so I don't have to get out of bed and do it myself LOL) and close it after they put themselves to bed in the coop each night. So far I have not let them range except for a few hours here and there, supervised just before sunset so they are in their run almost all the time. No worries about stragglers for me so far.

I also don't have water in their coop, only in the run. They don't leave their perches at night so, I figure they don't need the water. And if they are up an hour before we open the door, one hour is not going to harm them really as long as it isn't a daily thing. I keep their food in the coop to help deter pests from the run though.

I have the same predators as you. I live in Southern Ontario, right along the Detroit river. I have coyotes, fox, raccoons, skunks, weasels, snakes, stray cats and birds of prey but, luckily no bears! (there has been rumors of larger cats here though....but, only rumors). My run is 1 layer of chicken wire, on the inside to keep chickens from sticking heads out, a layer of chain link on the outside to keep larger predators out, 1/4" hardware cloth skirted out about 1' and up the run 1'. Over the top we have a layer of chicken wire to keep larger birds out, a layer of corn crib fencing to deter things like stray cats and raccoons. I do not think it is 100% secure so I could never trust leaving the pop door open all the time. Definitely not in the winter when food gets scarce for the predators around here. This will be my first winter with chickens. I'll decided in the spring if I will take the risk of leaving the pop door open in the summer. I know the coyotes get desperate around here in the winter because the stalk my dogs if we take them out when it is still dark out(A husky and an Akita!). If I find no evidence of predators trying to get into the coop/run in the winter I may decide to leave the pop door open in the summer.