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Locking chickens in coop vs leaving access to run?

This was my story too. Worked out great with no door between the coop and run! ...until I found myself the owner of a rooster.

Now I've had to come up with a makeshift door to keep the birds in the coop until 8am during the week and 9am on the weekends for the sake of my neighbors.

I'd say, if you're in the planning stage, plan in an easily opened and closed door. You can leave it the heck open. ...until you have a rooster and neighbors who want to decide for themselves when to get up in the morning.

But, as someone said earlier, make sure your run is predator-proof! Mine has hardware cloth dug into the ground 12" and 12" concrete pavers 360˚ around the perimeter, carabiner clips on all the openings, steel wool jammed into any space light can get through and a secure roof over all. Make it predator-proof. Really, make it predator-proof or just don't have chickens. You'll save yourself so much heartbreak and time trying to eliminate rats, etc. ...and save on feed bills when you aren't feeding the local wildlife as well as your chickens.

Ah! The joys of living in a rural setting! I hear my boy out there at 5:15 some mornings. I don't care one bit if he wakes my neighbors. He's just returning the favor for the number of times their dogs have woken me.

And I'll be up to three males this summer. Should be a hoot! Oops. I mean a CROW!
 
Lucky you!

I'm on a half-acre lot and my neighbor was nice about it but clear that he doesn't like getting up at 5am.

Our windows are double glazed. And I guess we're heavy sleepers. We never hear him. But being a good neighbor is important so we do our best to limit when he starts crowing.

I'm also planning to line the inside of my coop with jute rugs to provide some sound insulation that's safe for the birds. Still waiting for Amazon to deliver the first experimental one...
 
I'm also planning to line the inside of my coop with jute rugs to provide some sound insulation that's safe for the birds. Still waiting for Amazon to deliver the first experimental one...
This is a great thread to begin with but this bit really interests me. We'll have an acre and can have whatever we want for livestock as long as we don't cause an issue with the neighbors, so sound control measures for rooster(s) might be really handy. Please keep us updated on how well this works.
 
We too have a very secure coop and run. The side of the run has a pop door to a fenced area. I close the side door every night. The pop dot I leave open. Why? I don't want to have to get up to key then out. I have a light in the run that comes on at 4:15. It is enough light to wake them. They started laying again. The run had never had a critter and the risk seems worth it... fingers crossed.
 

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Even though my run is fairly secure and surrounded by electric fence, nothing is failsafe. The coop door is still closed every night, shortly after chickens go to roost. Having an automatic door on a timer is nice, so I can sleep in. The door would allow drafts straight across the roosts as well - not so good in winter.

If I left the coop door open, I would worry about mice or rats getting in. I don't know if my area has mink, but they can supposedly squeeze through a 1 inch opening. Therefore the coop door stays shut at night. Why tempt fate?
 
We have a chicken size door between the coop and run. The run is very secure- hardware cloth screwed in with washers, top and sides.

The chicken sized door is built to swing like a regular door and it’s likely coming off tomorrow. They’ve managed to close it a couple of times and since we designed the whole setup to be self sustaining - if we are gone I don’t want them to freak out about not being able to go in and lay eggs or roost.
 

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