New Coop but so many questions

[RonC]

OK... I'm confused! What is "way too early"?

Any time before I'm ready to get up, generally mine wake up sometime just before the sun comes up.

 

[OldGuy43]

Quote:
Hence the reason that ours just come and go as they please. What is this fascination with locking them up?

 

[joan1708]

OldGuy43. You haven't had any predator problems with the "come and go"
policy? Do you have a secure run?

 

[JackE]

Hence the reason that ours just come and go as they please. What is this fascination with locking them up?

If I started a free come and go as they want policy here, and left my coop open. My birds would not last a week. That's not a fascination, That's a FACT.
Jack

 

[Capvin]

Most people who follow the "come and go whenever they want" policy have come to accept losing their chickens to predators on a fairly regular basis. I do not know of anyone who free ranges that has not lost some to predators. I do not want to lose any so I lock mine up at night to keep them safe.

 

[mikecnorthwest]

Why lock them up..... protection and in my suburban setting to help keep any noise down until a reasonable hour.

 

[ECBW]

Take all these good advise and try them. One may fit you better than the other.

I hang my feeder under the elevated nests so the chickens do not stand on top and poop into it. Hanging also prevent chickens from knocking the feeder over.

I use sand in the coop after trying straws and shavings. Some of the poop can be watery. Similar to kitty litter, the sand makes scooping easier.

Dry leaves are used in the run.

If your run is secure enough, leaving the pop door open is fine. Chickens will be up at the crack of dawn, which is getting earlier by the day... unless you enjoy it...

Egg door or not is entirely your choice.

 

[Snack Giver]

One thing I do to keep the poop levels down and make cleaning easier is I lay newspaper down under the roost. The roost areas make 90% of the coop poops. I roll up, throw away, and replace those sheets of news paper every few days. This way I don't need to sift the poop out of the sand underneath every time. Recently I started adding a sheet of plastic (visqueen drop cloth plastic) to capture all moisture and ammonia too. So I now roll up the plastic sheet along with the paper.