Opening and closing their door

[obxWaMi]

We have a coop with an enclosed run and we've been leaving the door to the coop open all the time. We did close their door the first few nights we had our chickens, but after we set up the light in there to come on at 3am and they started raising so much fuss and waking us up before dawn we just started leaving it open. Should we be shutting the door after they go in to roost? Is it okay to let them squawk until we get up and get out there (usually around 7ish)? There is no food or water inside the coop, only in the run. Should we put food and water in there for them to have breakfast? Maybe that is why they get rowdy in the morning.

 

[mmtillman]

We did this with our first flock 2 years ago ....leaving the door open to the run so they could go out in the morning....till a band of coons came in the night and massacered all 9 of them in one night. I would never again leave an opening to the coop at night !! ....I get up early now with my new flock of chickens....never want to chance another predator attack again

 

[StaatsFarms]

why do you have the light set to come on at 3:00am??? i would definitely close the door at night... mine goes shut and locked around 8pm and don't get opened back up til 7am...put the food inside the coop for them versus just having it outside... or you can have a set outside and inside like i do...

 

[obxWaMi]

We have the light inside the coop come on early so they have adequate daylight to keep them laying in the winter months. It comes on at 3am and goes off around noon. They have 15 hours or so of daylight and about 9 hours of dark. We decided to add the light in the morning hours as opposed to the evenings so they could have a natural sense of when it was time to go roost. It is starting to get dark at about 5:30 here.
We read several posts about adding daylight and we read it in the Raising Chickens for Dummies book (page 304). The lightbulb also will provide a bit of warmth as we get into the winter months.

 

[StaatsFarms]

Well I would say if you want them to stop waking you up so early, get rid of the light... If you insist on having it chage the "artificial" hours to the evening to match summer light times...

 

[danab]

I leave the door to the coop open every night, unless its raining. But I only feel comfortable doing that because we don't really have any predators around here where I live.