Poll: What time do you go to the coop to let your chickens out?

[oldchickenlady]

On my days off it is about 6:30 - 7:00am. If I am working, a little earlier, 6:10. Sometimes my husband will let them out when he gets home from work around 8 am, if I am running late for work.

 

[LindseyM12]

7:00am

 

[emmak]

6:30 They're awake and ready to hop out into their run. My run and coop are all enclosed, but I've read too many sad stories on the forum to be comfortable leaving the coop door open at night.

 

[imthedude]

after i roll out of bed, get the coffee started, and the dog outside and fed. this morning it happened to be around 6:00. yesterday it was around 6:30. that's the general timeframe.

 

[mamagardener]

I let them into the run early in the morning. I let them free range for about 3 hours in the late afternoon/early evening.

 

[gryeyes]

Right now, with 3 different aged sets of chickens in 4 different coops (well, one of those is a duck house the ducks never took to using so a couple of the pullets WANT to use it like a great big nest box), I'm kinda stuck with opening up 3 of them. The Big Coop with most of the chickens has an automatic door. The rooster and those hens are outside waiting for me when I go out to open up the other 3 "coops."

I usually go out around 6:30 a.m. on weekdays, maybe 7 or a tad bit later on weekends.

Big Coop, rooster and 6 pullets, auto door.
Medium coop with attached pen (but inside the entire "complex" and its run), with four 16 wk old pullets.
A-Frame coop with bottom section enclosed area, with one hen keeping a broody hen company at night.
Duck House with four 9.5 wk old chicks.

The ducks sometimes sleep in the Big Coop, usually they just snuggle together somewhere on the ground in the run. I WISH they would go into one of the coops or the "inner" pens of the two coops with that extra security area.

The main Coop is the one with the automatic door; I don't mind dealing with the 3 other "coop" doors because those are "special" needs structures. Integration/segregation for birds to join the flock, a broody hen, that sort of situation which I think requires extra attention on my part.

 

[Blue]

We used to let our chickens out for the whole day on the weekends, but we started having problems with random dogs that we'd never seen before showing up to eat them while we were in the house. Now we only let them out when we can regularly check on them, usually in the late afternoon. They tend to put themselves to bed about 8:00 PM, and I just go out and shut the lot and chicken house doors.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

6:45am-7am weekdays DH lets them out on weekends it's more like 8-9am cause I let them out and I like to sleep in!!

 

[gettinaclue]

Generally between 6:30 and 7 am on the weekdays. 8 on the weekends.

I lock up the coop about dusk after they have already gone to bed.

 

[line-rat]

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