Question about outside living with pics

[yolknaround]

We have 6 buff Orpingtons, they are feathered out and have been living outside for the past week. We almost completely finished our coop,just need trim and misc. paint.

My question is since we have a fully enclosed run that is covered with 1/2 inch hardware cloth and buried 1 foot underground and our predator problems are low do we have to close the small door going from coop to run every night? The temps here are in the low 40's an I have not been turning on their light at night. Also do you have to train them to go in the coop at night or do they just figure that one out on their own? I left them out one night and came home from work at 10:00 and they were all huddled in the corner of the run trying to sleep..

We are really new to this and any advice would be really helpful! Thanks again. Here are some pics of our coop and chicks.

 

[gritsar]

If you lock them in the coop with no access to their run for a couple of days, maybe a week they'll figure out the coop is where to go to roost at night.
Yes, I would close your pop door at night. There are lots of predators most humans never see because they are nocturnal.

 

[Marlinchaser]

If you used hardware cloth, you can leave the pop door open. But I would try to get them to go inside at night, just so they are not sleeping against the wire tempting something to try extra hard to get to them.