Should I Close The Door At Night?

[Awestruck]

Thanks.

 

[Joe Gadget]

An automatic door will typically work off of a timer or light sensor to determine when to open or close the door. Ease of installation depends on which one you purchase. The CoopGadgets door has a light sensor and timer and is easy to install and use. It looks pretty good too: www.goopgadgets.com

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I've done it both ways...left the coop door open so they can enter their enclosed and wired run...but now, after several coon attacks, I lock them up at night.

Sadly, one major predator attack can wipe you out or at the minimum take some of your best birds. For me, it just isn't worth the risk even if it is not every day.

I learned my lesson the hard way, after about 3 years of never having anything happen....then it happened. One bird killed. Then, after about a year, I got confident again, then 2 years later, I had a major attack.

They are always locked at night now.

The automatic door thing sounds like a good plan. I'm going to read those posts as I'm getting up to let them out.

LofMc

 

[Awestruck]

Thanks for all the help with this. We left the door open to the run while we were gone. The birds are fine. However, we had a rooster who lived out in the yard. We didn't have a place for him yet. We found him dead this morning. I am pretty sure it was a raccoon that did it.

 

[Awestruck]

An automatic door will typically work off of a timer or light sensor to determine when to open or close the door. Ease of installation depends on which one you purchase. The CoopGadgets door has a light sensor and timer and is easy to install and use. It looks pretty good too: www.goopgadgets.com

I could not get the url to work. I also tried www.coopgadgets.com and that didn't work either.

 

[Joe Gadget]

Sorry to hear about your rooster! I'm not sure what the potential difficulty is accessing the website. I just checked it and it worked fine... Let me try it again here: https://coopgadgets.com Let's see if that works!

 

[Awestruck]

Thanks. It worked this time.

 

[Cindy in PA]

The "auto coop door" sold at Fleming Outdoors has a version that goes by your GPS coordinates & adjusts the closing & opening according to sunset & sunrise. You can customize this by having it open or close at any amount of minutes before or after sunrise or sunset. So much better than relying on a timer or light module. It runs on electric with battery backup.

 

[sstasiak042]

I left my coop open to the run for a few months and finally two chickens disappeared. They're now locked up completely at night and free range during the day so the run is essentially useless until winter comes along, which is fine for me.