Shut them in at night?

[Dreysander]

We have an all in one coop and run. The run is all hardware cloth and completely secure. The coop has a door and I have been closing it after they go in at night and going out there when I wake up to let them out. I didn't last night because it was thunderstorming and I didn't want to go out in it. It made me wonder if I should be shutting them in or not.

Thoughts please!

 

[coopdeville15]

My coop and run is an "all in one" but I don't have a way to shut them in the roosting area. I only put my chicks out in the coop about a week ago. If left to their own devices, the chicks will huddle together down in the run, even though they will venture into the second story roost area on their own in the daytime. I have several times gone out after dark/dusk and scooped them up one by one and put them up in the roosting area and they seem to stay there over night, but they don't yet go there on their own.

 

[jetdog]

We have an all in one coop and run. The run is all hardware cloth and completely secure. The coop has a door and I have been closing it after they go in at night and going out there when I wake up to let them out. I didn't last night because it was thunderstorming and I didn't want to go out in it. It made me wonder if I should be shutting them in or not.

Thoughts please!

Buy an automatic door, a little pricey but piece of mind will go along way, with my auto door i haven't had to go outside in 2 years, best investment ever.

 

[ChickenMammX4]

Our run is very secure but I feel better knowing they're locked in the coop at night. It really depends on where you live. We are surrounded with forest and have so many predators.

We have an automatic pop door, it's great! We bought an add-a-motor chicken door opener and a lamp timer and added it to our existing gullitine pop door. Total, less than $100.

Do a search on the forum, many threads will come up.

 

[Mahlzeit]

It really depends on your location and what predators are in the area. Also where you coop is located on your property and if you have a dog or anything that leaves it's scent around the coop.

 

[Folly's place]

If you run is really predator proof (like mine isn't) then leaving the coop door open at night shouldn't be a problem. Mary

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

On our homestead we shut everybody in just before dusk. We have a pack of coyotes that roam the forest and now we have feral dogs along with the usual raccoons and opossums, so we just put all the animals in for the night. I want to add an auto door and will be doing that at some point.

If you don't have predator problems then you could let them decide if they want to go inside or not at night. However, if you live out in the country like we do I can just about guarantee you have predators roaming about even if you never see them.

 

[Dreysander]

We do live in the country and we're surrounded by woods. We didn't lose any chickens on the night that I forgot to shut them in but I think I'm going to keep shutting them in. Thanks for the advice.

 

[LeiaLayers5]

We do live in the country and we're surrounded by woods. We didn't lose any chickens on the night that I forgot to shut them in but I think I'm going to keep shutting them in. Thanks for the advice.

Not to be a negative nancy, but part of the reason they were safe may have been the storm that night. I recently had a friend who lost one of her hens because they did not shut them up in coop at night. I cannot say how secure her coop/run was, but I always say better safe than sorry. Her coop was right by woods so easy access for predators. We are also in process of creating automatic door for when we go out of town a couple of days. We fortunately have fields and another property between us and woods where we live so so far we have been lucky.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It's really about the amount of risk you are okay with accepting and just how secure your run is. Some folks are not able to accept the risk of losing even one bird and for those folks the more layers of security they can put between their birds and potential predators, the better. For those who are more accepting of the risk, free ranging, having a run but not shutting the coop, etc are more acceptable.
Your flock is more vulnerable at roost - and predators are more active.....if you are comfortable with the security of your run there is no reason you *have* to shut the pop door.