Time change is affecting my chickens

[dae006]

Ever since we turned the clocks back an hour for standard time, 3 days ago, I've either had some chickens miss the coop door closing and they get locked out of the coop, or like tonight, 3 days after the time change, the whole flock got locked out. I have had it set to close 20 minutes after sunset since they have been in the coop this spring. Sunset isn't affected by the time change.
But, the one thing I did change is when I let them out of the coop in the morning. During DST, the door opened at 8:00am and after switching to standard time I programmed it to open at 8:00am (which to them is/was 9:00am prior to the time change), one less hour a day. I assumed they went into the coop based on the sunset, but do they think they should be outside an extra hour?

Any thoughts?

 

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

My chickens just act like there was no time change so really I don’t think so so I used to put my up at 6:50 before the time change and now I put them up at 5:50.
So really the chickens didn’t have a time change on me

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Chickens can't tell time, they go by the sun. Let them out in the morning a little after daylight.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

It sounds like either the door is closing before it gets dark, or something else changed to cause them to not go in.

Do they have supplemental light, and if so is that turning off early?
Could there be a nuisance disturbing them from going in the coop?

Our birds put themselves up before it gets dark (my flock, and my mom's flocks over the years)

 

[rosemarythyme]

What I do during the time change is incrementally bump up/down the time. My coop is set to open at 7:45 AM regardless of winter or summer. So during a time switch instead of moving the clock up or down an hour, I do half an hour, wait 5-7 days, and then the other half hour. Seems to help ease the disruption to their routine a tiny bit.

 

[SourRoses]

I just changed the time on my pop doors the other day, and at least here in Florida, Sunset is an hour earlier.

Do you have time to sit out one evening while the sun starts to set so you can watch what your pop door does and how your chickens behave?

If all is well with the pop door schedule, it's possible something is scaring them out of the coop. Some predators come sniffing around at dusk. And as the seasons change, predators shift their search patterns (we are just this week getting visited by coyotes, which apparently is a winter long thing here).

 

[kattabelly]

How dark is the coop while they're shut in there? If they're (from their point of view) losing an hour of daytime in the morning now that you've changed the time they get let out, they might well be staying out longer in the evening to try and make up for it - especially if your days are quite short this time of year.

Would it be possible to let them out closer to the time they were getting out in the morning before the clock change?

 

[dae006]

It sounds like either the door is closing before it gets dark, or something else changed to cause them to not go in.

Do they have supplemental light, and if so is that turning off early?
Could there be a nuisance disturbing them from going in the coop?

Our birds put themselves up before it gets dark (my flock, and my mom's flocks over the years)

I have video cameras on them and the door closes 20 after sunset every evening, which is changing~ 2 minutes a day right now. It’s almost like it’s scripted, that when my cameras switch to infrared mode the door closes within a minute or two. This was again the case last night. No supplemental light either.

 

[dae006]

What I do during the time change is incrementally bump up/down the time. My coop is set to open at 7:45 AM regardless of winter or summer. So during a time switch instead of moving the clock up or down an hour, I do half an hour, wait 5-7 days, and then the other half hour. Seems to help ease the disruption to their routine a tiny bit.

So you feel like the drastic 1 hour change in the morning, opening the coop to let them out is affecting them? That is the only thing that I changed.

 

[dae006]

I just changed the time on my pop doors the other day, and at least here in Florida, Sunset is an hour earlier.

Do you have time to sit out one evening while the sun starts to set so you can watch what your pop door does and how your chickens behave?

If all is well with the pop door schedule, it's possible something is scaring them out of the coop. Some predators come sniffing around at dusk. And as the seasons change, predators shift their search patterns (we are just this week getting visited by coyotes, which apparently is a winter long thing here).

The time the coop door closes has not changed. I watch it on my camera in the run and coop. It’s closing when it should, 20 minutes after sunset.