Time change is affecting my chickens

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

lol, possibly lower in the pecking order, but why suddenly all 4 days after the time change?

Either something did change with the time change to mess with their schedule (several suggestions already)

Or, it's literally just coincidental that this happened when the time changed.

(Or a combo of those two.)

If they are still having problems with adjusting, and you went back to their old schedule, would they suddenly resume their original routine?

Is there a mouse hiding in their coop so they don't want to go in?

Are they used to seeing a neighbor walk their dog at a certain time, and that's not happening anymore?

Could they be used to specific meal times, and now that schedule is thrown off?

Who knows what could be going on.
But having a routine suddenly change can be very upsetting.

 

[PrettyBirdRocky]

When we first built our coop, we got an automatic door. Their run is fully enclosed. Thought, hey, this will work. Lol. Havent used the door in forever lol.

There are times they are out before the sunrise and in way before sunset.

We do have a light in run but not in coop where they sleep. They do their own thing. Some girls go in 1-2 hours before rest. Some daudle long after sunset.
Good luck!

 

[CraziChknLady]

Odd....I can't speak much for the automatic door as I have to go out and manually close mine. As well as pick up feeders. Mine haven't seemed to affected, they just go by the darkness and light of day. By the time I get home from work, they are in the process of putting themselves away. Kudos to mama hen, she's gotten all 7 babies in! They are about 7-8 wks at this point. All bantys.

For my last flock I realized some of it was how dark the coop was inside and by the time they got inside, couldn't see the roost ( if they got in at all). I winded up leaving a light on and that helped. Especially just the cheap battery button lights from dollar store.

Maybe check the timer and door, make sure it's not faulty or possibly closing early? Could they be distracted and not realize the time?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I’m the automatic door for our chickens. They have a Nestera coop (unlocked) inside a locked run, so they can hop out of the coop to eat etc. on their own.

But they want OUT into the backyard when it’s light and are very vocal about it in our city neighborhood, so I just get up an hour early (aka same time per sunrise) to let them out. I’m easing it back every three days or so as daylight continues to retreat.

They still all put themselves back into the run and up into the coop or on the outside roosts at sunset with no input from me, taking no more than five minutes each evening.

No supplemental lighting at the moment.

 

[Donna-NC]

Chickens don't tell time (thankfully).
We set our auto door to open about an hour before sunrise and close when it's fully dark. That way when the time change happens all we have to do is reset the clock itself and the closing time gets adjusted once mid way through each time change. Nobody gets left out in the dark. We check on them every evening for about a week to make sure everyone has gotten inside.
We also put reminders in my calendar to change the auto-door on the switch time dates.
Our runs & coops are right outside one window (we can reach out the window to toss out treats) so no cameras needed, we just look out.

 

[Chicken Mama48]

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?

My thought is that chickens don't look at the clock to see if it's time to get up or go to bed. I set my door to open and close with the sunrise and sunset. The chickens can't know (I don't think so) the AM time so just come out when door opens. As the day starts to get dimmer they all know that the door will close soon so head to bed. Sometimes I have 1 that wants to play (eat) just a bit longer and will miss the door. If they do they find a safe (?) place to perch for the night.