Want my girls to safely roost on their own!

[Mimicrowe]

any suggestions on how to make your coop self sufficient & girls roost themselves when you are not at home to shut them up? I am new to chickens & trying to predator proof their pen.

 

[BuffOrpington88]

Hi! To get them to return to the coop, you can throw some scratch or another treat in the coop when you want them to go inside so it becomes a habit. It sounds like an automated coop door would be useful. Here is a thread about it. Good luck!

 

[Mimicrowe]

I might not have made myself exactly clear. My chickens go into their coop to roost just fine by themselves. But I know I will not be home before dark every evening to close the door to the coop. We put hardware cloth as a skirt around the chain link fence & buried it. We have also put hotwire around the top edge. It's an old dog pen that's 25'X35'. We live on 10 acres out in the middle of hundreds of acres so I know we have a lot of critters. I've had my chickens for over a month & they range from 10-15 weeks & have not had any predator problems at night so far but I want to be proactive as I have heard horror stories. Have heard of someone putting a hot wire across the ramp into the coop to keep others out. He said his chickens hop right over it to come & go as they wish with no problem. Has anyone else done this??

 

[JayJo]

Check out automatic doors. We have an Ador and it works well. There's a thread about them around here.