Who does or does not close their door to the chicken coop

[tantor]

My coop is an 8x12 building with an 8x20 fully enclosed run arrached on the East end. I have a little pass through door that the birds go back and forth. It is never closed. I have human doors on the coop and the run. I built my coop so I could section off part of it and keep the feed and other supplies in it. In almost 3 years, I've never lost a bird to predators. They come and go as they please and I never have to put them up.

 

[appps]

We have a coop with a run attached. The run isn't predator proof. We live in the same sort of area as you, in a residential estate.

We always lock the coop because the last time we forgot a fox killed all the chickens. It's a pain over summer if we want to go out somewhere because we have to put the birds to bed early before we leave. One day I'm going to install one of those automatic doors.

 

[rockin5t]

It depends on the situation. For our covered coop, I only close the doors every night during the winter. For our coop with open runs, I close it every night and keep food and water inside and out. In snow storms, there is no point to opening the doors--the girls won't go out. We have windows and vents for the hot weather, and may need to put in a fan. But since we lost our stubborn Old English rooster to an owl (he would not go in), everyone else gets locked up safely at night.