Who here locks there coop with a "lock"?

[ChickenAlgebra]

The coop has a full lock, dead bolt. Door came drilled for it, figured why not. If anything can get past the dogs who wake up DH, I figure they've earned the chicken.

 

[grandwake]

We have little latches and padlocks on the door, nesting box, and hen door (which we never open because my girls never figured it out

). We put them there to keep out any cleaver predators, though so far we haven't heard/seen a thing snooping round our yard. Come to think of it though, the locks were really mainly for raccoons which we read could undo latches and such but I'm pretty sure they could tear through the wood if they really wanted to...so I suppose there may be no point. Luckily there have been no attempted break ins

We think there has been a skunk in the yard though

we've seen one around the neighborhood and we keep finding all these spots around the yard where it looks like theirs been digging. No trouble with the chickens and the coop though!

 

[Laurajean]

I have a latch with a loop for a padlock and I put a padlock through it, but don't actually lock it. This keeps it more secure against predators. I don't have any people worries. I also do the 'open' padlock in the unlikely event that the latch undoes itself in the wind, etc., since it does slide very easily.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Coop is locked (locking door knob), brooder/hatching house is locked, barn is locked. We are on AG land, but of the homes on our road we are only ones with farm animals all over. 1 neighbor has a few hens, but not a secure pen and have lost hens since we moved in here. We use to not use the locks on any of the buildings until feed and eggs started going missing. Now everything is locked and 2 Pyrenees are on patrol.