Worst Feeling Ever - Waking up & Finding out you left the coop open

I've only once walked into the backyard to wonder why the chickens were already out: because we'd forgotten to close the coop.

It's an awful feeling, I agree. It's hardest when you first get chickens, especially if it's not one person's job to close the coop. DBF and I now are in the habit of asking if the coop is closed, but there was a while when both of us were assuming the other had it taken care of.

I think it's easier to lock up the chickens in winter than summer. At least when we go out with friends or to dinner in the winter, it's after the coop has been closed up around 5. In the summer the girls don't roost until as late as 9:30-10. If we're visiting friends who are in another city, we might not get home until 11 or 12.

edited for spelling & to clarify a point
 
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Our problem is in the winter when it gets dark sooner. We tend to not be at the house as much around 5:00 in the winter when it gets dark vs. 9:00 in the summer.

I had some reflective tape attached to the door in a way that only reflected light when it was open so I could shine a flashlight from a couple hundred feet and see if it was open (reflecting) or closed (no reflection).

Now that I've got my auto closer it has been a life saver (literally). I still have the reflective tape, but don't' check it as often anymore.
 
DBF has been joking about doing an automatic pop door so that I could hit a button and let the girls out in the morning. We're a "no food/water in the coop" household, so the girls get fussy really quickly upon waking up! Right now it's around 6:30 when they start to complain, but this summer it's going to be closer to 5.

Luckily for us, our neighbors 2 doors down have chickens, and have been great about closing the girls in the coop if we call them.
 
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They have 8 chickens, lol. I think eggs are the last thing they want!
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This is why we put the girls in their pen when we leave to go anywhere. If we don't we will get held up and be late getting home. When that happens we usually find our yard "feathered".

Doug
 
oh man, ive been woken up with someone yelling at me to go make sure everyone's alive......not a fun way to start out the day
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I'm so glad to hear that your girl was okay, and that the door was actually closed. Your daughter sounds like a sweetie pie!
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I got out of bed at 11 one night after remembering that I'd left the coop door open. The neighbor's dog was in there, in the middle of killing chickens. We lost only 4 that night, fortunately, but it was one of the worst nights of my life.

And I didn't think to go out with a gun in hand!
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The neighbor was okay when I called him in the morning to tell him, and chained the dog up. He didn't claim that it couldn't be his dog or anything. But about a year later, with the dog hardly being let off her chain, he started denying that she'd done anything to my chickens, and other people's dogs were loose (though I never had them eat my chickens), so he let her loose. We moved very soon thereafter...
 

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