Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[emchook]

My OH has persuaded me to NOT lock the chooks away inside my seriously hard core 16G anti fox Tony ! And since the weather is warming up and the mornings are so light I have left my eglu door open so the chooks can come and go as they please ! Hopefully they will appreciate this fact !

 

I am feeling a little anxious [ hence wiritng this at 23:49 !!! ] but have triplechecked and triplechecked..and then triple checked all the catches ! And I have given the 16G wire the once over !

 

Bring on the summer lie ins [ Who am I trying to kid .. I know I am going to wake up really early and try to see them from the window ! ]

[Olly]

I have not closed the Eglu door (barring really severely cold weather) since 1st March 2007. Why do I recall this date so clearly? Because that was the day I went to Cardiff for something to do with work, left the house at 5.30 am, and forgot to OPEN the Eglu door.

 

Luckily it was a cold day, and my two girls were rather cross and confused, but none the worse for a day inside! I've never closed it since, because I'm so scared of that happening again, and they've always been fine either in the Omlet run or now in their Tony.

[Tutti Frutti]

How were they this morning Em? Just wondering if you noticed them being noisy - or did they just get up and happily toddle around and keep themselves amused? Fingers crossed! Wondering what to do with my girls now dawn is getting earlier and earlier... but the clocks spring forward next weekend so might help For a while, anyway!

[thelurch]

Im building a walk in run with a cube on the outside, I had been wondering whether it is essential to close the cube door every night?

 

Obviously like you say, if you are happy that the WIR is 100% secure which mine will be as I know I will end up going over the top making it fox/rat/lion proof!

 

My question was relating to whether the birds would get cold with the door open at night? or do they like being shut in during the hours of darkness.

 

Obviously in cold weather then I would assume it best to shut it, but theoretically would it be ok to leave it open from last frost to first frost for example?

[emchook]

They were absolutely fine !

They are now right at the end of the garden in the new WIR [ actually really close to the grumpy neighbours ha ha ha ] ..and my double glazing windows are closed so I have no idea whether noisy or not . will not you know when the weather warms up

 

We have so many yappy dogs around us that I am not really worried about the noise the chooks make !

 

 

Mind you , we live very close to woods and whilst sometimes the chooks are a little noisy during the day.. no more so than the general bird chorus and the woodpeckers ..oh and the yappy dogs .. have I mentioned them ....grrrrr

[legend21]

I had also planned that when the better weather arrives I will leave the cube door open some nights, but like em I am wracked with guilt over what if, but I had hoped to have a weekend away and that was part of the idea for the WIR, so will just have to go for it when the weather gets nice, as I live in the west of scotland that will be the 10th June (one day only)

[Blackrocksrock]

North east scotland here and at minus 19 I still left the door open - they dont mind and are cosy in the elgu! so doesnt need shut

[emchook]

Well they all seemed happy and content today ! So I have done another WIR check and left them to it again for tonight !

GUILT FREE this time

Sunday morning lie in here I come

[BarbaraJ]

good isn't it not having to get up early to let them out mine have had an open door apart from about 3 nights over the winter. The cube is in a sheltered position outside a WIR and they have all been fine!

[joybelle]

I leave their cube door open most of the time even in the very cold weather. There are nine

of them to keep each other warm. There are a few occasions in the summer months I have

shut them in at night because of the racket some of them made at 4.30am

 

Joy xx