4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Dizzy-Deb]

Hi

 

What do you normally do ?

 

Shut them in for the night or leave the door open? thanks xx

Edited August 31, 2010 by Guest

[Carlisle chick]

I let the girls head off to bed themselves, then shut the the door when they are tucked away safely in the Eglu. I let them out again at the same time every morning.

 

I have left the the chooks over night before and left the door open and they were fine. Saying that, I do feel better knowing they are safely shut inside for the night, away from the foxes & badgers etc!

[karena]

I leave it open. I wasn't sure either, but I have seen threads on here where it is basically split down the middle.

[Burtie14]

We're leaving it open at the moment. The chickens are awake before us (they get up at crack of dawn) and so can just wander into the WIR when they fancy. Sometimes they were creating a bit of noise when they were cooped up longer than they thought neccessary!

[jackie45]

I leave our eglu door open during the summer months. I nearly close it up in the winter so they can get out for food and drink.We will do the same with our new girls in a coop. Last winter was very cold, month of snow but they came through fine.

[Chicken shack]

Only had my girls two weeks but I shut the door once they go to bed about 8pm at the moment and let them out 7am ish!! I just feel safer knowing they are tucked up inside. I live in town on an end house so feel vunerable.

[the-real-tinkerbell]

i leave all 3 of mine open even the one with the chicks and broody in , and they seem fine

[Dizzy-Deb]

Morning all,

 

I decided to leave it open for them last night, I was really torn between shutting them in or not. I know the previous owners did leave it open so it was something they were used to.

 

It hasnt stopped me worrying about them though, havent had them a day and already fretting about if they are ok.

 

I left bedroom window open, so would hear them if anything amiss. Woke up at 6.30 am peeked out window and no sign of them up and about. Hubby looked out at 7am and he could see them out in the run.

 

So think for now will leave it open. It is a difficult one though I think to decide. I want them to have the freedom to come and go as they choose, but also want them to be secure!!

 

I know one thing for certain, its made me more determined to ge a WIR asap now. I think I will be so much happier leaving them out once in it.

[Dizzy-Deb]

sorry forgot to add.

 

Do you leave the food in the run or take out for the night ? Everything have read says to remove to prevent vermin being attracted to it... so not sure what to do regarding the food. what do you all do ? xx

[MarkBevBen]

Hiya Deb and everyone else, just wanted to say thank you and have been reading this thread with interest before our ladies arrive tomorrow

[CallyChook]

defo take in the food overnight or you'll be swamped with vermin, the worse of which in my garden are pigeons!

 

I always shut my chooks in overnight, and then let them out whenever i am up (normally 7am) as we live in the countryside and they dont have an enclosed run, just a fenced garden which keeps the chickens in but not a determined fox out.

[Mercedes55]

When we had our girls in an Eglu with the small run that comes with it we always shut them in at night. Since we got the new WIR last week we've started to leave the door open. Last night was their first night in the Cube and it took them ages to go to bed. I guess they weren't too sure about going in there. Anyway once they had we decided again to just leave the door open, although my OH seems to have this worry that they are going to go walk about in the night and fall down the ramp. I keep telling him that hens sleep right through, guess he doesn't believe me. I do take the food in at night, although there has been the odd night when I have forgotten

[Margaret]

Always leave the door open, as I have to wake them up in the morning before I go to work otherwise, and the were not impressed last winter, also the same with the food, dont have time in the morning, especailly as it is still dark at 5.30, so I do everything in the evening.

Works for me.

[Gelbel]

It's each to his or her own - here it's open and I do not remove the food. The girls can get up and go to bed when they want, have breakfast when they want and it means we can happily leave them overnight if we are away for the night.

 

I've never had any trouble with vermin.

 

Don't worry about fretting about them Dizzy-Deb, I hardly slept the first 2 weeks as the slightest noise had me wide-awake looking out the window in the dead of night. But once I'd tuned into their different clucks and squawks I realised I'd wake up if they were 'calling for me' and was soon back to sleeping like a baby.

[MummyHen]

I leave both doors open (Classic & Cube), food in the WIR is left out

Food whilst FRing in the garden is taken in during the night - the spillage is raked up now and again - my two cats keep the field mouse population in check, I've never seen rats here in over 10years.

 

What works for me may not work for you - do what's best for your location/situation/setup.

[foreveryoung]

last Christmas we had loads of snow and all that was on top of the run was netting and mile a min, this couldnt cope with the snow and it all came down, luckily the girls and the ducks were ok. one eve i got home late and didn't get round to putting the girls and the ducks to bed and sadly at Christmas eve we got badly foxed.

Ever since we had the fox attack and lost all our ducks the old WIR was torn down (I couldnt go in there anymore without feeling gutted at the loss) we spent hundreds (to the point we stopped counting) the roof for instance cost £250 for 6 sheets of polycarb, we have extra tall fence posts as our uprights and 2 b 3 as the rest with welded mesh round the sides and over the top of the rest of the run.... it feels alot more seccure so now I leave the girls out to free range in their WIR.I fretted profusely for the 1st couple of nights and even now every sound that comes from the garden I scarper out side to see them

 

I think if you feel comfortable about leaving the girls door open the go for it as for their feed, I leave it out but its off the floor.

 

emma

x

[the bradley bunch]

i'm so sorry to sound like a broken record to anyone whose being reading other threads, but i can't recommend enough locking your chookies up at night in their houses

even if you're run if fox-proof, leaving the girls out at night makes them visible to any passing predators, and once a fox knows there are chickens residing in your garden they will do everything they can to make them their dinner...they will return at times of day they wouldn't normally be out hunting and they are unlikely to give up until they've gotten their prey. having a fox hanging around will make yours & your chickens lives more stressful than you could imagine; you'll worry about them finding a way into the run while your at work, and even supervised free-ranging won't guarantee their safety...i remember a lady on this forum once telling how a fox actually crept up and took one of her girls when she turned for a moment to talk to a neighbour over the fence .

we have a resident fox who passes through our garden every night, but as of yet he doesn't seemed to have noticed our chooks or pay any attention to their coop because they are always locked away & silently sleeping by the time he visits

 

but even without the presence of foxes there's so much more to worry about. this is demonstrated if you only look at recent threads. i've copied in the links to 2 threads posted just last friday, where chickens have been attacked in their wirs by unknown predators. mink especially are a threat, as they can fit though the same size gaps as rats, but are unfortunately however much more able to kill larger prey.

leaving food out at night, even if it's out of reach of hungry predators, will attract them to the site of your girls. and even rats have been known to fatally injure vulnerable chickens. i just don't believe any run can be 100% predator proof, especially when mink, rats & stoats attacks are becoming ever more evident.

 

i'm so sorry i don't mean to be a kill joy

there's always something new to worry about as a chicken mummy and to protect your little ones from, but i think following simple measures like locking your girls up in their houses before darkness falls, and taking any attractants like food in at night, will ensure both you & them sleep safe & sound .

 

chicken attack- whats happened? warning- upsetting

Rat? Fox? Mink/Stoat?

[Mercedes55]

Well you don't sound like a broken record to me and having read your post it has made me think twice about leaving the Cube door open. I hadn't even thought about a fox coming through the garden at night and being able to sense or smell the girls and I would hate to put their welfare at risk for the sake of going into the WIR to close them in at night. My only problem is that it was much easier closing the Eglu as it has the handle thing on the top to close it, whereas the Cube has the daft thing on the other side of it, so for me it means going into the WIR to close and open the door. I might ask my OH to have a look to see if there is any way he can build a hatch into the far corner that I could put my arm through. First though I need to make sure the door opens and closes okay as it wasn't when we put it together last week. When I phoned Omlet i was advised to leave the Cube door open all the time

[Bexibex]

I find this such a tough one. When we first gout our girls, we routinely shut them in when they had gone to bed and dutifully took in the food and water so that it wasn't left overnight. Then Abby started crowing like a cockerel at 5am in the morning and wouldn't shut up, tried covering the Eglu and run but it didn't stop her. However, when we started to leave the door open, the crowing stopped. I now leave the food in as well as the crowing started again when they were getting hungry. The other morning I peeped out and they were all up at 5.15am and running around the run.

 

I do worry about them, especially as it has suddenly turned cold and being ex-bats, they are still quite featherless. I also worry about vermin but hope that my three cats may act as a deterrent. I also hope the dog will act as a deterrent to any foxes. If the noise wasn't an issue, I would safely lock them up every night but we have lots of neighbours close by and I do not want them to get anoyed or report us because of the noise. However, if my girls are waking up at 5am, I can see why they get noisy and want to come out after several hours of waiting for us to get up!

[Mercedes55]

I guess it's one of those decisions you have to make based upon your own personal circumstances. If my girls were making a noise at 5am I would be inclined to leave the door open and take a slight chance too. However mine so far have been quite good. In fact the first night we left the door open they didn't come out of their Eglu until 8am. We were getting a bit worried about them. As last night was their first night in the Cube we wondered what time they would get up and also if they would remember they were now so much higher off the ground. They all wandered down the ramp at around 6.30am and then had to wait about half an hour before I went down there with their food which they were very patiently waiting for

[the bradley bunch]

Well you don't sound like a broken record to me and having read your post it has made me think twice about leaving the Cube door open. I hadn't even thought about a fox coming through the garden at night and being able to sense or smell the girls and I would hate to put their welfare at risk for the sake of going into the WIR to close them in at night. My only problem is that it was much easier closing the Eglu as it has the handle thing on the top to close it, whereas the Cube has the daft thing on the other side of it, so for me it means going into the WIR to close and open the door. I might ask my OH to have a look to see if there is any way he can build a hatch into the far corner that I could put my arm through. First though I need to make sure the door opens and closes okay as it wasn't when we put it together last week. When I phoned Omlet i was advised to leave the Cube door open all the time

 

oops! i hope i don't get in trouble for giving the opposite advice to omlet!

 

glad to have provided you with some helpful info mercedes

at the risk of getting a slapped wrist from omlet i'd definately expect the door on your cube to be able to be opened & closed, and if it's got some sort of a fault i'd expect it to be replaced (especially at the price you pay for one!... ).

good luck with building your hatch!

 

Bex i can fully understand your issue...i'm not sure if you've heard this before but spraying 'man-wee' around the perimeter of your garden is apparently effective at keeping foxes from entering (something to do with the scent & threat of another male). also you could try a fox-watch to give you a bit of added security if you're concerned. it's awkward tryng to balance keeping your chickens & your neighbours happy...i'm currently experiencing that myself but with the issue of flies rather than noise

[Mercedes55]

Well our door seems to be fine now, my OH fiddled with it and then it was okay. He obviously has the right touch for this kind of thing.

 

I give up trying to find a way of opening the Cube without going into the WIR. When I had a look yesterday I realised I would need arms about 3ft long to get from the end of the run to where the handle pulls out

 

So this morning I had to try and make a fast exit from the run before the girls could beat me to the door. Luckily they were all a bit slow coming down the ramp. It was like watching 4 OAP's as they slowly waddled down in a little line, bless them

[little brown hen]

I close the cube door because they get up too early and wake the neighbourhood. I get up at 6.30 and let them out, and at the moment I have three new girls so I have to defend them from being pecked by the others and get them in their area.

Ive never taken the food in, only the water in the winter, and I haven't got any nasties that I know of eating the food.

[docsquid]

I leave the Cube and Classic doors open within the WIR as it is very secure and on a concrete base, but I wouldn't do that if the WIR were not secure. I prefer to be able to let them come and go as they please, and they just get up when they want to. In summer they make too much noise too early in the morning if I don't keep the door open!

 

However in the winter I do tend to close the doors to reduce draughts and keep them warm.

[Lavenders_Blue]

I'm the same as docsquid, my girls are free to get up and about when they please in the summer but their coop door is closed in the winter.

 

I don't think it's fair for an animal that wants to get up at 4.30am to be locked up until 7am or so. I feel bad enough that they have to stay in their run until I get up!

 

In the winter, the chooks and I are waking up at much the same time so they are shut away nice and cosy until I do the early morning pyjama dash!