New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[maxinediana]

I have had my 3 chickens since February and they live in a walk in run - with the Eglu Classic INSIDE the run so it is safe from prowlers.

 

As they haven't been thro a winter with me, I am unsure what time of the year I should atart to close there house door at night. I used to close it every night in Feb/March and then the warmer weather meant it was OK open. Should I wait for really cold weather?

 

Obviously the downside to shutting them in is that I have to open it up!

[hopingforchickens]

My chickens have always slept outside in the WIR on a perch in any weather, so I wouldn't think leaving the door open would do them any harm.

[zakjon-98]

I leave my Eglu door open all year round

[Jenthelibrarian]

Hmmm...heading for my first chicken-winter.

 

We have tended to shut the door on Friday and Saturday nights so everyone is not treated to the loud 'singing' that accompanies egg-laying too early on weekend mornings

 

This is my kind attempt at keeping the neighbours on our side.

 

The past few nights, as it has been colder and darker, my kind OH has popped out with a torch to shut their door, maybe we're being too kind.

[maxinediana]

Very many thanks for all your comments. I probably worry unecessarily.

[Julia W]

I also have a walk in run with the eglu cube inside. When I first got my lovely girls, about two years ago, I used to close the door once they'd gone to bed every night but soon realised that I had to get up at stupid o'clock to open it up again in Summer. Now I have it open just wide enough for them to get in and out and leave it like that all year round and they don't come to any harm. When you look at the eglu cube there are lots of places where the cold air could come in so a little gap in the door won't make any difference. The girls haven't protested yet

[BadGardener]

I close mine when there's likely to be a frost. But the days are shorter at that time of year anyway so the early door opening isn't a problem.

[Julia W]

That is very true but the risk of my forgetting to open the door in the morning now I'm used to leaving it open all the time is too great to start changing it now.

[Olly]

I leave it open all year round. One of mine roosts on top anyway

[Looney]

I tend to leave the door open unless it is really, really cold. One of my ladies likes to sleep with her bottom in the Cube and her head outside so I have to give her a good nudge before I can get the door closed!

[Julia W]

Gosh, they are all different aren't they, obviously the cold doesn't bother some of them. I would love to get a night time camera in the run on my girls just to see if there is any activity at night. I assume they go to bed and stay there all night but I could be wrong.....

[UKMARCH]

I leave mine open too apart from the nights when it goes a few degrees under or lots of snow. We have got a temporary camera fixed on the outside of the cube door as we have a feather puller and one who is unnecessarily stroppy so we wanted to see what went on after they went to bed. After some separation she is fine now but whenever any of the others moved she did give them a good hammering now its stopped. They do move around in the night and sometimes change places, wake up and preen a bit and sometimes go from laying to standing for a bit. One generally likes to stand in the doorway facing out. It's quite interesting but we can only use it when it's dry as we have to dangle to sensor out of the window to use it so I would like to get a camera which I can access on my phone/iPad maybe with another camera in the run too. I don't watch it all night and not all the time but its great to be able to check if you need to our friends think we're mad when we mention that we sometimes put the chicken telly on!

[Chucky Mama]

I leave my cube door half closed all year round. Leaving it half closed means that they can squeeze in quite happily and shelter behind it if they want too. Usually one sits in the open part all night.

[TooLilac]

Last winter we only shut the door when there was a frost or it was incredibly cold/snowy. The girls were really good about putting themselves to bed at dusk, so we let them sort themselves. They were so well behaved we thought we'd cracked it and were considering getting an auto-door opener to shut up after them.

But... once we got to spring, they decided thet really loved sleeping in the high perches of their WIR, adn that they really loved singing for all my neighbours when the sun came up at 4.30AM

We started shoving them into the coop at dusk (against their wills because they prefer al fresco siestas!), but of course it also meant we had to get up at 6.30am to let them out again !!!!

Argh ! So we have to do it all ourselves, and there's no point getting an auto-door thingy as we have to put the naughty girls to bed.

( and no, I really don't think we have red mite, as I regularly lime-wash their coop, and my once good girl still goes to bed without any problems. it's jsut the cheeky truants that make life difficult !!!)

[Chicken Momma]

Interesting thread!

 

As a newbie I had just assumed I should shut my two into the Go at dusk and let them out when we wake up. So this is what we do.

 

My kind husband lets them out on weekday mornings when he gets up to take our dogs out which is around 0745. On the weekends I usually let them out around 0830.

 

Of course it is September now and I have only had them for 3 weeks. Not sure what will happen in the summer months. I could leave the door open as we have no foxes on the Isle of Man - but there are always longtails and polecats.

 

Interesting to hear what others do.

[Smudge]

For our first winter with just 2 girls in a Go I used to shut the door at night. We had 4 girls for our second winter and left the door open all the time, even when it went down to about -5 a few times, and they were fine. They put themselves to bed but I always try and go up and take a peek in at them later in the evening to make sure everything is ok, and I noticed that on a cold night, when you opened the back door of the Go to look in you could feel the warmth. After that I stopped worrying as 4 girls obviously generate enough heat to keep themselves quite cosy!

[HH HENS]

I shut mine in all the time unless it is hot as I have lots of foxes around and I am just really cautious.