Chickens out of bed & clucking in middle of night. Why?

[Lady Henevere]

For a couple of days this week, I have woken up to chicken noises in the dead of night. Thinking the chickens are being attacked, I have run outside to find them just fine, but with some of them walking around their run rather than inside their coop (I don't close the coop door at night). I have never seen a predator out there when I have gone out to look, and thinking it might be a rat or something, I have cleaned the coop thoroughly and found nothing. Any ideas on what would make them do this? Many thanks.

 

[sheeptown44]

just because you are not seeing something disturbing them, doesent mean its not there. preds are fast and sneaky, please secure your chickens, i lock mine up every night, even though i have a huge dog ready for an invasion. you wil be suprised how fast one pred will destroy a flock. best wishes

 

[Sjisty]

I'm having the same problem. The county put up a huge street light on the street behind our house, near where the coop is. Now we have hens cackling and roosters crowing most of the night! The evil me wants to shoot out the light! I also do not close the coop doors at night because the attached run is totally safe.

 

[easttxchick]

If your coop door is open, something is coming into the coop disturbing them. For chickens to come outside in the dark is absolutely not normal due to the fact that they can't see in the dark AT ALL.
I would definitely close that coop door in order to avoid losing your entire flock to a predator.
Could also possibly be a snake in there if your door is open all of the time.

 

[jojo54]

Check the coop. Something may be in there.

My DS went out to shut in the chickens one night and came back to say they were all roosting outside in the blackberrry arbors.

I went out to see what was happening and a cat ran out of the coop when we shone a flashlight in it. We then had to carry each chicken into the coop with them all telling us the stories about how they had to sleep outside because the bad kitty was in their house.

 

[jerseygirl1]

Quote:
Awwwwwwwwwwwww, how cute!

 

[Sjisty]

Earlier this morning (about 4:00) my girls started making noise. Hubby got up and went outside but saw nothing. They are all safe in the coop, so we weren't really worried, just figured they haven't gotten used to that big street light they put up on the street behind us.

Well ... this morning, the first thing I noticed was my dog walking all around the outside of the run. She stopped here and there and ate something (I figured it was preditor poop). I put 2 and 2 together and figure something was trying to figure out a way to get into the run overnight! Dear Santa, can you bring me a game camera?

 

[churchx3]

How weird. Last night I took my dog out to potty and heard something over by the coop/run. It was totally dark outside but my Alpha hen was out in the run (I have no roo's) ...I picked her up and took her back to the coop turned the light on and looked around and saw nothing. It was very windy so thought perhaps the wind had spooked her. That is the first time I am aware that has happened. I do have tarps partially around the run for wind block and considered that to be the cause of her alarm??

 

[VA Lady]

Off and on for the past couple weeks my rooster has started crowing around 3/3:30 in the morning. I'm not sure whether something is poking around their area or not. I know when he hears something he really doesn't like he will crow (some hunters were out in the woods shouting the other morning and it really got him going). I'm just not sure that it's a predator though... It gets dark so early now that they've already been in their roost for around 8 or 9 hours by 3 am - maybe he's just hoping to hurry the morning along...

 

[Lady Henevere]

Quote:
Awwww. All mine do is tell me how confused they were when they found themselves outside in the dark. They won't say how they ended up out there.

Thanks for all the responses. I live in suburbia, and the only predators we have are lazy suburban possums, raccoons, and skunks, and I don't think any could actually get inside the coop. I have two ideas: (1) a rat is getting in and freaking some of them out (never have all five been scared out at once), or (2) something about the long hours of darkness is messing with their internal clocks. But neither of those make a lot of sense to me. Wouldn't a rat go for the food freely available outside the coop rather than the chickens and poop inside the coop? And don't chickens live through long nights all over the world without freaking out? I just don't get it......