Is it necessary to close wood coop door at night if attached to run?

[dbjcompany]

Hi, I'm new. I have a chicken coop with an attached run. I would like to keep my water outside during the winter so the coop stays dry. If I put chicken wire on the bottom of the run can I leave the chicken wood door open all the time with just plastic strips covering it ?I have 4 chickens and two ducks

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi, i guess it depends on what predator issues you may have and if the open door is facing the worst of the weather. Never owned ducks but i assume that they need constant access to water? Once chickens roost, they will neither feed nor drink (assuming you are not using lighting in the coop).

CT

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi, i guess it depends on what predator issues you may have and if the open door is facing the worst of the weather. Never owned ducks but i assume that they need constant access to water? Once chickens roost, they will neither feed nor drink (assuming you are not using lighting in the coop).

CT

x2

IMO a closed coop is more secure.

 

[dbjcompany]

I'm not sure if ducks need water at night. If the ducks don't then water at night then I don't have to provide water in the coop for the chickens either? What do most people provide for their birds at night in the locked coop?

 

[Pork Pie]

Personally i have neither food nor water in the coop. I should add that i live on the equator so day / nights are the same duration all year round.

CT

 

[yochickiemomma]

Right now I have food inside and weather outside but I'm not sure what I will do when temps drop below freezing which will happen soon here in northern MI

 

[yochickiemomma]

I meant water oops

 

[Pork Pie]

Maybe search for "providing water during winter" at the top of the page. Sorry, i can't give any advice on that one, being in Kenya.

If you can't find what you need, then write another post on the subject as I'm sure other members will be able to help you out.

CT

 

[Folly's place]

My food and water are both in the coop (chickens only, no ducks!), and in Michigan winters, the waterers are on heated bases. Chickens eat last thing before roosting in the evening, and at first morning light. I'm not out there at dawn to open the coop to the run, so feed and water must be inside. An at-home very motivated person could bring fresh unfrozen ware out three times a day in winter, but that won't work here for me! Mary

 

[KJzCola]

Hey there, and welcome to the joy of keeping chickens I bet the ducks are cute and funny too!

My coop is permanently attached to the run, and both are very predator proof. Therefore I do not even have a door at all to close the coop from the run. I've had this set up nearly 9 months without any problems as far as predators go.
However, chicken wire is NOT a safe approach to predator proofing. You need hardware cloth, I would suggest a maximum of 1/2 in weave for the bottom two or three feet of the coop, than you can use a maximum of 1 in up top, but personally I used smaller. I also have very large rocks in the ground around my whole setup so that nothing can dig under. There are several approaches to keeping animals from digging under the structure to get inside (a common one being to bury the hardware cloth a foot and a half straight down into the ground). But that was an unreasonable approach for us so we dug massive rocks out of the ground in the surrounding woods and lined them around the coop, then covered them with dirt.

So in short, there is no need at all to completely close up the coop at night if there is no way that other animals can get in hope this is helpful!