What time do your chickens wake up?

[chickgarden]

Two mornings ago I heard my chickens up and making noise at 4:30 am! We have one especially loud Black Sex Link who makes a lot of noise many mornings, usually when another chicken is in her favorite nesting box. (Strangely though she has pretty much quit laying eggs over the last month or so, even though the other 5 are all laying, but that's it's own question I guess).
This morning my daughter woke at 4 am and told me the chickens were awake - I looked out that window and 4 out of six were down in their run. By 5:30 the noisy one was making a fuss and sure enough another chicken was already in the nesting box.
I had no idea they were up that early.

What time do your chickens start getting up? I always thought it was with the sun, but there really isn't daylight at 4 am here.

 

[OliverZoe]

Mine get up about 6:00am but in the winter when I blacked out the coop (I put up black material so no light would get through) I was able to get them from getting up until 8:00. Mine also make a lot of noise in the morning.

 

[Cluky]

I think it would be with the light. In our area it gets light right now around 6:30 and that is when the squawking starts. During winter of course it is different.

 

[DLV58]

Up at 6:00am and to bed at 8:00pm

 

[sumrfun65]

When it starts to get light. Now about 6 am. They head to bed around 8 now that it is getting dark earlier.

 

[OHalAnimalFarm]

Mine get up about 6:00am but in the winter when I blacked out the coop (I put up black material so no light would get through) I was able to get them from getting up until 8:00. Mine also make a lot of noise in the morning.

Can you share what black out material you used? Did you cover the coop or the run or both?

 

[OliverZoe]

Can you share what black out material you used? Did you cover the coop or the run or both?

My coop isn't blacked out anymore but when I did have it blacked out I used some regular black cotton (I think) fabric, I doubled it so it was thicker also when I ran out of that I used some old blankets (nothing fancy!) to cover up the windows. Also if you plain on doing this you need to make sure there is still GOOD ventilation!!! this is very important. I was never able to fully black out my coop but I was able to get them to stay on their roost a couple of extra hours which was all I needed at the time.

I'm sure there is something you can buy for this purpose but I used what I had on hand at the time.

 

[OHalAnimalFarm]

Thank you still helpful! Our chickens wake up at about 6:30am every day. We live close to our neighbors so I am trying to set things up so that I can open the door before they wake up and make a ruckus.

I'll certainly try this. Thank you again