[rileyfin]

I work 12 hour shifts, I am a signaller so I start at 05.30am also I work 25 miles away so have to leave at about 04.30am.
My hen house is raised and has a large secure integ run, on paving stones so it is as fox proof as it gets. In the mornings I put food in run and open pop hole, it is pitch black as i live in the middle of nowhere, and my hens leave the bedroom and go into the run 
No outside lights and I always turn my torch off, is this normal?

[Beano]

In the middle of winter when it's dark at 7.30am we have to open the coop door before going to work. Ours will wonder down quietly in the dark. They havent got long to wait till it starts to get lighter. I wonder if yours go back up into the coop after a while to wait for the daybreak.  Maybe in the winter yours will stay in till later.
Not too sure if it's normal though.

[helens-hens]

I think food is a temptation for them to come down even if it is dark. Last winter in the dark evenings my 2 got into a habit of keeping half an eye out for when i would go into the garden to close the pophole. They would then suddenly appear as I reached the hen house!

This must have been the result of me giving them something a bit too late on an occasion and it took a while before they stopped doing it.

[hillfooter]

In the mornings I put food in run and open pop hole, ......

I think this could be a clue!
HF

[rileyfin]

Thanks guys!
They are obviously coming out for the food - greedy girls! I hadnot thought of that 

[Aunt Sally]

Not greedy - just survival.

It's the early bird that catches the worm.

The last chook out might starve 

[evie2]

We have 3 Sabelpoots and 2 Dutch Bantams (this years chicks) roosting in the Damson trees and they're down before it gets light but they then spend the rest of the day sunning themselves and sleeping

[Helenaj]

Not greedy - just survival.

It's the early bird that catches the worm.

The last chook out might starve 

I open up fairly early as I have to be in work early and the mornings are getting darker by the day. As I approach the coop I can hear them all rosey away, but when the key goes in the lock there's deathly silence and I stand well back as I open the door - the first chicken comes out at head level! You'd swear they were being fired from a cannon the rate they come out of the coop!
I don't know why they rush, there's plenty of feed for everyone. 

[hillfooter]

Not greedy - just survival.

It's the early bird that catches the worm.

The last chook out might starve 

I open up fairly early as I have to be in work early and the mornings are getting darker by the day. As I approach the coop I can hear them all rosey away, but when the key goes in the lock there's deathly silence and I stand well back as I open the door - the first chicken comes out at head level! You'd swear they were being fired from a cannon the rate they come out of the coop!
I don't know why they rush, there's plenty of feed for everyone. 

Have you never noticed that chx will always rush to the last handful of feed you throw down even if the pile they are eating from is just the same corn and probably bigger than the last one you threw down.  I'll leave you to work out why but it's all to do with an instinctive survival strategy.
HF