open or closed

About mid March, 4 of my 6 started refusing to go in the house at night, preferring to roost snuggled up together on the ramp leading up to the house. I lifted them up and put them in, after a  quick cuddle, for a couple of weeks, but have now given up. I leave the door open and hope the two , both cuckoo marans, who do go inside still don't mind. The run is secure, although I do still worry a bit. I am hoping they will go in when the weather gets colder. Does anyone elses hens do this ?

I agree Casey, ideally I would prefer all of mine inside overnight but luckily for me I have plenty of trees and those that do roost outside are 15 feet upwards. 

Forgot to reply to the question!  I've done both but normal I used to shut the house but I'f I wasn't going to be around or wanted a lie in after a late night out I'd leave the pophole open and shut the attached run and leave the outer run (enclosed in an electric net) with the energiser on.  I've never lost a bird in the house or inner run or outer run protected  by the net for that matter.  The only birds I've lost in over 10 years have those who insisted on going walk about outside the net.

Now-a-days I have an auto open/ closer which shuts the house anyway so there' always at least two lines of defense.

In winter it's good from a shelter perspective to shut the house door too as Aidy says.
HF

Interesting HF, at what point did you decided it was warm enough etc not to look them up, in other words, was it just say may-sept or just warm nights?

I wasn't that methodical but generally if it's very cold weather or windy I'd prefer to shut the pophole.  There's also a slight danger that leaving the pophole open they might be vulnerable to rats and stoats though I've never known it.  The auto pophole openers & closers (my design using car aerials, timers & pulleys) solves the dusk dawn problem of me being around.

Below is a photo of my standard run layout.  The small caged run on the front is for confining them when I want to catch them to examine/treat them and also it serves as a day shelter and somewhere to hang the feeder under cover. 

I prefer nets rather than fixed runs so I can move them to new ground every 6 months.  I've found the electric nets work very well for keeping the preditors out and the chx in (mostly).



HF

Hi all

My girlies all survived having been left with a neighbour and the bob hole open!!

Broody