[Bogof]

I have an auto door opener and just latley a couple of my hens have been getting locked out. It's the same ones each time. If they are closed in the run they just sit on the ramp to the coup, if they are in the garden they come down and peck on the patio door. Can any one help me get them to bed?

[alancane]

Is it faulty? Can you adjust the time so that it closes later?
Otherwise, switch to a maunal and open and close them yourself.

[Fisherman]

I have the same problem occasionally and I think its down to the variable light levels at this time of year. Do you have a light sensor on your auto door or does it work on a timer? If it works on a timer just change the door to close at a later time. If it works on a sensor just delay the door to close an hour or so after the light sensor activates if that's possible.

[Bogof]

The door closes on a light sensor I've adjusted it once already but will do it again. I does seem to be the same hens each time they just want to stay out and eat. What I'm after is something to get these ones to go to bed with the others...

[hillfooter]

Try adding a not too bright 12V light in the house.  Works with turkeys.
HF

[penninehillbilly]

I know it seems to be frowned on on this site, but i do feed my girls in the house at night, gets them in  and settled with a full crop and gives them breakfast while waiting for me to get up!

[donisi]

i have noticed that my chickens have an order which they go to roost at night - the last one will stay outside until it is already nearly dark. hence maybe the same chickens that are locked out over and over. adjust the sensor. if that doesn't work, you could get an auto door with sensor and timer, which gives you more control, ie would let you close the door at a later time...

 

[hillfooter]

I know it seems to be frowned on on this site, but i do feed my girls in the house at night, gets them in  and settled with a full crop and gives them breakfast while waiting for me to get up!

  don't seem to have a frown so this is the nearest

[newatthis]

i've just started to put a small amount of corn in my coop to help my lot go to bed early and if i cant get to my plot till 8/9ish than at least they have had some brekie befor i get there..,

[asd1]

i want an auto door but two of mine would rather sleep ontop of the hen house not in it i have to pick them off the top and put them in each night, sometimes just to mix it up a bit they go under the house or on very rare occasion i do actuallyfind them inside it!

[tesni]

I let my lot have a run around in the garden a few times a week but the other day I inadvertently closed their way back to their run & coop and completely forgot about them oops  .  At about 9.30 I remembered them  went to lock them up - they are normally all tucked up by then-  and found all 10 of them huddled on the back door step, I felt soo guilty and got such baleful glances and mutterings from them as they bustled into the kitchen    I also discovered that they don't know their way home in the dark..... or they were punishing me for my sins as they dashed off in all directions  I had to catch all of them and carry them individually to their roost - I was not best pleased but only have myself to blame I suppose 

[VeggieVirgin]

A couple of my hens used to get locked out regularly like this, so one night I went outside as it was getting dark to see what was happening, and it turned out another hen was waiting just inside the pop hole and pecking them when they went up the ladder.

[afewgoodchickens]

Where my hen house is located a light sensor would be problematic so I bit the bullet and simply went for the option of a timer, in the summer it opens around 7am and closes about 10pm and in the winter it will end up opening about 8.30 and close 5pm.  I do not put any food in their hen house as last winter a beep beep rat ate through some of the wood where the door open and closes.  But I do have one hen that is always first up and last to bed sometimes by up to an hour - lowest in the pecking order, but, my favourite.

[penninehillbilly]

we had 'something' gnawing at the bottom of the pop hole door, but we think it was a badger (which later broke into a call ducks pen and took a duckling, poor mummy duck was crazy in the morning). there is metal across the bottom of the door now. one of the reasons I don't feed outside is so 'beep beep rats' aren't encouraged by spilt food, the more they feed the more they breed.
2 of the hens decided to start sleeping in the garden shed, (also used for geese) bit of a pain as they kept knocking things off shelves and would use my head to bounce off when I went to get them out.
putting them back in their house didn't seem to help so I started just putting them on the ground and giving them a push towards their own house, they got the message.

[lightyears]

i recently got a door opener which is working ok at the moment(fingers crossed) i have noticed, sometimes there is a bit of a traffic jam in the door when they start going in, there is always one who gets halfway in and thinks "oh i shall stop for a chat" leaving the others outside, eventully this clears and they all go in with a poke with the brush to encourage them along