07/19/2025
Unpopular opinion but I don’t lock my chickens up at night and here’s why.
I just want to share my experience.
I’ve had some (what I thought were) extremely “secured” coops. I’ve done it all, buried wire skirts, even buried chain link. Plywood walls metal roofs locks locks and more locks. I live in the middle of a wildlife refuge so I have bobcats, coyotes, c***s, snakes possums and any thing you can think of that is a threat to my chickens. I’ve had more tragic mass murders and death inside of a locked coop than I have in the last year when I quit locking them in. Some how some way, animals still found their way through cracks and my chickens seem to get sick and have even died from upper respiratory problems so much more often back then. Now that they have an open coop with no fourth wall, if something comes in, they can get away and also aren’t sleeping in a room full of dust and poo. The ventilation is so much better and they didn’t die over the winter even with all the snow we had. I feel like locking them up has done more damage than allowing them to have full free range freedom. My death and illness rate dropped tremendously. You don’t have to have a fully secured coop. They can survive and outrun a raccoon… if they aren’t trapped in a coop that is.. please consider normalizing not domesticating our chickens to the point that they can’t protect themselves. Giving them freedom has given my a better egg supply and healthier happier chickens
