Too hot to lock in coop?

Hey guys, with the weather so hot I’m worried about leaving the chickens in their coop. We have an omlet plastic coop and it’s so for this crazy overnight temperatures. They have a cage that is secured around the coops and bolted into the ground. Just thinking the heat is more dangerous than one night with door open?

Those coops look like ovens to me. I wouldn't lock them in especially if your run is fairly predator proof. If its not I would work on that because there isnt enough ventilation either in those coops from what I've seen

BlindLemonChicken said:

Those coops look like ovens to me. I wouldn't lock them in especially if your run is fairly predator proof. If its not I would work on that because there isnt enough ventilation either in those coops from what I've seen

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Trust me the flock was panting when I opened the door this morning! I did end up shutting them in but they all went in on their own accord. Partly because I normally let my dogs out after they go in for the night but tonight the dogs went out while half were still in the run. Almost all went in with the dogs being out (we have cane corsos)! Left the door open another hour and all stayed in, checked on them and they were fine so closed the door since it’s below 85 for the night.

Will have to be up early to open the door. Gosh who knew having chickens was so nerve wracking, always worried about my girls!

It gets easier. I still have nightmares about raccoons and chicken diseases and I've had chickens on and off for over ten years!

I would recommend wrapping your run with hardware cloth if you'll be leaving them out (I would do it no matter what, but definitely at night). The openings in the Omlet runs are large enough for raccoon hands.

The heat is even worse during the day in an Omlet, so I recommend locking them out of the coop during the day (and then opening up the egg and back doors all day to keep it from getting as hot), and having them lay in the run (like in a cat litter box). Maybe put their nesting box close to the front so it's easier for you to collect the eggs. I cannot keep mine cool during the day so I just don't let them in there.

This also frees up the entire Coop for more space for them to spread out. Just take out the divider. I even took out the bars and added wood perches, which mine much prefer (and it's easier to clean!). Photo below is before I realized I could ditch the grey bars.



You can also replace the 3 grey angled vents with HWC cloth covers (just cut the HWC to size, and the use the provided screws with washers over them). This will improve air flow a LOT.



Also, the child proofing door knob covers shown above work great for extra protection from raccoons opening up either the back or egg doors.

The ventilation is actually not too bad, but hard to see from the photos - I've monitored mine very closely with humidity sensors and it's never once been higher than the outside air.

However the claims about "cool in the summer and warm in the winter" ... total garbage.

Heat kills more chickens than cold. Do what you can to make it more tolerable.