Is there any benefit to closing the coop hatch for the night?

[Daranjo]

I've bought a chicken a few days ago and looked at the wiki page about animal mood and friendship but didn't find anything relevant about leaving the hatch of the coop open for the night. The wiki even states that they don't get attacked by wolves with an open hatch.

So what's the point of closing that thing if your animals are fenced in anyway?

[Geothermal1159]

It makes it alot easier to go and talk to the chickens if they are all in a coop instead of running around in the fields.

Same with the other animals when you also include having to milk or shear some of the others.

[Daranjo]

Well, that makes sense. Thanks!

[Capt_Lycanthro]

Yeah, it's basically just if you want to insure they're all together and accessible in the morning for convinience sake.

[Mr.Hazmak]

Well the animals do return to the shed for the late evening. So when I've figured it out I just skiped the animals in the morning, let em run around, then come back later and deal with em inside the shed before bed.

[Alizona]

I made a little fenced in area with grass for em. Then one day, I suppose because they had eaten all the grass, I went in there and left my gate open because they never go thru it. Well suddenly, like 5 of em practically ran right out the open gate. Panic mode for me. LOL Needless to say I couldn't get them all back inside, so I finally just took my axe and removed all the fence posts. Fine, let the darn things go wherever they want, I probably just lost all my hard work... but nope. LOL That's when I learned those little guys like to go all over the place, in quest of some grass to eat. And I also learned they will go back into the coop every night, no matter how far away they go during the day, as long as I leave that little door up for them.

tl;dr: I just leave the gate open and let them go anywhere they want, and never have any problems... except I agree closing the door would make it a lot easier to give them some love each morning. :)

[Snackrat]

It doesn't affect their mood. The only reason I ever close the coop/barn doors is if I intend to move the building or redo the fences, and don't want the animals to be wandering loose or blocking building locations. Plus I usually have it closed for first few days of spring to allow the grass to grow before they go out to eat it.