Moving on

Well, have not been on here in a while. Last spring I started with 5 RIR hens and one Roo. Well, I did have 2 Black birds, 2 red birds and 2 white birds with black markings....can't remember the names, then I got the RIR......this spring we decided to try our hand at raising chicks, so we got 6 Buff Orps, 7 Black Australorps, 7 silkes, and 6 barred rocks. 26 of the buggers.......everyone of them survived and we only got 2 Roos out of the bunch, both of them the Buffs. So, it rained all day yesterday.....I got concerned because we had last weekend put the young in with the old girls, and all of the younger ones was outside in the rain....didn't get too concerned until it turned quite dark and I went to see if they had gone in the coop.....Nope, 25 were all huddled together by the fence soaking wet.....I put my umbrella over them, went in the house to get DS to do something. We decided to take a Truck Topper we had and put it in the run......we rounded up a few of the chicks and shooed them in the topper, put the feed in with them and figured the rest would get the idea and go in on they own.......Nope. the ones in the topper went out and joined the others by the fence. So, I got my DS out of bed for the second time and had him help me round them up and then we put a tarp over the opening and secured it.....that kept them in but I was sure worried about them.....I was wondering if they would catch Pneumonia or some respiratory illness......but this morning I let them out and they all looked good and continue to run around and peck......so now, for a gal that had no chickens a year ago, I have 40 hens and 3 roos.

That is a nice success story, and good thinking on using the truck topper. Your son sounds very nice also. Chicken math has struck again!

I never was too good at math......but, can you answer this question.....will it hurt these young chicks to be out in the rain......it is not raining now but again tonight we had to round them up and get them under the topper. Will they learn to go in when it gets dark?

I am thinking you might need some kind of low voltage light to attract them inside, but I'm not really sure.

I think you would have better luck getting knowledgeable answers if you reposted and revised you title to How to get chicks in at night and put it under Raising BackYard Chickens and then under Managing Your Flock. Best of luck to you.