Teaching my hens to return to the coop

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posterchild

posterchild

In the Brooder
8 Years
Jun 5, 2011
12
0
22
Hi All,

I have a newbie question. I have 4 very fast 6 week old chicks that I eventually want to allow to roam the yard for a few hours a day. They have a secure run with a coop inside it (which the are only using for a few hours a day at the moment, then into a large brooder at night).

My question is, when they are old enough to live outside, what is the best way to train them to return "home" to the coop after ranging? We are on quite a large block and I don't want to have to chase them around too much.
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Is it fairly simple to condition them to come at the sound of a rattling feed bucket?

Thanks in advance.

Stace
 
In my experience, food is definitely the best trick. Always feed chickens where you want them to be at night. I don't leave food sitting out for my birds. I feed them a little in the morning, but just enough for them to finish in a few minutes. Then I withhold food until dinner time, when I give them their bigger meal where I want them to stay at night. I always make sure they get enough to eat, but you want them to be hungry enough to come back before dark. I hope this helps.
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Thanks, that does help. I've been reading as much as I can about feeding and was confused about it. I read that they should always have food infront of them to prevent cannabalism, but then I thought, how do you get them to come home when they are stuffed full of food
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I just went out and rattled a bucket of food at them, they spread to the four corners of the coop at first (I think I rattled too enthusiastically!). They stayed away from the food after I put it on the ground. Eventually one of them walked up to it and when she realised it was food she made the loudest racket. I couldn't stop laughing. The others dived on it so fast.
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I love watching the way they behave, I guess that's part of the intrigue of owning chooks.
 
I agree with the above poster - food is the key!!

My girls go free willingly now, but when I let the out to range the feed stays in the coop.. Shaking the can is all it took to have them come running in the evening.. Now about 3 weeks later sometimes I will go out late and look around and not see anyone, peek in and they free willingly went back into the coop and roosted..
 
Thanks. I love your profile pic, I have a 2 year old boxer dog, we love him to bits. I just hope he doesn't love the chickens to bits.
 
the best thing to do is to lock them into the coop for about a week so they establish it as hey i sleep here this is home. once they get that into their heads they will go into it when its dark by themself. it sounds mean but it works
 
I put my girls in the coop the first couple nights after a few more days I put a couple of them on the roost so they'd know it was there. Since then (over two weeks) they go in on their own every night, whether in the run or out, within 5 minutes of 8:30pm. It's actually kind of cute to wait for the time and watch them file into the run and into the coop and one by one up onto the roost.

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Last edited:
the best thing to do is to lock them into the coop for about a week so they establish it as hey i sleep here this is home. once they get that into their heads they will go into it when its dark by themself. it sounds mean but it works

I 2nd that
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Mine have always went 'home' as long as I locked them inside for a week first. Never had a problem at all.​
 
Our girls went outside at 3-4 wks old, we did not do the lock them in a week method, instead, we would heard them toward the coop, some would walk up the ramp - others were placed in. This was done each evening for several days. Now they just go in when they are done for the day.
 

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