Chicks won't go up ramp at night

[trailz]

We put our 4 girls out a week ago (now about 10 weeks old). Their plywood ramp drops down through the coop floor, at slightly less than a 45degree angle. It has 'rungs' on it every 4 or 5", and the total length is about 2'. The ramp swings up at night to keep them safe in the coop.

In the morning, when we drop the ramp, the girls are happy to jump down, but do not walk down the ramp.
Never, have I seen one go up the ramp. Every night we've had to go out and one by one put them in the coop for bedtime.

Anyway to train them?
Is my ramp engineered badly for chicks?
Are my chickens just being chickens?

Thanks

 

[Judy]

I'm wondering if the problem is not the ramp but the coop, since they go down it fine. It needs some natural light (a window) and it needs to be no hotter than outdoors if it is hot where you are. More details might help.

 

[Spitman]

If you put food and water up in the coop for a few days they will use the ramp to get to it . I had to do it with my last batch of pullets , I stopped putting the food and water out in run , and left it in coop so they had to use the ramp , However I still had to go out and load them at night ROYAL PAIN I had 30 , 6 week old chicks to catch and load every night for about 2 weeks then one night i came out and they were all in , I had a light that I put on at dusk , and made it nice inside the coop with 3 big windows plenty of ventilation , But it still took time for them to learn to go in at night , don't worry they will get it . Hang in there ! !

 

[Vtchicks]

I followed what a lot of folks recomened here, I left them in the coop for a week before opening the door. They went in at night just like clock work.