New Chickens

[smauck24]

I have raised chickens for the last 3-4 years and I added to my flock this past May and all of them are of good size and some are laying now. The only problem I have is the new flock wants to stay in the run at night on top of a crate instead of going into the coop. With winter approaching soon, this concerns me. I have a whole separate small coop that I raise my chicks in and i always close it off when they get to good size to join the older flock. My 10 Buffs I got last year went into coop the same day I closed the little coop up. The first night i tried making the cage not an option, bad idea,half of them went and tried hiding out in the garden and would of been left vulnerable to whatever. The last 2 nights, I have been moving them into the coop hoping to get them use to it. They use the coop to lay their eggs, but all except maybe 3 are staying outside in the run. Any thoughts on this situation would be greatly appreciated.

 

[chickens really]

You need to train them...Herd them in nightly..

 

[Ridgerunner]

The key phrase I picked up on was “some are now laying”. Is there a correlation between the few that are going inside and the ones that are now laying? Until they mature enough to force their way into the main pecking order more immature birds rank lower in the peeking order and are often picked on if they enter the personal space of a mature bird. During the day this is seldom an issue as the younger birds often just avoid the adults or can quickly run away. But at night on the roosts they can’t avoid the mature birds and can be brutalized. My pullets will not sleep on the main roosts until they mature enough to force their way into the pecking order. That’s usually about the time they start to lay. It can be a bit before they start to lay or a few weeks after, but it is normally tied to them starting to lay.

Until then they seek a safer place to sleep. I’ve had broody-raised chicks that were used to sleeping on the roosts under her protection totally abandon the coop when she weaned them. My brooder-raised chicks never make it up there until they mature enough.

I don’t know what your coop looks like or how big it is relative to the number of chickens. I don’t know what your roosts look like. It’s not a factor of inches per bird on the roosts but can they avoid being picked on. To keep mine from using the nests as a safer place to sleep I installed a juvenile roost, about a foot lower than the main roosts, horizontally separated by few feet, and higher than my nests. Something to think about.