One hen is leaving the coop/chicken yard at night, returning in the morning. How can I stop this?

[citybirdies]

Just looking for some new ideas here... one of our hens who is about 16 months old, has recently started leaving the run at night to roost elsewhere and returning in the morning. The problem is that we have a small back yard and live in a city, and she leaves our backyard. We've searched high and low and can't find her in the areas surrounding our house once she leaves, but she comes back early in the morning and actually returns to the chicken run, which is essentially a fenced-in, roofless dog run with the coop inside. We have five hens and they all have always slept in the coop together. We only know that our hen, Ruby, has been leaving at night for two nights now, but it could have been going on for longer. I am worried, mainly, that she'll get eaten by a raccoon, but also worried because it's triggered a response from the other four hens. Three of them are now roosting outside of the coop but in their enclosed yard, and the fourth one (who was brought into the flock with Ruby, when they were both one day old) is roosting on the 7 foot fence that encloses the yard, so is also pretty exposed to raccoons. Why is Ruby leaving to roost elsewhere at night? She is my four-year-old's favorite hen and she would be devastated if something happened to her. Do I need to clip her wings? Covering the entire run is not an option, so is there anything else I can do besides either wing-clipping or manually closing them into their house each night and taking them out each morning? I'm mostly curious about why she might be looking for an alternate place to roost...
Thanks for your input!

 

[Teila]

Howdy citybirdies and Welcome to BYC!

There could be a few reasons your hen is choosing to sleep elsewhere at night and you/we may never know what that is .. strange things go through the minds of these feathered friends of ours

We do not have raccoons in Aus and as our coop has a fully enclosed, predator proof run, we do not need to close the coop door at night. Also, with our warmer temps, leaving the door open provides further ventilation.

Anyways, as you mention that covering the run is not an option for you, I would definitely consider closing the coop door each evening.

I do not want to freak you out and this is just a thought, but one thing that did come to mind, when talking about chickens no longer wanting to go into their coop to roost, is mites. Red mites come out of the cracks and crevices at night to feed on the chickens on the roost.

Another thought is mice, maybe. If there are mice around at night, possibly in the coop, this could scare them.

 

[jimbob86]

Leaving the coop open with a roofless run is just penning them up to make it easier for coons to catch them .......maybe they understand this.........

 

[citybirdies]

In response to Jimbob86- I'm not sure what you mean... can you please explain?
Thanks!

 

[citybirdies]

Teila, thank you for your response. I am looking at some holistic remedies for mites now... perhaps this is the problem. We are vigilant about rodents, and have an eco-friendly pest control company at our place once a month to refill bait stations, so I'm not sure they would be making it into the coop (there is a bait station just outside of it), but that is certainly something to consider. I plan to clean and treat the coop and hens for mites tomorrow. Is it possible that mites would prevent laying? We have only one hen laying this week, which is a dramatic decrease from our usual haul.

 

[donrae]

My first thought is they're too hot or stuffy. You have five birds, how large is your coop and does it have ventilation? Can you post a pic of it?

I'm pretty sure jimbob means your run won't keep raccoons out, so your birds are vulnerable to being eaten at night.

 

[Teila]

Hey citybirdies I am no expert on what ails chickens but I read a lot

I have read that mites can cause anaemia and also general unwellness in chickens which, in turn, I believe could upset their egg laying.

Yep, I also think jimbob meant that your chickens might feel more vulnerable in a coop with the door open, no means of escape once the doorway is blocked by a raccoon

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Inspect the coop for invaders and chickens for mites and lice.

Cover the run to keep birds in, racoons out. Put the birds in coop and close the door each night until they get back into the habit of using the coop and continue to close the coop each night.

 

[aart]

My first thought is they're too hot or stuffy. You have five birds, how large is your coop and does it have ventilation? Can you post a pic of it?

I'm pretty sure jimbob means your run won't keep raccoons out, so your birds are vulnerable to being eaten at night.

Ditto Dat^^^

 

[mirandaleecon]

Teila, thank you for your response. I am looking at some holistic remedies for mites now... perhaps this is the problem. We are vigilant about rodents, and have an eco-friendly pest control company at our place once a month to refill bait stations, so I'm not sure they would be making it into the coop (there is a bait station just outside of it), but that is certainly something to consider. I plan to clean and treat the coop and hens for mites tomorrow. Is it possible that mites would prevent laying? We have only one hen laying this week, which is a dramatic decrease from our usual haul.

It sounds like something is stressing them at night, which could cause a decrease in egg laying and for them to not want to sleep in the coop anymore. I would try to get them all in the coop and start closing the door at night so nothing can come bother them. Do you keep food inside the coop? If so, there could be all sorts of critters going in there to eat at night. We had a feeder in our yard that we kept full all the time and before long there were opossums, raccoons, rats, and foxes (to eat the animals eating the feed) coming around regularly. Now that we don't leave food out, and have trapped quite a few of them, we hardly see any of those critters anymore...