Girls won't go outside

Hi Our family is new at the whole chicken scene. We have 11 laying chickens, 7 goldens/browns and 4 Austrolorps. Range between 3.5 to 4.5 months old, one is one year old. I live in Northern Ontario in Canada. It is cold(-1 to -14 at night ) and there is snow on the ground in some spots. The places we got the chickens allowed them to go outside and I did see them outside. Now that we have them they don't want to go out. We have only had them 6 days, and the person we got them from said it is normal for them not to go out for a few days and then they should start to venture out. We have tried to entice them with fresh fruit and veggies, put some of the crumbles on the ground outside, and I have attempted to "make " them go out. Once outside they just run to go back inside.
Any tricks, hints or suggestions? This weekend we will be home for four days so hoping to work on this then. Thanks Cassy

Not to worry about it, they don't like strange, and that is what your place is to them. Are you feeding them in the coop? If so, remove that for a few days. Then, each morning, put just a little tiny bit, right by the door out to the run, and then outside in the run, make a little bigger pile right beside the door, but not big enough to feed all of them, just put it right on the ground. Then a couple of feet farther out, put the rest of the days portion. That is how I got mine to go IN to the new coop.

I always have my run nearly covered in waste hay, and if bad weather is coming, I pile it up in mini haystacks, and when the snow stops, I flip the stack out on top of the snow. Especially at the beginning of winter, as that is when snow scares them, they don't like strange. Later in the spring, this is the mulch for my garden.

Also make sure there is a bit of wind shelter in your run, and a hide out or shady space or two.

But really, I think if you do nothing, they will start to explore anyway.

Mrs K

The outside pen is L shaped. Two of the sides are the coop walls, and the one end is blocked by a woodpile. Lots of places to roam and hide. Hopefully the food trick will work. Will try that on Friday when we have the day to be home with them. Thanks Cassy

Chickens are shy of anything different or new. Eventually one of the braver ones will venture out and the others will follow. I'd just let them alone and they wil come out on their own. Really, what difference does it make if they come out today, tomorrow or a week from now?

When we switched from fine pine shavings to flaked it took them a day to come back into the coop.

ChickenMammX4 said:

Chickens are shy of anything different or new. Eventually one of the braver ones will venture out and the others will follow. I'd just let them alone and they wil come out on their own. Really, what difference does it make if they come out today, tomorrow or a week from now?

When we switched from fine pine shavings to flaked it took them a day to come back into the coop.

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X2. Anything we give our chickens, such as a new run, they are suspicious of it at first. When one of the "higher pecking order" chickens try it, they all try it.