I agree it is pretty normal for them to gather outside the entrance to the coop, especially in an elevated coop. Until they start to roost, they like to sleep together in a low protected spot. With my elevated grow-out coop, what you describe is exactly what they do. I keep them locked in my grow-out coop for about a week when I take them out of the brooder, but almost always the first time they have access to the run, they gather right in front of that door at night. I wait until dark and they are easy to catch, then put them inside.
Sometimes they catch on real quick and start using the coop the next night, but usually at least some are down there the next night. I just keep sticking them inside until they get the message. I have had some take about ten days to get that message but most are a lot quicker than that.
What I would describe as typical was a recent batch of 13. The first night, all 13 were on the ground, the next night six, then 4, then 3, then none.
About the funniest time I’ve seen with this was last summer. The first night all 16 were on the ground so I stuck them inside. The next night I walked down there just before dark to do something else. All 16 were outside but they sort of lined up and all went inside when they saw me coming in that direction. I never had another problem with that group.
I’m going to sort of agree and sort of disagree on the nests. We all have our opinions. You want the roosts to be clearly higher than the nests. Chickens instinctively like to sleep on the highest spot they can get to. I’ve had brooder raised chicks start roosting at 5 weeks but 10 to 12 is probably a better average. That means some start later. Yours are just about the right age to start roosting at night, but you probably have to train them to sleep in the coop first. Sometimes chicks will go straight from the floor to the roosts but sometimes they use the nests as a transition spot and they may even get stuck in there just from force of habit. So it is a pretty good idea to have the nest blocked off until they learn to sleep on the roosts.
But chickens are creatures of habit. If they get used to laying an egg in some place other than the nest it can be difficult to get them to switch to the nests. I want the nests open before they start to lay so that first egg is much more likely to be in a nest. The earliest I’ve ever had a pullet lay an egg was 16 weeks. That is extremely rare, 18 to 22 weeks is more normal, but 16 weeks is possible so that’s my target. So in the ideal world leave your nests closed until they learn to roost, then open them up.
The world is not always ideal. Sometimes they don’t learn to roost that early. So I suggest that about 15 weeks you wait until after dark and it is pretty dark in there and move some to the roosts. You don’t need to get all of them, just some. Usually when one learns the rest follow pretty quickly. Hopefully they will learn by 16 weeks.
Another reason I want the nests open early is that if I have a problem, I want to know about it before they start laying in poopy nests so I can fix it. It is not unheard of for a chicken that had been sleeping on the roosts abandon the roost and seek a safer place to sleep. What that means is that you are either tight on roost space or you have a bully on the roosts. They arrange themselves on the roosts in accordance with the pecking order and sorting that out can sometimes be pretty vicious. Where I normally see that is when I integrate younger chickens. Some of the older hens can be downright nasty on the roosts while they are fine during the day. I finally put a separate roost lower than my main roosts and separated horizontally to give those chicks a place to go that was not my nests. I have eight 11-week-olds using that separate roost right now.
Good luck with it. There is no one way that is right for everyone where every other way is wrong. Usually a lot of different things work. It’s just which way we prefer to handle things. Sounds like you are doing fine.
