10 week old chicks stay down in their run at night

[chickslovinmama]

Hello, we're 1st year chicken raisers/owners and it's been great fun so far. We have 6 sikies and we moved them to their coop about 3-4 days ago and they stay in the run after dusk and haven't seemed to figure out that they need to go upstairs to their roost. We have been nudging them to get them to go up the ramp and upstairs to their roosts and they stay there once we do, but I'm wondering if this is going to be a habit or if they just need more time to figure it out. We put a small dim light up top hoping it would attract them upstairs but with no luck. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[3KillerBs]

Hello, we're 1st year chicken raisers/owners and it's been great fun so far. We have 6 sikies and we moved them to their coop about 3-4 days ago and they stay in the run after dusk and haven't seemed to figure out that they need to go upstairs to their roost. We have been nudging them to get them to go up the ramp and upstairs to their roosts and they stay there once we do, but I'm wondering if this is going to be a habit or if they just need more time to figure it out. We put a small dim light up top hoping it would attract them upstairs but with no luck. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to BYC.

This is a common problem with chicks who don't have adults to teach them what they're supposed to do.

Photos of your setup would help, but one of the most common reasons for them not to go in is that the ramp is too steep so that they're not comfortable using it. Another common reason is that the coop lacks sufficient ventilation so it's hot and stuffy in there.

 

[chickslovinmama]

Welcome to BYC.

This is a common problem with chicks who don't have adults to teach them what they're supposed to do.

Photos of your setup would help, but one of the most common reasons for them not to go in is that the ramp is too steep so that they're not comfortable using it. Another common reason is that the coop lacks sufficient ventilation so it's hot and stuffy in there.

Here are photos of our setup. We added slats to the ramp because we found that the chicks didnt have long enough stride to get up the ramp with the ones that were there and they seem to be doing better with it and use the ramp quite well. Some are still learning. Lol. I think they have good ventilation with the window up top and it's not over 50 at night here yet.