I have the same 5 chickens who dont go in on thier own at night? They have access to the run all day and choose to roost on the ramp instead of going in? The other 11 go inside but they dont, any Ideas on getting them in the habit of going in ? They are about 7 weeks old ?
when i had some do that i just kept their food in the coop so they had to go in after a few days they got the hang of it
My chicks are a little over three weeks old and I cannot get them into the coop at night. Its a 2person job - should it be this hard?
Quote:No. Assuming you have good ventilation in the coop, lock the little boogers in for about a week. When you get ready to let them out do so just a few hours before dark so they don't have time to forget about it. Once you see that they "get it" you can increase the time they are out until they are out all day. Locking them in trains them to consider the coop home and that's where they'll want to be at night.
Quote:It took 3 days for some of mine to figure it out and a whole week for the rest. For the second group it also took me putting them at dusk after they had huddled together. Came out one night, and voila! they were all in. It will happen, just takes some of them a bit longer.
Even my big girls don't always want to come in at dusk from their chicken paddock so I make sure that I have treats handy. After a few days of that they come galloping and happily go in.
Using food/treats work great, except I like the reassurance of knowing that my chickens will go in their coop at night whether I am there or not. That's why I suggested the lockdown. I have been delayed in town and not able to get home before dusk. My chickens put themselves to bed. Sure, they haven't figured out how to lock their pop door on their own, but I still felt better knowing they were IN the coop, not mingling around outside.
I've done the lockdown too..... my ladies will eventually go in and roost when full darkness falls. I don't like to leave the coop door open after dark but once or twice I've had a meeting to attend and had to return after dark. They were all snug up in the rafters of the coop.
