Can you teach a chicken to return to the coop?

Mine always come home to roost at dusk but you may be able to get them in the coop with some treats. Mine love bread crumbs or scrambled egg crumbs.

 

You can try bribing them with treats, or chasing them. If you do have to chase them hold long sticks in each hand to extend your arms.

Imp

 

Try meal worms to bribe them. Mine have gotten so that if I have a plastic container in my hands and go into the pen they come running in after me.

 

I find getting them used to their coop as home is the first step. Once they've been in their coop for several weeks, they find it a safety zone and will want to go there to feel safe (especially at night). If they "know" their coop and find it safe, they will return at dusk for bed.

 

If they are very young, you may have to spend 3 or 4 nights, training them. I simply had to usher my girls up the ramp, just at dusk. I also let them keep a lamp at bedtime because they weren't going in, early enough to see inside.
With 100 hens, it was quite a fight, for awhile, but they finally caught on and I don't have to watch after them any more.

If they are mature birds, the old farmers rule of thumb is 3 days. This, I've also done before. Mature birds like going back to familiar surroundings, at bedtime. All you have to do, is close them up in the coop for 3 days, and they should go in at night, from then on.

judy

 

I started giving them treats at dusk when I moved them into their coops when they were small - an ear of corn, or some carrot foliage or something and I use the same tone of voice and words every time - so they know the tone matches with the words matches with treats.
They come bounding across the yard so quick - last Sunday they actually stepped on each other. It was hysterical. I also give them whey from batches of cheese that I make, or the meal worms.
I put their treats in the same place every night, too -
Ritual, ritual, ritual...