Can't get the chicks to go back in the coop!

[D.C. Smith]

We let our 6-1/2 week old (at the time) chicks out of the coop and into their run last weekend and now they don't want to go back into the coop to roost. We have 27 Silver Laced Wynedots. We had let them out the weekend before, but rounded them up on both nights with a fish net, then didn't give them access to the run until this last weekend. The first night they slept on the ground, the second, again on the ground but under the coop (we built a raised coop). We built a "sandbox" for them and they discovered that on Sunday. Now the ones that can get on it's edge and keep their place roost there, some sleep in the box itself, the rest "surround" the box and sleep on the ground.

Any ideas, short of nightly round-ups? I picked up some worms at Petco today and might try to "bribe" them in with those tonight. We have raccoons and other predators in our area and would REALLY like them to roost in their coop at night. They are 7 weeks old today, are we expecting too much from them so soon?

 

[annie3001]

hello.

i use a really long pole/stick will do.. i say in a firm voice "time to go home.. time to go to bed my girls"
i swear on this it works.. i use the pole/stick and tap the ground and sometimes gently their furry cute lil butts. gently i say.


good luck! this has worked nicely for the past year since owning "my girls"

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I use hulled sunflower seeds to bribe mine back to their run, if I need to lock them up early. Lots of people just use scratch grains, too. It doesn't take long to train them to go where ever you want, with snacks. If you use the same snack container all the time, it makes a great visual aide.

Sometimes in the beginning, you just have to help them go in the coop at night, until it becomes routine. I'd also take a quick look inside the coop and make sure there's nothing in your set up that makes it a less desirable place to roost. Like a roosting pole that's uncomfortable or in a bad location, not enough ventilation, that sort of thing. Does it seem stuffy in the coop, compared to outside? Do they use a ramp to go inside? Sometimes they need help getting used to that or it needs better traction. If it all looks good, then just keep luring them in, until they start doing it on their own.

When you started letting them out in the run, did you move their food and water outside or is it still in the coop? Do they ever go back into the coop during the day?

 

[Kim_NC]

When they're young, they're often confused at dusk because it's darker inside than out. Put a light in the coop. At dusk it will be brighter inside than outside. That will draw them inside.

 

[Warthog]

I used to bribe the young ones, with a little cracked corn to get them into the coop.

I found that my young ones at first stayed on the floor of the coop at night and not on the roosts, even though they had roosts lower down, so I just let them do their own thing, I figured in time, when they were ready they would go onto the roosts, and they did.