Well, I've just spent fifteen of the most trying minutes of my life trying to get my three hens into their new coop. I'm turning the old one into my chick spot for the next few months. The girls aren't happy about moving. It's just across the pen, but boy, they aren't having any of it. Any thoughts? Will they go in once it's dark? Should I put them in and hope for the best?
Awhile back I put my pullets with my hens. I tried putting them together when the pullets were about 12 weeks old and the hens were about 1 1/2 yrs old. I put lots of scratch out for them. It didn't go to well. The hens chased and picked on the pullets terrible so I separated them. They had been in different coops and adjacent runs for over a month prior to the first time I tried to put them together. When I put them together the last time at about 20 weeks, I had two hens that were terrible and jumping on the pullets and pulling their feathers out. I took the two most aggressive hens out and separated them from the rest. They were put into a separate pen for a week where all the rest of the chickens could walk around them see them but couldn't touch. When I did let them out, I put plenty of treats and scratch out hopefully to distract them. It worked for the most part, but for one of the hens. She was still very aggressive. When I saw her jump on one of the pullets I sprayed her with water from a hose that is next to the coop. She went running into the coop and didn't come out for awhile. I have repeated the hose caper a few times. She has calmed down some but still somewhat chases the pullets. When the pullets were about 20 weeks old I switched coops and put the pullets in the hens coop and the hens in the pullets coop and closed the runs so they couldn't interact but could still see each other. After another week went by I put them back together. It went fairly well. One of my goals was to try to get everyone to lay their eggs in the same coop and nest boxes. Now they all stay in the same coop. Sorry this turned out to be so lengthy
If they're in there by themselves I figure you just have to lock 'em in for a couple days until they know this is their new home.
