Chick is scared to walk the board

[Zah-zah]

This is my coop. I have 3 chickens living in it for a week now. Clara went inside on her own from day 1, Joséphine joind her the next day. We're now 7 days further and Charlotte still attempts to spend the night in the feeding-dish under the coop.

I've been watching them when I open the coop in thes mornings and I think Charlotte is scared to walk up and down the board. She never go's up and when she has to come down she lookes scared. She's really carefull and slow and than she just jumps off. Clara and Joséphine walk up and down without problems.
(Clara is the upper-chick and Charlotte is the lowest in range. Charlotte is intimidated by Clara when it comes to food, she's only allowd to eat when it's okay by Clara. At feeding time Charlotte tries to come as close to me as possible (for protection?). Sometimes I pick her up and put her next to the others at the foodtray and it's ok. At least as long as I'm around.)

But the biggest problem (for me) is the fact she's afraid to go up and in the coop at night. I'm thinking about changing the board, maybe 2 pieces and a platform in the middle so is semmes less high. Or making a little 'hill' in front of the coop so the borad it's as long as is is now.

Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this?

 

[Zah-zah]

the space between ground and coop is 70 cm (28 inches?)

 

[Poison Ivy]

I'm sure she will get the hang of it soon. It took my silkie roo a week to go up the ramp to the coop and the hen took 4 days. Yesterday was the first time I didn't have to go get him and place him inside. I went out and he was already in a 6 pm.

 

[picklespickles]

that is the CUTEST coop i've seen. you just made me realize that i could take a bucket of paint and jazz things up a bit. but the goats would probably just eat it off. ah, well. it looks soooooooooo cute.

could you put feed in front of her on the steps and entice her up?

 

[Scrambled Egg]

That is a cutie pie coop!! Maybe put a brick or two under the bottom of the ramp so it isn't so steep and then you could sprinkle some scratch all the way up it to tempt her. It really may seem to steep for her though. You could catch her and place her midway on it and see what she does. Good luck

 

[BerdooFarm]

The problem isn't the ramp; it's the chicken being low man on the totem pole.

What is/are the roosts like inside the coop? Maybe a little rearranging would help.


I'd throw some food around the yard so the chicken doesn't have to be near the others to eat. It seems the more space they have during the day, the less consequential the pecking order is overall.


Cute Coop.

 

[countryboy]

if rearranging doesn't work, try putting sides on the ramp so it looks like a shoot.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Let us know what finally works Zah-zah.

 

[patandchickens]

Is it possible she might do better with a stepstool-type platform instead of a ramp? It would be really easy to try and if it didn't work after a day or so you could just put the ramp back. You could use a cinderblock or some such thing, about half the height of the coop floor. I used a cinderblock, and then a small stepstool, instead of a ramp for the chickens to get up/down from the upstairs 'house' part of their tractor, and they seemed very comfortable hopping up and down from it.

Pat

 

[Zah-zah]

Thanks for all the help and tips. I'm gonna try out some and let you know what helps.