Chicken in danger, how can we make her sleep in her coop?!

[Margy1]

We had a bad storm about three weeks ago and right after the storm a chicken showed up. She chose to sleep in our oak tree at night and then would go sit in the woods across the street during the day. After she was here for a few days we decided to build a small chicken coop just for her to sleep in because it is to dangerous outside for her,raccoon's and bobcats are all over at night. After the first night she went to the woods where she always went. We got her back in and then she left for two days we found her on the other side of the woods. I read to keep her in the coop for five days and then she would figure out that is where she should sleep at night, we did this and now she is back across the woods and won't come back. We are worried about her because she is staying in the spot that all the raccoon's meet when it gets to be about dusk. How can we get her to come back to the coop at night? I would hate to walk over there and find that one has got her.

 

[David1998]

Some chickens take longer to "home". If your coop is large enough, I'd leave her in there for a few weeks. If it's not, I'd tie her to the coop with a long string around her leg. Once she's going in the coop regularly for a few weeks, you could try without the string.

 

[Margy1]

The coop is not very large, we are going to be building a bigger one since we got 4 chicks (we fell in love with the big one instantly!) Lol, but it is not even in the making yet, we are waiting to get paid this week from an extra lawn cutting job my boyfriend did. we could tie her the coop is about 4 ft off the ground though, Id hate for her to get tangled when she went to get back in it. We will try it though. Thank You!

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Some chickens just flat out refuse to sleep in the coop. I once had nearly 20 hens out of a flock of thirty that slept in a nearby tree. As a result, two coops only had three or four hens and one hen slept by herself and one coop even stayed EMPTY most of the time. I never lost a hen at night though. So I wouldn't stress too much over it.