Chicken won’t go in hen house at night

[HannahKline14]

Would like to think so the one with my roo on the chair is how it’s set up now because I removed the board on the bottom to put the door on.

What kind of roost do you have in the coop in one of your pics their roosting on the board in the middle of the run. They don't look that old so maybe the roost are to high or they just prefer the one outside. Maybe cut that board out, but I would just keep locking them in their coop at night it took ours a few weeks to get it

 

[kelseyk]

So glad this post was put in the home page! My 3 month old chicks are doing this right now. Now I have some ideas to try and get them to go inside!

 

[Cryss]

They don’t know it’s safe in there. Lock them in for a week with food and water. They’ll realize this is their safe place and will want to be inside at night.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think another way to look at it is - Where do chickens sleep in the wild? They don't sleep in caves, they sleep in trees. A gloomy closed up box isn't that appealing to them. Big windows with lots of fresh air is more to their liking.

 

[Bear1978]

Update y’all. They all go in now and even perch by them selves. I added two windows and 2 days later and for the past week they go in by themselves. I’m excited. Thanks yall

Looks like adding the windows helped out according to the OP. Good deal!

 

[reluctant farmer]

I wish mine would let me pet them!

Get treats! Be the treat human!.

 

[New2COchicks]

So glad I’m not the only one with this problem...yep scoop up each night. Maybe I should open windows to coop but scared of night rains

My flock on average are 70 days old. There are 12 of them and at night they huddle out side the hen house and I have to pick each one up every night to put to bed about 9pm. They aren’t afraid of the house. It’s completely predator proof and they go in and out all day long. They are getting heavy and I don’t know how to get them to go in by themselves.

 

[aart]

Maybe I should open windows to coop but scared of night rains

All windows and venting should be protected from rain infiltration....
....then you don't have to worry about "night rains".

 

[Bear1978]

So glad I’m not the only one with this problem...yep scoop up each night. Maybe I should open windows to coop but scared of night rains

Just curious? At what time are you going out there to make sure their in the coop for the night?

I have a reminder set on my phone for 7pm to go out and close it up. But I’ve found that they seem to get active right before sunset and will eat and run around the chicken yard playing for about 15 minutes or so then they’ll go in and jump up to the roost for the night. So if I go out there right before the last bit of sunlight is about to be gone or even after the sun completely sets, they’re usually already on the roost and ready for the night so I rarely have to bother with herding them into the coop.

However, IF I go out around 7/7:30 they’re still usually in the chicken run eating supper before bed lol.

Now grant it, I have a completely enclosed coop and secured run so I can afford to leave them out like that without worrying too much about predators. But everyone may not have that same luxury.

 

[Lil Chicken mama]

I just went through three weeks of this w eight wk old chicks. Made me crazy, they would try to roost outside on the septic fan box. . After constantly shoving them in by 3s and 4s w the big girls, we got home we'll after sunset last night and they had put themselves away! I swear they were just befuddled about what to do with the rest of the flock.