I recently bought 2 10month old hens from a breeder who had a farm with 60+ chickens. I am planning on adding them to my current flock of 3 hens.
I kept the 2 new hens in quarantine in a large pen in my garage with a perch for a few weeks. We assembled a new coop to be placed in a pen adjacent to my other chickens for a while.
While in the garage I let the girls check out the coop, it is raised with a ramp going up into the coop. They didn’t seem to know to go up the ramp. I placed them inside and they panicked as if I put them in a box with no exit.
Today we moved them outside and they still won’t go in the coop. It’s starting to get below freezing at night and their food is in the coop (I have now put some outside too). They decided to sleep under the coop rather than going inside at night. I even put crackers all the way up the ramp to get them to go up there. We had to pick them up at night and put them inside ourselves
A friend of mine has a flock of 12 or so hens and she said that half of her flock is the same way and has been for years. Hers don’t seem to know how to go inside even when the others go in. Because of this she has had quite a few die from animal attacks and harsh weather.
My girls are in a fully enclosed pen attached to the coop so no animal should be able to get in, but I’m afraid they will freeze as the weather gets colder! Not sure what to do!
I attached a picture of the underneath of the coop where the ramp is.
I kept the 2 new hens in quarantine in a large pen in my garage with a perch for a few weeks. We assembled a new coop to be placed in a pen adjacent to my other chickens for a while.
While in the garage I let the girls check out the coop, it is raised with a ramp going up into the coop. They didn’t seem to know to go up the ramp. I placed them inside and they panicked as if I put them in a box with no exit.
Today we moved them outside and they still won’t go in the coop. It’s starting to get below freezing at night and their food is in the coop (I have now put some outside too). They decided to sleep under the coop rather than going inside at night. I even put crackers all the way up the ramp to get them to go up there. We had to pick them up at night and put them inside ourselves
A friend of mine has a flock of 12 or so hens and she said that half of her flock is the same way and has been for years. Hers don’t seem to know how to go inside even when the others go in. Because of this she has had quite a few die from animal attacks and harsh weather.
My girls are in a fully enclosed pen attached to the coop so no animal should be able to get in, but I’m afraid they will freeze as the weather gets colder! Not sure what to do!
I attached a picture of the underneath of the coop where the ramp is.
