Chickens not going in the run/coop!

[RubenRO]

Question! We have 5 chickens (4 hens and a rooster) and this morning I wanted to treat them with a piece of watermelon. But somehow they ran out of their run, scared (this is how I saw it) and now they don't go back. I took the piece of watermelon out of the run, but still they don't go back.

It's even raining now, and they are staying in the rain. what should I do, just wait it out?

 

[azygous]

Chickens can be silly like that. They can panic over the sight of anything foreign to their experience, even a piece of melon.

Try to picture it from a chicken's perspective. All you would see is a big object floating into their run that they've never seen before. They panic thinking it is something dangerous invading their safe space.

Next time you bring anything new into their presence, conceal it until you can place it down at their level. That way they don't get the sense it's a predator flying in for the kill.

I've found that chickens tolerate noise far better than they tolerate the sight of something new. My shop vac being carried into the run for the first time panicked the troops. Later, after they adjusted to it being there, the noise of its operation didn't phase them.