Chickens not going inside

[jeepin_in_wv]

For the past month or more my chickens have not been going in the coop at night. when I would come home after dark I would see 2 or 3 of them sitting in the coop door and the others were on the ramp and ground up next to the building, it was almost like the couple sitting in the doorway would not let the others in.
The first couple times I noticed this I would go and make noice so they would go in and I would close the door. But there was a problem with this as in the morning they would push the door open to get out and it would fall back closed behind them and they would be stuck out till I came out to open the door. So I decieded if they wanted to stay out let them and left them alone.
Until the past week when we had snow and bitter cold and I felt bad for the ladies so I again have went out every evening and shooed them inside and shut the coop door (and since it is so cold the door hinges are tight so they don't get out till I open the door).
My question is has anyone else had chickens do anything like this? Should I be going out and making them go in at night or let them just stay out if they want too?

Thanks in advance for the help
Ann

 

[TaLani]

Someone had a similar problem recently and another forum member mentioned that they should thoroughly ck their coop for mites or lice or even mice. Maybe ck your chickens over & make sure to look under their wings too for the mites/lice - they can be hard to see though. Something is certainly up if they've all of a sudden started this behavior in not wanting to go into the coop. Have you had any predator scares [that u know of anyway]? Sometimes I think that can make them skiddish & act wierd. Maybe just keep shooing them to go back in and "retrain" them. I'm definitely no expert though so

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[vickiemontana]

Do you have heat on in side? My girls stay out until dusk. Then I go out to shut the door and they all run outside before I get the door shut. Sometimes they are sitting just outside the door, or are outside in the run. I free range them all day. When they are ready, they go inside and cuddle, huddle, talk gossip! It makes me anxious sometimes because I am ready for bed and they are still out sqauckin like a bunch of hens.

 

[kevahouse]

See if you can remove or obstruct (or make it no fun to roost on like dangle a towel down from above or something) whatever it is they're roosting on outside the door. If the only roost available is inside, they'll go inside. Mine did this and I lowered their roosts outside to just 2 -3 feet above ground. They always want to roost higher.