Chickens not going to bed if people are outside near dusk

[DonyaQuick]

I feel so dumb. There is an extremely simple thing I could have been doing this whole time to help with training: taking out the roosting bar they always go to as an alternative sleeping spot. It's super easy to take out and put back in, so tonight I took it out about 30min before dark and then waited until it was dark and the coop light was off to check on things. Went out and saw no one was outside. Success! But then when I had a peek through the small window to count just in case...only 5 out of 6 chickens inside the coop. No Chungus to be seen anywhere, inside or out. Cue a massive adrenalin hit wondering if I somehow counted wrong after I closed the door earlier. But then I noticed one of the 5 was standing kind of funny and looked oddly puffy. Turns out she was sitting on Chungus, who had somehow managed to conceal every little bit of her wideness under that other bird except for an extra set of feet in the middle that were really hard to see. Still puzzled at how she managed that feat.

Anyway, I think I have a better tactic now. Despite the good scare, it involved no screaming/crying or playing the "just one more sip of water" game, and from what I could see through a distant window they all just marched up when it was dark enough. So for now I will just take the roosting bar up when I herd everybody back into the secure run and put it back either after dark or the following morning. Later on I may change things up to just add a bar to the daytime run extension so that when I move them all back to the secure area they don't have access to it anymore.

I’m not clear from your description - are they in an enclosed run, or it it just the coop in your yard so they have total access?
If they’re in an enclosed run, I would try some tough love (as long as they’re safe from predators overnight). Instead of putting them to bed, leave them to their own devices.

They're enclosed the whole time with a secure coop/run area and a covered/enclosed run extension, but only the coop is completely proofed against things like freezing rain blowing in at a 45-degree angle. If it was the summer I could just leave them out, but even then I worry they would get in the habit of not going in if I did that. Then I'd have all the same issues again next fall when it gets cold again.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I feel so dumb. There is an extremely simple thing I could have been doing this whole time to help with training: taking out the roosting bar they always go to as an alternative sleeping spot. It's super easy to take out and put back in, so tonight I took it out about 30min before dark and then waited until it was dark and the coop light was off to check on things. Went out and saw no one was outside. Success! But then when I had a peek through the small window to count just in case...only 5 out of 6 chickens inside the coop. No Chungus to be seen anywhere, inside or out. Cue a massive adrenalin hit wondering if I somehow counted wrong after I closed the door earlier. But then I noticed one of the 5 was standing kind of funny and looked oddly puffy. Turns out she was sitting on Chungus, who had somehow managed to conceal every little bit of her wideness under that other bird except for an extra set of feet in the middle that were really hard to see. Still puzzled at how she managed that feat.

Anyway, I think I have a better tactic now. Despite the good scare, it involved no screaming/crying or playing the "just one more sip of water" game, and from what I could see through a distant window they all just marched up when it was dark enough. So for now I will just take the roosting bar up when I herd everybody back into the secure run and put it back either after dark or the following morning. Later on I may change things up to just add a bar to the daytime run extension so that when I move them all back to the secure area they don't have access to

Even after you hopefully solve the lights out/go to bed issue, I hope you continue to write about their exploits. You are a great and hilarious storyteller!

 

[fargosmom]

I suspect if it was really nasty weather outside they would go in with less drama? But it sounds like you have it sorted. Leave that other roost out for a few weeks 24/7 and it won’t take them long to get into the new habit. Then you may be able to put the other roost back without having to monitor them. They are creatures of habit.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Auto door error message: "door blocked." And yes that is Chungus.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

oh this thread gave me a good laugh

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

That picture of Chungus is hilarious. But. (No pun intended.) I read a thread within the past year where an auto door came down on a chicken's neck and killed her instantly. The chicken had decided to sleep right where the auto door closed, and in the darkness the pullet never had a chance to react and move as the door came down. The OP of that thread posted a video of the tragedy, and it made a permanent impression on me. I couldn't find that specific thread or I would have linked it here. But there are other threads about the issue too.

Chungus is a big girl and so her body mass alerts the sensor to stop the door, but I would be concerned that if she decided to sleep with only her head inside the coop, the auto door sensor might not detect a "blockage." And I wanted to mention the potential problem if there is even the remotest chance of a tragedy.

 

[DonyaQuick]

That picture of Chungus is hilarious. But. (No pun intended.) I read a thread within the past year where an auto door came down on a chicken's neck and killed her instantly. The chicken had decided to sleep right where the auto door closed, and in the darkness the pullet never had a chance to react and move as the door came down. The OP of that thread posted a video of the tragedy, and it made a permanent impression on me. I couldn't find that specific thread or I would have linked it here. But there are other threads about the issue too.

Chungus is a big girl and so her body mass alerts the sensor to stop the door, but I would be concerned that if she decided to sleep with only her head inside the coop, the auto door sensor might not detect a "blockage." And I wanted to mention the potential problem if there is even the remotest chance of a tragedy.

Those sorts of stories are part of why I went with this particular sideways-sliding door instead of a vertical one. For this door the sensor it has for detecting a blockage is very responsive; I tested it on my fingers quite a bit before trusting it. It'll do 3 slow little boops on the object in the way and then gives up. I might not trust that with a tiny chick but I don't think it would do much to an adult bird's head or neck unless it malfunctioned, since the bird would surely wiggle and that would set it off to reverse for sure. However, as soon as I saw Chungus had decided to receive her door boops and stay put, I set the close timer to be really late and decided to just close it manually after dark (but keep the auto-open just after dawn so I can sleep a bit). I don't want her getting used to that with the door and I really hope she doesn't decide that sitting in the doorway is a new fun way to get one last round of hugs. She is smart enough I wouldn't put it past her lol.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Glad to know you are aware of the potential issue. I don't want Chungus to stop getting her nightly hugs!

 

[SeaCity]

After several months of having six well-trained chickens that put themselves to bed at night, I am having my first chickens-won't-go-in-at-night issue. And it feels so stupid: any human activity outside around dusk, whether by my husband or me, is making the chickens think they're going to get more attention...so they sit staring at the house like they do when they're expecting me to come out to them and then they get trapped there because it goes dark so fast. For the past week or so it had only been one or two stubbornly watching the house and I had to re-open the auto-door to put them back. Last night I had the not-so-brilliant idea to go out before the door shut (it closes 20min after dark), thinking it would be easier to put any stragglers back in. Instead, I set off a security light as I approached, which allowed everybody in the coop to see both the ramp and me through the open auto-door and...BOOM, chickens chaotically thundering out into the darkness because yay, human has come! And so I stood there with five chickens cooing and pulling at my pants leg wanting to be picked up while the sixth, Dimple, did her happy little Dimple dance in circles around my feet. Six hugs later they all went back in nicely and I got the door closed.

The coop is dry, I clean it daily, and there's zero evidence of any sort of pest/predator issue. All of my birds are healthy and happy. I guarantee if I crawled in there to sleep at night, they'd all pile in as fast as they could squeeze through the door since that's what they do when I'm leaning in the side door trying to clean. I think I've just created hug fiends.

My chickens were trained just fine with the auto-door before the days got short enough that either my husband or I often has to do something outside near dusk. It's really hard to avoid going out then; there's always something that needs doing. I already tried using a coop light on a timer to lure them in, which is what I used to train them originally - but they still wait for attention and that light doesn't help them see to jump down from the outdoor roosting bar once it's really dark. What does one do in this situation? Just go back to manually putting them to bed until the days are longer again? Add some more solar lights so it's not so inky dark in the run? Or will adding more lights just encourage them to stay outside more?

After several months of having six well-trained chickens that put themselves to bed at night, I am having my first chickens-won't-go-in-at-night issue. And it feels so stupid: any human activity outside around dusk, whether by my husband or me, is making the chickens think they're going to get more attention...so they sit staring at the house like they do when they're expecting me to come out to them and then they get trapped there because it goes dark so fast. For the past week or so it had only been one or two stubbornly watching the house and I had to re-open the auto-door to put them back. Last night I had the not-so-brilliant idea to go out before the door shut (it closes 20min after dark), thinking it would be easier to put any stragglers back in. Instead, I set off a security light as I approached, which allowed everybody in the coop to see both the ramp and me through the open auto-door and...BOOM, chickens chaotically thundering out into the darkness because yay, human has come! And so I stood there with five chickens cooing and pulling at my pants leg wanting to be picked up while the sixth, Dimple, did her happy little Dimple dance in circles around my feet. Six hugs later they all went back in nicely and I got the door closed.

The coop is dry, I clean it daily, and there's zero evidence of any sort of pest/predator issue. All of my birds are healthy and happy. I guarantee if I crawled in there to sleep at night, they'd all pile in as fast as they could squeeze through the door since that's what they do when I'm leaning in the side door trying to clean. I think I've just created hug fiends.

My chickens were trained just fine with the auto-door before the days got short enough that either my husband or I often has to do something outside near dusk. It's really hard to avoid going out then; there's always something that needs doing. I already tried using a coop light on a timer to lure them in, which is what I used to train them originally - but they still wait for attention and that light doesn't help them see to jump down from the outdoor roosting bar once it's really dark. What does one do in this situation? Just go back to manually putting them to bed until the days are longer again? Add some more solar lights so it's not so inky dark in the run? Or will adding more lights just encourage them to stay outside more?

Laughing because my girls are the same, I keep my kitchen lights off & peek out to see if they have gone in yet

 

[DonyaQuick]

What is this!! It's not a butt. And it's not Chungus. The photo quality might suggest that it's the Loch Ness monster, but it's not that either. That is Buddy deciding to block the door and casually watch Chungus mill about at the bottom of the ladder making frustrated noises, periodically setting off the security lights but not being able to get in.