Chickens roosting outside

[alliwalli]

I have 11 15 week old chickens (variety of breeds). They have been super healthy and are in an enclosed dirtish run (they ate all the vegetation.) They get fresh greens every day and often free range in the grass filled backyard. The past 4 nights, 5 chickens have decided to roost for the night on top of the coop (instead of going in the coop at night fall like they had been doing). Every night this week, I go out, pick them up and put them in the coop before shutting the doors. The weather has turned much nicer the past week or two (not hot though, in Washington State). Anything I can do to change their behavior? They used to all go into the coop so nicely at night. Next pro

 

[Judy]

I have never had this problem, but I have always had rather large coops with lots of ventilation, even open on one side. My present coop has 4 sides, but two of them have large areas of hardware cloth instead of walls, plus it is open air all the way around the tops of the walls. I still run a box fan in there all summer. I suspect it is something about the coop -- too small to suit them, too stuffy due to insufficient air movement, the roost is not wide enough to be comfortable, critters besides chickens in there -- any number of things could be the problem. Since it started when the weather warmed, I would think about increasing air movement in there, and making sure it is no warmer in there than outdoors.

Where I live, I see many "coops" that are nothing but wire pens with a roof.