- Mar 1, 2010
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I saw another thread on this and the response said that the chickens are being harassed by something, but I thought I'd post my info too and see if there are any other ideas.
I've got 5 chickens, three I've had for 2 1/2 years and 2 I've had for 7 months. They had no problems with the coop or going in at night up until a couple of weeks ago when they stopped going in. Since its getting colder we've got a heat lamp that comes on at night, but the old timers have had that before, and the newer girls didn't seem to have a problem with it when it first started coming on. We put christmas lights on the coop and I thought maybe that was bugging them, but again, the old timers have experienced that before too, and we tried leaving them off and the chickens still stay outside in the dark. Its getting frosty at night, and i don't want to wake up to frozen chicken in the morning! They were perfectly content roosting in the coop all summer and fall, and now suddenly they are staying outside.
Should I gather them up at night, shove them in and shut the door? Or will they come to their senses and go back to sleeping inside when it gets colder? Any ideas why they are doing this?
I've got 5 chickens, three I've had for 2 1/2 years and 2 I've had for 7 months. They had no problems with the coop or going in at night up until a couple of weeks ago when they stopped going in. Since its getting colder we've got a heat lamp that comes on at night, but the old timers have had that before, and the newer girls didn't seem to have a problem with it when it first started coming on. We put christmas lights on the coop and I thought maybe that was bugging them, but again, the old timers have experienced that before too, and we tried leaving them off and the chickens still stay outside in the dark. Its getting frosty at night, and i don't want to wake up to frozen chicken in the morning! They were perfectly content roosting in the coop all summer and fall, and now suddenly they are staying outside.
Should I gather them up at night, shove them in and shut the door? Or will they come to their senses and go back to sleeping inside when it gets colder? Any ideas why they are doing this?