Chickens wont roost in coop

[Kadjain]

About half my chickens prefer to roost in the tree next to the coop rather than in the coop. When the weather was nice it was fine but now it is getting very cold, rainy and windy and I'm not comfortable with it anymore. With the weather getting worse will they ever decide to go to the coop at night or will I have to catch those 12! every night and put them in the coop until they get use to it?

Thanks so much!

 

[birdface]

Mine just started doing the same thing. I put a nest boxt in their coop to give them the idea to start laying....They didnt like it and decided to try and sleep outside on a chair. So i locked them in their coop/run for 3 days thinking that would work....not. Let them out today and they were back on the chair tonight. Guess they might need to locked in there longer. I dont know what their going to do when i build the a bigger house pretty soon. Good luck

 

[LiLRedCV]

You may have to lock them in the coop for a week or two without letting them outside before they get the hint that's where they're supposed to be. We had some gals and our rooster doing sleeping outside and then we also built a new coop which compounded the issue. Now they know where they're supposed to be and no one sleeps outside any more. You can also start feeding them inside or put in a treat (such as black oil sunflower seeds) towards the end of the day to draw them in... but I'm betting locking them in for a spell will help the most!

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I had to catch everyone and lock them inside for a week, after clipping their wings. They were not happy for the first few days. And, even after I let them out they would try to roost in the trees but of course they couldn't.