Chickens won't roost in the hen house

[Irish Luck]

I'm very new to chickens myself. I've had them about a year, but I do notice that whenever they are traumatized by anything, production slows down. I think they are slowing down now because of the coming fall, because they all seem happy and healthy. Are you going to prosecute the family member who was complicit in the murder? I would!! Accident or no! Chickens are pretty comatous with no light. That's when I clip their wings. I can pick them up, clip their wings and set them back on the roost and they are not even aware of me in the hen house.

 

[3 NH reds]

I took the good advice from our colleagues and sprayed the house for mites. I changed the bedding to hay and it was a miracle. All went into the house and seem to love it. So they were right on target. I have occasionally found a headless chicken, very disconcerting. My issue was that my fence has just enough space for the girls to stick their heads out to get the tasty bugs just on the other side of the fence. I was scolding them for this behavior when one of my dogs came out of nowhere like a rocket and missed grabbing the head by a fraction of an inch. I have reinforced my fence with chicken wire so they can't get even their heads out and have had no further incidents, knock on wood. I couldn't figure out what predator would only take their heads??? It can't be the tastiest part of the bird, surely. Do you have roaming neighborhood dogs?

I have a solar electric fence with wire at the bottom 6" off the ground more at 18" (the height of my Dogs snout) and one at the top. The Labs got a taste of it and now will not come within 10 feet of it and my wife said a coyote came by one night and gave a coyote yelp from the fence and never came back. I use this on the elivated Turkey run as that is where they roost at night.

 

[Molders]

Just came across this thread and I have seen rat attacks where the rat for some reason only eats off the chickens head. Its horrible, and a rat can get in to the smallest space. yeuk.

 

[gulchcreekchick]

I am a newbie, just got my first 6 hens yesterday and am running into a similar situation. I have my hens housed in a 3 part complex consisting of a fully enclosed hen house with nest boxes and roosts and trap door that goes out to a slightly more open area that is still under the same roof but has only half walls, half wire so is more bright (we converted an existing building and the walls were already like this). This open area opens up to a small uncovered outdoor enclosure with grass and shrubbery. I am allowing the hens to roam all 3 areas during the day, and they are going into the hen house to lay eggs. My problem is that they won't go in at night. They leave the outdoor enclosure and go into the covered enclosure but don't seem to want to go into the hen house itself. Instead they snuggle up in a corner of the covered area on the floor and we are having to scoop them up one by one to put them in the hen house against their will.

I am using straw as the floor material, and based upon an earlier post I am wondering something. Since I have straw on the floor in both the covered enclosure and the hen house is this confusing them? Should I remove the straw from the covered open space to encourage them to go somewhere more comfortable? I have also found that even when we do push them into the hen house they do not roost. They sleep in the corner right in front of the trap door which I have closed for the night. Is this safe?