Chickens wont roost in their coop HELP!

[chickenpun]

I am worn out every night for the last few months I have been rounding up chickens out of trees, on top of the coop etc.. Every dang NIGHT! I can not do it anymore. Why dont they want to sleep in it? Cost us an arm and a leg to build it.It is huge there is plenty of room. plenty of boxes and roosting areas. I swear they hate the coop. please help me come up with ideas. I don't wanna keep them cooped up and I don't want to play chicken round up every evening. TIA

 

[Chickmagnet36]

I had a similar problem earlier this year, here is what I discovered. Chickens will (by instinct) roost at the highest available places. I had some roosts in their outside run, one of which was slightly higher than the roost bar in the coop. Two of my birds would stay out on that roost or even up on the roof of the coop...even in pouring rain. I have since removed the highest outdoor roost, and blocked off access to the roof and now, they all roost inside the coop. If possible, you should try to make sure that the roost bar in your coop is the highest place for them to go. I watch mine at dusk, and they still scramble around outside, looking for places to roost, but they always go to the roost bar in the coop, because it is the highest. Good luck.

 

[aart]

Keep them locked up in coop for a few days (or more-since this has been going on for months), then try free ranging them later in the day for a few hours and see if they'll make their own way in at dusk.

 

[Alaskan]

Another option is to throw out some scratch right before bedtime, to get the free ranging chickens to come back to the coop.

When they all come in for their treats, then lock them up.

But aart is right, you might want them locked into the coop for a few days first, so they start to understand that that is home.

 

[Life is Good!]

How we trained our chickens to come in at night:
1. During daytime, teach them that good treats, special treats come from you - yogurt, red grapes, mealworms, spinach leaves, cottage cheese (washed so it's only the curds), spaghetti noodles, cantaloupe seeds, cornbread - whatever is in your fridge that they'll like. Took mine 3 days to get over their 'fear' of humans to 'holy cow, she's HERE!' scramble to get to me first. I have bright pink garden clogs as 'chicken shoes' - I swear, anyone who wears those shoes is followed like puppy-dogs by the chickens! The shoes, the shoes, treats are a 'coming! I also have a 'chicken call' - as most do - that the hens respond to, as I only use it when they get treats.

2. After a few days of step 1 - might take a few - start offering treats after dinnertime, but long before dusk. By now, you'll know which treat they prefer. Take the absolute tastiest treat - stand near the chicken door - offer treat there, every third bite or so, throw one into the coop. Some will follow it, some won't. This is about training them coop is good.

3. Next night - stand inside the coop - same treat in hand - call them - offer the treats in the coop, perhaps through the door for those reluctant hens - but by now, most will have come around.

4. Next night - offer a little later, but again inside the coop. Keep getting a little later or whatever time you'd like them in by.

That's how we trained ours where home was. They figured it out after about a week. But a few hens are still persistently 'late to bed'. Just how it is. They might be lower on the pecking order and don't wish to be pecked when getting up on the roost bar.