Chickens won't use ladder

[ogr8ys1]

My six chickens won't use their ladder to get back into the enclosed portion of their coop at night - instead they lay huddled in the corner together - so each night (don't laugh) I got out and physically move each one into their "bed," which my partner refers to as "tucking them in." When, oh when, will they figure out they're supposed to go inside at night and not require my assistance? One or two have used it during the day, but not to go completely inside (only one has done it all the way) - should I rig some sort of night light temporarily?? Please help - we're going away overnight in a few weeks and I will be worried to death if they haven't started by then.

 

[DarkWolf]

How old are they
How long have they been in the coop
How steep is the ladder
How close are the rungs, if any
Do they use it to come out

 

[SeramaMama]

Hi,
I feel a little silly posting this, since I'm new as of today to BYC and don't even HAVE chickens yet (dreaming of owning Seramas soon). However, it does sound like something at night is intimidating the chickens.

I've read about this kind of thing in articles/books by Temple Grandin. She's a brilliant animal behaviorist who actually works with large livestock and poultry facilities to help make their dealings with the animals more humane. She says again and again that most of the time when an animal doesn't want to go somewhere, there's a shadow or a hanging object in their way that scares them, and that's why they will stop in their tracks. What she does is she actually gets down to the level of the animal's eye view and tries to figure out what it is that they see that's scaring them.

Here's a link to her website.
http://www.templegrandin.com/templegrandinbooks.html

She's actually autistic, which is why you'll see she has a lot of books on that topic. She believes that animals and autistic people view things in similar ways -- they are hypersensitive to sound, movement, light, and so on, which is why they react to certain situations in ways that can be hard for non-autistic people (and non-birds!) to understand.

Hope this helps! Your nightlight idea sounds like it might work, as long as it doesn't cast any scary shadows. They might miss you tucking them in though!

-- SeramaMama

 

[ChooksChick]

I think SeramaMama has the right idea, and I LOVE Temple Grandin's stuff!!

The problem may be that there isn't enough light in the coop area. I have a light on in my girls' coop that makes it the area that they *want* to head for when the dusk falls- it's largely that they have limited sight in low light areas. It spooks them- who'd want to go in there when they see more poorly than we do in low light?

Set up a solar light with an optical sensor if you don't have power- I got two that run LED bulbs for my yard- one comes on at dusk via sensor AND I got one that comes on with motion detection. They were about $40 each at Costco.

My light inside is just a small compact fluorescent, and it comes on 1/2 hour before it's too dusky.

If not that, I'm not sure what it would be.

 

[ChooksChick]

BTW-

Welcome!! This is the place where no question is stupid, and we all love chickens!! We're glad to have you!

 

[Peeplperson]

I have a long ramp with 1" half round every 8 inches or so. Too big for chicks, but DH was not up to making chick AND chicken ramps (can't blame him). Anyway, chicks wanted no part of it when I moved them in at 5 weeks. We spent the first 2 nights cornering and catching them - not fun.

Their favorite treat is cooked egg yolk, so I put some on a paper plate and kind of moved it up the ramp in the evening.

It took about 3 tries, but now they go right on up (even with an empty paper plate!) It's been less than a week since the big move, and no more chasing.

I take great comfort in reading on this website that they all figure it out eventually, like when people told you that no one goes off to college in diapers although you were worried when your kids were 2 or 3 and thought wetting the bed was fun.

It'll work out - good luck!

 

[mikecnorthwest]

We put our 6 week old chicks out about 1 week ago. The first two nights they were huddled in the corner so we took them one at time and put them on the center of the ramp and pushed them up gently. Also in the mornings we made sure to let them come out on their own. The first couple of days coming out they would gingerly step out and then fly off. The third night I found two inside the coop and the others around the bottom of the ladder looking up. The last three nights they've all gone up on their own and been inside the house when we go out. Also now in the mornings they all come down on their own with no issues. It was pretty apparent to me that they simply needed time to learn how to walk up and done the ramp with confidence. Give it time and they'll learn.

 

[ogr8ys1]

Thanks for all the replies! My chicks are of unknown age - but my guesstimation is 5-7 weeks (I bought them at a local feed store and was amazed at how quickly they grew) - I've had them 4 1/2 weeks, and they've been in the coop exactly a week today. There are rungs spaced approx. 3 1/2 inches apart, and they use the ladder every morning to come out with absolutely no problem. It's the going up that's the problem. As I said, two of them have gone up to the third rung, one I actually coaxed in the other night, but I did use a flashlight to guide it up the ladder. I'm going to try a little light in there tonight and see if that changes anything.

 

[Opa]

I've had the same situation with new birds. It some times takes awhile before that start going in. I've had some that took two weeks to learn and other mastered it in 2 days.

 

[patandchickens]

How long have you been putting them in there in the evening? They may just need more time with the manual-relocation plan.

The other possibility, that the coop is too dark, is also quite possible. Does it have large windows? If not, that might be a better solution than a night-light

and might solve your "not going into the coop during the day" problem as well.

One thought, if it's a decent size coop, would be to move their food and water in there, and possibly even lock them in there for the morning and early afternoon one day, so they get comfortable being in there and (hopefully) *remember* their food and water are in there, so they go in there more often during the day and thus are more comfortable going in when light is dim.

How steep is your ladder? If it is steeper than 30-40 degrees they may not be able to figure out yet how to hop up nor fly up. So you could try just resting the bottom end on a cinderblock to lessen the slope, see if that helps.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat