Chicks are scared to sleep in the coop...

[susanah]

Moved our 4 five week old chicks out to the coop with a red light so they could see and a divider to seperate them from the 2 adult hens in the coop and they will not settle down. All 4 are shoved against the door peeping and waiting for us to bring them in for the night. Do we need to wait til they are older? I don't remember any of our others being so scared to move out to the coop.

 

[sumi]

As long as the coop is secure and they are warm enough out there they will be fine. The first night outside is always hard, as the chicks are scared and it's so difficult to ignore their frantic cheeping, but over the next few days they will settle in and get used to the change.

 

[chooks4life]

Is the door meshed or solid? If they're pressing up against mesh something can come and remove parts of them.

If they feel secure they'll settle, but really they've just got to get used to it. Though it's good to make sure they aren't scared because they had a bad experience... Sometimes they'll abandon a coop if something bad occurs at night in there. But you mentioned it's their first night out, so hopefully all will be well... Best wishes.

 

[susanah]

Peeping like mad on night #2. The coop door has a mesh screen but it's located inside a secure run. This is our 4th set of chicks to move outside and I don't remember any of the others being so scared. I thought maybe our others could have been slightly older, but probably not by much.

 

[chooks4life]

I don't have any good advice on this, sorry. I'd just leave them at it. If they were used to sleeping under a low brooder or something like that I would give them something to creep under to settle them, but asides from that, no ideas. Best wishes though.