Chicks & rain - they don't seem to learn!

[rpar003]

So we have 6 wk old chicks. They're outside in the "chicken day spa", but come inside at night (we don't have a permanent coop for them as yet, so their outside house is not a real coop).

The coop is wired at one end, and has a shelter/house at the other end (where, incidentally their food & water is - in the "house" part).

Today is the first day it's rained. They're not going into their little house! Instead they're huddling together in the rain, trying to hide under each other. We've tried to shoo them into the house - I even had my poor daughter crawl in there to try and persuade them under the shelter. No dice, they're just huddling in the rain looking miserable. I gave them an hour or so to figure it out (without us bothering them) before I finally gave up and brought them inside.

Should I just not worry about them getting wet? Is there some trick to getting them clever enough that they will go inside their house when it's raining? (the house part is about 1/3 of the area, so it's not like it's tiny or anything - there is plenty of room for them in there, even with the food and all).

 

[Noymira]

Maybe they were bothered by the sound of the rain on the "house" portion? I don't have my chicks yet, but that's the only thing I could think of.

I do have two full grown hens who don't seem to bothered by rain. Even in the pouring rain they prefer to hang out under their coop rather than in it, although they stay out of the rain unless they think I have treats.